Linux (ubuntu) - installing

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Linux (ubuntu) - installing

Post by Sethioz »

i recently installed ubuntu linux as my secondary OS to my other HDD, but it wasn't as easy as 123, I ran into several annoying problems.

-my main HDD is encrypted and uses a bootloader.
-i made ext3 and linuxswap partitions on my 2nd HDD using partition magic
-now i ran ubuntu from cd and installed it onto my 2nd HDD, but on some reason it screwed up my bootloader on 1st HDD
-so i used my backup cd to restore my primary HDD's bootloader in order to get access to it again
-then i removed the partitions i made and remade them
-now this time i opened my pc and disconnected my primary HDD
-installed ubuntu again on my secondary HDD
-this time everything seemed to be working fine, i booted into linux and it worked fine, then i connected my primary HDD and booted again, this time into my xp on my encrypted primary HDD, worked fine.
-now i had both HDDs connected, but when i chose to boot from secondary HDD, the ubuntu did not load, because HDD name was not same, because i installed it when primary was disconnected. first i tought it is just the grub error and it won't see it, but it goes lil bit further.
-now if this happens:

1. insert your ubuntu CD/DVD again and select install
2. forward into the part where you have to choose partition
3. choose the option where you can choose the partition manually
4. write down the name of the HDD where you installed ubuntu (something like /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdb1)
5. restart and boot into your primary OS (windows prolly)
6. open partition magic and choose your ext3 (or where you have linux installed, ext2, ext3 or ext4 ..or whtever you used)
7. now click on browse (if you have any other tool that can access linux partition from XP then use that)
8. go into /boot/grub and copy the file "menu.lst" to your HDD where you can edit it
9. open your menu.lst and scroll down to this part:

Code: Select all

title		Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=/dev/sdb7 ro quiet splash 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title		Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=/dev/sdb7 ro  single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title		Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet
-my problem was the /dev/sdb7 part (where 7 is the partition order number)
-problem is the sdb part, when you have 1 HDD connected, then it is sda, so when i connected my primary HDD, then it became sda and the other one changed to sdb (where linux was), so i had to manually change "/dev/sda7" to "/dev/sdb7"
-use replace command in your text editor and replace your HDD name to what it should be (what you wrote down from the ubuntu install earlier. if it's same, then you have some other problem.

10. now save menu.lst, use partition magic (or any other tool that can do this) and copy/paste it back by replacing the one in linux installation.
11. in linux installation go into /etc and find the file called "fstab"
12. do the same with "fstab" than you did with the menu.lst (copy, replace the path, put it back by replacing

This will fix your booting problems if you have 2 HDDs and you removed 1 when installing ubuntu.
NOTE that it is needed to remove your primary HDD, because ubuntu makes a bootloader on primary HDD on some reason, you can choose not to make bootloader when installing, but if it does not have bootloader then im not 100% sure how it would boot.
Anyways i did research on this and lot of ppl was complaining about same problems so if you want linux on one HDD and windows on other, then it is wise to remove your primary HDD (with win on it) and then install linux.


Another bug (if you can call it that) is when you install ubuntu, it has the option "install them side by side". this option will make 2 needed partitions by tampering with your main partition. It will create ext3 and linuxswap partitions by either allocating the unallocated space or by resizing your current partition. However later it is impossible to resize or move the ext3 partition at all, so it is not wise to use this option. partition will be like 2gb or so and it is not enought for linux (maybe i missed the part where it was possible to choose partition size, but im quite sure there was no such option). on either case, it is wise to make the partitions on your own so you can resize them at any time.
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