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General discussion

Difficulty with standard Kubuntu installation...

by OmegaTomato Apr 1, 2007 1:15PM PDT

I've been trying, unsuccessfully to install Kubuntu for about 2 or 3 weeks now and would really appreciate some help. Here's my situation.

Athlon 64 3500+ (AMD 64) Processor
1 GB PC3200 DDR RAM
MSI RS480M2-IL Motherboard
250 GB IDE Hard Drive (split into 2 partitions, the Windows Partition and the System Recovery Partition)

I downloaded the AMD64 specific iso from the Kubuntu website and eventually made both a DVD and a CD without any errors on it (although it definitely took a while to get a CD without any errors.

All the errors that I've received I've gotten when attempting to do anything with either the CD or DVD. For simplicity's sake, I will henceforward refer to just the CD but actually meaning either one.

I have two CD-ROM drives, the primary one is a LightScribe drive (meaning it can etch images into the face of a CD) and a second "normal" drive. The CD doesn't work in the primary drive. Whenever I try to boot the LiveCD from there it brings up several errors. Booting the LiveCD from the second drive, however, presents no problem.

So, once I boot from the LiveCD I try to install. I'm attempting to install onto my 20 GB external USB hard drive. First I format it to be Linux ext 3 using PartitionMagic in Windows. Then, when I'm in Kubuntu off the LiveCD I go through all the steps (language, keyboard setup, information, and Timezone). When I get to choosing where to install Kubuntu I've tried telling it to erase the entire drive (as there's nothing on there) and I've tried making my own partitions. When I make my own partitions I've tried making various combinations:
/, 512 MB swap
/, 512 MB swap, 100 MB /Boot
/, 100 MB Boot

All eventually give the same errors.

I'm able to choose any of those options get to the next screen. The default for where to install GRUB is (hd0) but I believe that's my IDE hard drive and (hd1) is actually my external hard drive. I don't know for sure as using fdisk simply lists sdX, hd#.

Anyways, I successfully install and it tells me to restart. I do. When it gets to the point where it says to take the CD out and close the tray (if any), I do. Then I press enter but nothing happens. I can wait a while and still nothing will happen. Thus, I'm forced to just shut off my computer.

When I first try to boot from the external hard drive I get a GRUB error 15. Then, I'll change the BIOS settings so that the external hard drive is first in the hard drive priority list over the IDE drive. Then I'll get either an error 18 or an error 2 depending on if I set up a /Boot partition.

I'm not sure what's wrong. I don't even get a command screen for GRUB, it just takes me right to the error screen. Something must be weird since this is just the standard Kubuntu installer.

I would love some help as I really want to have a portable Kubuntu but I'm having a lot of difficulties with it.

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Well...
by GhOst-AdVance Apr 1, 2007 4:20PM PDT

I have been a linux user for some time now. but sorry to tell you, i have no experience installing linux to an external drive. now no disrespect to cnet, but really, you should be asking these type of questions on LinuxQuetions.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/

they have really nice and helpfull people there. hope this helps with your problem

-Bj

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I see one thing taht maybe a problem.
by ahtoi Apr 2, 2007 1:23AM PDT

You don't have a root partition (/). You can do without the /boot but not the / partition.

The other thing might be to make a boot floppy and use it to boot up linux. The reason I say floppy is because the mbr (dos) may not see the external drive at this point (I am just guessing here). I maybe wrong.

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Unfortunately, I don't think so...
by OmegaTomato Apr 2, 2007 8:15AM PDT

I'm posting the same question in several Linux and Kubuntu specific forums without any luck.

I didn't mean to be unclear in what partitions I was creating. I listed the partition "/" first and meant that to be the root partition. So that does exist.

As for MBR not seeing the drive. I don't think that's the problem as I can go into BIOS and it's there in the boot order menu. It's also there in the actual boot menu. Finally, I don't think MBR has anything to do with this as that only exists on my Windows partition. Instead, my problem seems to be with GRUB not being able to boot Kubuntu. I know GRUB is on there as I get the aforementioned problem.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

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