I know how the subject looks but it's true: I had one version installed, which I did manually. Then I accidentally re-installed Ubuntu 10.10 but automatically. This has created some serious conflicts which slow down everything but specially my graphics.

I have 2 SSDs & they exist thus (according to Disk Utility):

/dev/sda:

/dev/sda1 Extended partition, 4G, Usage: Container for logical partitions, Partition type: extended, Flags: bootable (0x05);

/dev/sda5 Swapspace, 4gG, Usage: Swap Space, Partition type: Linux swap, Flags: none, (0x82)

GParted details this drive as 3.26GiB & a SwAP Partition w/in it of the same size, and 509.06MiB of unallocated space.

--------------------------

/dev/sdb:

/dev/sdb1 15G, ext4, Usage: Filesystem, Partition type: Linux (0x83), Flag: none, Type: ext4 (version 1.0)

/dev/sdb2 Extended partition, 722MB, Usage: container for logical Partitions, Partition type Extended (0x05)

/dev/sdb5 SwapSpace 722MB, Usage: Swap Space, Partition type: Linux swap (0x82)

GParted details this drive as /dev/sdb (15.03GiB)

/dev/sdb1 ext4 w/ 14.36GiB
/dev/sdb2 extended w/ 689.00MiB
/dev/sdb5 linux-swap w/ 689.00MiB

I was about to just do a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.10 Alternate but ran into a problem that I've seen elsewhere of "No boot system specified" but for which I can't seem to find a solution that's dated any later than 2008 (I might be wrong).

And this is just starting w/ the 4G drive. I HAVE done at least 2 previous manual installations in which I made the 4G SSD the bootable root drive & the swap & the 16G SSD as the "storage" drive for everything else.

I've tried several file systems & making it a primary or a logical drive. I don't see the need for making either of them extended drives since I don't need that much space & no one but me uses this netbook.

Also, I have 2G of RAM, though no video card but I don't play any games here either.

I've also looked into "fixing" the disks but I can't figure out how to apply what I've read in the manuals with the issue I have. Most of the instructions are, again, outdated so that nothing seems to fit to what I've seen so far.

I need guidance &/or being pointed in a direction so I can help myself. NOT comfortable using Terminal since I have some cognitive issues due to bad health (hence the overlapping installs) so if there's a way to use GUI apps over command lines, I'd be SO grateful!!!

Use gparted to change the partitions to whatever you want. It's a GUI, and will remove, add, or resize partitions and format them to whatever filesystem type you specify. It's installed by default on the liveCD, so boot from that and select the Try Ubuntu option to run Ubuntu from the CD, then run gparted on the SSDs to get whatever configuration you want. There are many possibilities, and most of them will work to one extent or another.

When you do the install, you have to select which partition to use for what. You have to specify, as a minimum, a partition for /, which is the root filesystem. If you specify nothing else, everything will go inside that. You can specify a separate partition for /home, and indeed a separate partition for every directory, although I consider that overkill. I don't see the need for more than 3 partitions, being /, /boot, and /home. The /boot partition can be small, usually no more than 50MB is needed. Having a separate /boot partition isn't really that common, though, and isn't strictly necessary. I like having a separate /home because that lets me reinstall the OS from scratch if necessary, while leaving my data and configuration untouched. Not everyone does that, though.

I did everything else then realized that the one thing I couldn't do when I was trying to install Lubuntu, after having re-formatted the 2 SSD's, was somehow tell Lubuntu's LiveUSB installer to use BOTH disks, & not just install on whichever one it was seeing ...

On the 4G it failed 'cause there wasn't enough space & somehow or another it catastrophically failed on the 16G one .. Unfortunately, I didn't, couldn't, get all the error msgs I got. In fact, it was several screen-fuls ...

I looked around & am I right that Lubuntu, even Ubuntu, won't allow a manual installation? If that's true, then how do folks w/ multiple disks handle these OS's spread over multiple disks, or don't they?

Different Distro. Different Installer. No option to move /home till later. No option for dual drive install. But I got er done.
You can use it for just getting a general idea on running Lubuntu installer I guess.
Hope it helps ya.
http://antix.freeforums.org/antix-11...hed-t3104.html

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I haven't used Ubuntu for a few versions, but IIRC there should be a manual option. You should be able to specify where to mount whatever directories you like. But I admit that I haven't actually tried an install with Lubuntu 10.10.

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Not sure about Lubuntu, but Ubuntu has the alternate installer disk for this.

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I really & truly appreciate your having taken the time to respond but that guide was WAAAAAAY over my poor dumb head!!!

I'm fairly new to all this. It may seem I should be further along but I haven't been able to do much thinking since my health deteriorated pretty drastically for about 3 months.

If you have any other suggestions, some that maybe don't involve a LOT of Terminal work or trying to deconstruct a set of instructions meant for another distro, I'll still appreciate it.

For the moment, I'm running Lubuntu 11.10 from my pen drive. It's working ok but I'd like to d/load & save some photos & I want to leave them on the netbook until I can archive them.

P.S.: The overlapping installs were BOTH of Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop i386 versions. Just another example of "foggy" thinking ... (>,<)

Yep, went lookin' & sure enough, there it was.. Just hadn't seen it .. I sure hope I can do this. THANKS!!!

If anyone else is following this thread: I'll label it solved once I find that the alternate install of Lubuntu 11.10 works.