Need help on Ubuntu insatll over an older version (on a vista dual boot system)

Diss

Diss

Diss

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Hi

I have a dual boot Vista/Ubuntu 7.10 system.

The Ubuntu has seen lots of upgrades and me fiddling with various files so i want to do a clean install and overwrite my current Ubuntu installation.

I presume i get a choice of which partition to install on - so easy?

Any tips on making sure i don't lose my vista partition?
Am i going to need to edit Grub to be able to boot both systems again or does it recognise both from the start?

many thanks

Diss
 
Hi Diss,

You should be fine mate :) The partition screen will come up after you click on install, and will give you the choice of using the ENTIRE disc (guided) or custom/manual. Take the custom option and highlight the Linux partition which already exists. If you've got separate root and home partitions you'll need to highlight them separately and set their mount points to / and /home respectively. Swap will auto-configure from existing swap partition space.

If you only have one single partition (or even LVM) for your Linux install, as I said that's even easier - just highlight it and go for it. Your Vista partition won't be affected either way, and GRUB will auto configure :)

Easy as that :D
 
No probs. Any trouble just call back here from your Vista partition and we'll see what we can do :D Shouldn't have any grief though.
 
Rainmaker said:
Hi Diss,

You should be fine mate :) The partition screen will come up after you click on install, and will give you the choice of using the ENTIRE disc (guided) or custom/manual. Take the custom option and highlight the Linux partition which already exists. If you've got separate root and home partitions you'll need to highlight them separately and set their mount points to / and /home respectively. Swap will auto-configure from existing swap partition space.
Easy as that :D
Click to expand...

hi again

things aren't quite as shown above and am not sure how to proceed - situation is as follows:
1) booted from 8.04 live beta CD
2) doubleclicked install
3) i then get 3 choices - not 2
a) Guided - resize SCSI1 (o,o,o), partition #2 (sda) and use freed space - it then has a bar showing Ubuntu 7.1 68% 96gig (highlighted in orange) and ubuntu 8.04 32% 44gig
b) guided - use entire disk SCSI (0,0,0) (sda) 400gig
c) manual

its not clear (to me at least) what option a) will do - why can't they put this in plain english!!

4) so, i went with option c) - Manual
i get a wndow called install - prepare partitions that looks like this:

DEVICE TYPE MOUNT FORMAT SIZE USED
/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ntfs /media/sda1 tick box 242802 223400
/dev/dsa2 ext3 /media/sda2 tick box 151057 102100
/dev/sda5 swap tick box 6226 0

if i tick the format tick box for sda2 and then click on 'forward' i get an error message "no root file system is defined - please correct this from the partitioning menu"

and thats where i get stuck - any idea what i am supposed to do?

many thanks

diss
 
YEah I got that too on my test machine. Not very clear is it.

I decided to boot from the live cd (7:10) and then selected Partition Manager. This lists the drives in a gui.

I then deleted the linux ext3 partition (dont forget to click apply at the top) switched swap off & deleted (apply) then rebooted into the 8:04 Live Cd.

At the partitioning screen select "Guided - Use largest continuous Free space" (Make sure it's that option) and away yer go !!

Jobs a good un
 
2372842599_4fcc808678_b.jpg
 
I've just booted the spare machine that has 8:04 on it and am waiting on gparted to finish scanning the drives.

Basically I'm gonna take another screengrab of the above on that machine as its only got an XP and ubuntu install on it. The above machine has five hard drives in it and looks a bit confusing.

Gimme five and I'll upload the new screeny
 
on the ubuntu forums bartcramer posted this:

You have to define mount points. The moint point for the root file system is '/' (without quotes, just the slash). So the ext3 filesystem (sda2) should get this mount point.

In any case, it might be better to create a separate /home partition. This means you can do a reinstall without cleaning all files from your home folder. 10-20 gigs is plenty for the root partition, so the rest you can use for your home partition.

Good luck!

Bart.
 
Outcast said:
I've just booted the spare machine that has 8:04 on it and am waiting on gparted to finish scanning the drives.

Basically I'm gonna take another screengrab of the above on that machine as its only got an XP and ubuntu install on it. The above machine has five hard drives in it and looks a bit confusing.

Gimme five and I'll upload the new screeny
Click to expand...

thx

i'll hang on for a bit - i can feel the need for a nice cup of green tea to ease my stress :)
 
2372864843_e6ded59d36_b.jpg


As you can see... I've selected the ext3 partition...

Just delete that one.. then click apply and then switch the swap off.
 
thanks Outcast, much appreciated

i'm gonna try the installer again i think - and if i can't get that to work now i'll try deleting the partiton as you suggested

cheers

diss
 
Diss said:
DEVICE TYPE MOUNT FORMAT SIZE USED
/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ntfs /media/sda1 tick box 242802 223400
/dev/dsa2 ext3 /media/sda2 tick box 151057 102100
/dev/sda5 swap tick box 6226 0

if i tick the format tick box for sda2 and then click on 'forward' i get an error message "no root file system is defined - please correct this from the partitioning menu"
diss
Click to expand...

You are meant to choose a mount point. sda2 is set to mount to /media/sda2 which is not what you want. You want it to mount to / , aka root. Right click the sda2 line, choose "edit partition" and set the mount point to /

I know, it's not very intuitive. :p
 
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