Build you own installation disk

[Detonate]

I have been unsuccessfully trying to install Ubuntu 12.10 on my computer ever since the release date. This was caused mainly by the fact that I have a Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti graphic card which did not play well with the default driver in the distribution. I have had problems with this on previous versions of Ubuntu including 12.04, but was able to overcome this by using the nomodeset option at boot and booting into low graphics mode and then installing the Nvidia proprietary driver. This did not work with 12.10. When I tried to do this I would get to the warning page about operating in low graphics mode and when I tried to proceed it would go to the next screen and fail there because I lost my keyboard and mouse. I tried to boot into recovery mode and drop to root with networking to see if I could install the Nvidia driver that way, but that did not work for me either. No matter which of the functions I tried from the recovery mode menu it would just give me a warning about mounting the file system then drop me to a blinking cursor where I could not do anything. I tried everything I could think of. I even mounted the partition containing the Ubuntu system in my Kubuntu system on another partition, and copied the entire /etc/X11 folder over and tried booting that way. Still no joy.

Then I discovered this amazing program called ubuntu-builder.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/ubuntu-bui...-included.html

With this program I was able to build my own Ubuntu 12.10 installation containing the Nvidia drver, and I finally got a working install.

But there is a bug in Ubuntu 12.10 network manager that will not let you get a Domain Name Server on some systems and mine was one of those. I knew when I did the install that it was not downloading updates or third party software. I was unable to correct this, even by editing the dhclient.conf file. There was no way I could get it to recognize a DNS. I even tried it with a static IP and specified two DNS servers but it still would not connect to the internet. It did connect to my router and I could browse the local network, but no internet. The solution to this is to install WICD, but of course the only way to do this is by obtaining a deb file and installing it that way.

So I burned another customized install disk, removing the gnome network manager and loading WICD instead.

Total success!! Everything is now working.

This should also work equally well with Kubuntu although I don't think you will have the DNS issue in Kubuntu.

[Jonas]

Hi Thanks for sharing.

I have almost the same card and can't remember that I've had any trouble, but that machine have been on the same install for quite some time just been upgraded, since 11.10 or something. I'll give 12.10 a try with vanilla Kubuntu on my second harddrive.

This is great to have as I'd like to have some repos and packages installed from scratch.

cheers.

b.r
Jonas

[Detonate]

I did not have any problems installing 11.10 either, the problem started with subsequent versions. If you use the upgrade method instead of a fresh install you may not have any problems, as the video drivers are already installed.

[luckyone]

You can also download the proprietary driver using another OS and transfer it, and run it's installer from the root console. I keep a copy of the nvidia driver for just such times.

[Detonate]

I did not have access to a root console as I explained in my original post. That method has worked for me in the past, but not this time.