How to install Ubuntu?

I manually created a 20 GB partition on my Windows Operating System for Ubuntu.


While installing Ubuntu I encountered following information on the screen:


Allocate Drive Space


Device Type Mount Point Format? Size Used
/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 Ntfs 104MB 35MB
/dev/sda2 Ntfs 169505M 36529MB
/dev/sda3 Ntfs 129487MB 73985MB
/dev/sda5 Ntfs 20971MB 3221MB


New Partition Task Add Change Delete Revert

Boot Loader

Device for boot loader installation:
/dev/sda ATA WDC WD3200BEVT-7(320.1GB)
/dev/sda1 Windows 7(loader)
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda3
/dev/sda5

Question 1: Which one I must select?I selectet ?/dev/sda5? and ?/dev/sda ATA WDC WD3200BEVT-7(320.1GB)? option. And when I clicked on Install now button, an error window appeared with the following message:

X No Root File System
__ No Root File System is defined.Please correct this from the partitioning Menu.

Question: Please help me from where I should correct this problem?

Whatever.
If you go manual at very minimum you have to make at least one Linux partition and reformat it in Linux format not ntfs and not fat, something like ext3, ext4 or btrfs and it has to be set as / (a.k.a. root) in options.

using NTFS?

Que 2) Could you tell me how to manually extract a 20 GB space from the Windows partition and then format it with ext ... as you said?

If I'll choose other options they ask me to erase full HDD that I can't do as I have lot of data in my HDD.

Firstly: You did things the hard way by making a new partition before running the installer.

The "root file system" error message is saying "Hey, you haven't told me which partition to install Ubuntu to!".

Click /dev/sda5, which I presume is the 20 GiB partition you want to install Ubuntu to. Click on Edit. Under the "Format As" popup menu, choose "Ext4" (Linux cannot be installed to a Windows-formatted partition). Under the "Mount Point" popup menu, choose (or type) the forward slash (/). This is where Ubuntu will be installed.

Click Ok and then you can continue with the installation.

If you had let the installer do the partitioning for you, then all you would have had to do was tell the installer how much space you wanted to partition away for Ubuntu, and there you go.

>Is there a Linux program out there that can be installed on a PC?
All Linux programs can be installed on PC. Now I write from PC with Fedora 14 beta.
Try Fedora.
Also try to post what problem you have exactly?
Maybe you just missclick something?

You got Mandriva to boot up.
Follow the Wizard or use Costume Partitioning (my prefer method).

If you have a MS installed you will see the drive like a bar. On the MS NTFS side will be blue. You can Click on the Grey or Blue bar that you want to go and choose what size and file system needs to be.

For Linux, you need 3 Partitions, 1 for root (called ./ ), 1 for Swap (Page File on MS) and 1 for the user (is called ./home).

My favorite File System is Riser XF for Home and Root, Swap has its own file system.

When you finish with the install, the Mandriva Wizard will ask where do you want the Boot Loader. I choose the Master Boot Record (MBR) but some prefer to have its own Partition.

It will reboot and you will see the boot loader asking where to go.

If you do not see the choice and boots straight to MS, most likely it was not installed.


For a test drive, use Mandriva One the Live Distro or download the Free version that is a DVD size.

By the way, do not use NTFS on Linux, it does weird things when is not shutdown properly. Use the Linux file systems that are plenty to choose from.

You can set your system using the following...

20 GBs for MS OS
10 GBs for Linux Root (./)
10 GBs for Linux Home (./home)
500 MB~1 GB for Swap (if you have over 2 GB or RAM, not really need it).

279 GBs on a NTFS partition.
The reason? Is a Common Partition for both OS that you can place data there for both OSs to see. In case MS beat the dust and you need to recover the data, it will be safely on a place that you can view it with Linux and you can reload MS with the minimum amount of data loss (does not cover catastrophic HDD failure) but is better than nothing.

I hope I shed some light