For context: I´m not a Linux newbie, but neither am I a guru. I've done my share of Linux installs, but this one's got me stumped.

I'm trying to install Ubuntu 7.10 on a laptop. It's a Toshiba Satellite 1415 S105 from 2003, with 256 Meg's of ram and an upgraded 40 Gig Toshiba HD. I've switched to the alternate CD, since the live CD wouldn't install.

What I'm seeing is this: When installing, everything seems to be going OK, until I get to the partitioning. The partitioner takes a couple of minutes to start, and then gives me an "overview of current partitions" that's completely empty. I see:

Help on partitioning
<blank line>
<blank line>
Undo changes to partitions
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk

This is pretty much the same that happened when I tried to install the LiveCD. For some reason, the installer completely fails to see my HD. Every tool I've tried (from the Ultimate Boot CD) has no problem finding the HD and creating partitions. And Windows installs with no problem at all.

I'm completely at a loss even where to start looking for a solution, so any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Jeroen

Try some other livcd type distros like PCLinuxOS or Sidux and see if they can see the hard drive. It may just be some quirk in the ubuntu kernel that's not present on other distros.

PCLinuxOS installs like a charm! That's great, but weird.

What could be causing this problem with Ubuntu? How would one go about figuring out what prevents Ubuntu from seeing that HD? And then fixing it of course.

Jeroen

My guess would be the problem is with the ubuntu kernel and if that's the case, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to fix yourself. In recent kernels there's been some instability in the ide controller modules that were rolled into libata, with the resulting change in device files for ide drives from hdx to sdx. PCLOS uses an older kernel which handles ide controllers in the old way with ide drives being given the older hdx designation. Problems with the ide controller could lead to ide drives not being detected by the ubuntu kernel.

So is this something I can report as a bug somewhere (Either in the kernel or in Ubuntu)? The chipset is Intel 845MZ, which I presume includes the IDE controller.

That would be a good thing to do. I did a quick search over on the ubuntu forums and you are apparently not alone; I saw other posts with hard drives not detected similar to yours. The bug should be reported to the ubuntu developers or you could post the problem along with your hardware specs on the official ubuntu forum. That way the developers can get an idea on the scope of the effected hardware.