LinuxQuestions.org
Share your knowledge at the LQ Wiki.
Home Forums Tutorials Articles Register
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie
User Name
Password
Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question? If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 12-11-2010, 01:48 PM   #1
zimmi
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2010
Posts: 30

Rep: Reputation: 0
Question cant install ubuntu 10.10 - extremely agitated


Hello all,

its been 10 days since i have been trying to install Ubuntu 10.10. i tried every option single boot, dual boot, windows installer but nothing works

single/ dual boot gives an i/o error related to cd and HDD and windows installer installs fine but my pc will hang when booting. and the biggest problem is that i dont know where the problem lies. is it my hardware or software. xp runs just fine. please guide.
 
Old 12-11-2010, 01:57 PM   #2
stress_junkie
Senior Member
 
Registered: Dec 2005
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 10.04 and CentOS 5.5
Posts: 3,873

Rep: Reputation: 335Reputation: 335Reputation: 335Reputation: 335
If you are extremely agitated then you might want to wait until you are in a better frame of mind before embarking on this project.

Please answer the following questions:

1) What brand and model of computer are you trying to install Ubuntu onto?

2) Does the computer have a 32 bit processor or a 64 bit processor?

3) Are you trying to install the 32 bit version of Ubuntu or the 64 bit version?

4) When you say that windows installer installs fine but the pc will hang when booting are you saying that Windows will not boot?

5) Are you trying to install Ubuntu onto its own partition or are you trying to install Ubuntu inside Windows?

That should be enough to get us started. Please answer all of the questions.

Don't get discouraged. We can get you running Ubuntu in very little time.
 
Old 12-11-2010, 02:04 PM   #3
paulsm4
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Mar 2004
Distribution: SusE 8.2
Posts: 5,863
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: Disabled
Hi -

I can see you've been trying lots of different things; I definitely understand your frustration:

Computer Hangs During Installation

I/O Error During Ubuntu 10.10 Install

Etc.

STRONG SUGGESTION:
Please let's take "baby steps":

1) Do one (and only) one thing
2) Post back the results
3) Decide on the next step, and do ONLY that
4) We should quickly have a successful install

FIRST STEP:
Q: What is your PC make and model?

Q: Is XP successfully installed (I presume "Yes")?
Do you want to keep it (I presume "Yes")?

Q: What are your current partitions?
Go into "My Computer", <right-click>, Manage
Go into "disk manager"
List each partition and partition size
Post back the results

Q: Do you have an Ubuntu 10.10 .iso file (I presume the answer is "Yes")
Is it CD (<< 800MB) or DVD (<< 4GB)?
Do you have XP software to burn an .iso to media (e.g. Roxio or Nero)?
Have you tried actually burning your .iso to CD or DVD yet?
Otherwise, do you have a USB stick that's big enough to hold the .iso? (e.g. a 2GB or 4GB pen drive)?
Do you know if your BIOS supports booting from USB?

Please answer these questions and post back the results.

Thank you in advance

PS:
I noticed stress_junkie and I posted at exactly the same time:

1. He's absolutely correct:
Quote:
Don't get discouraged. We can get you running Ubuntu in very little time.
2. Please answer each of my four questions above.

3. Additionally, please answer stress_junkie's question "Is your CPU 64 vs 32?". You can find this out in XP from "My Computer, <Right-click>, Properties" - it will list the CPU. Please cut/paste the name of your Ubuntu .iso file - this will tell us if Ubuntu is 32- or 64-bit.

4. Please *don't* use "wubi". That might actually be part of the problem - I don't want to risk it, if we can install with another method first.

Thank you again .. PSM

Last edited by paulsm4; 12-11-2010 at 02:09 PM.
 
Old 12-12-2010, 02:10 AM   #4
zimmi
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2010
Posts: 30

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by stress_junkie View Post
Please answer the following questions:

1) What brand and model of computer are you trying to install Ubuntu onto?
Its an IBM NetVista (Intel i845 Motherboard, 2GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD)

2) Does the computer have a 32 bit processor or a 64 bit processor?
my computer has a 32 bit processor

3) Are you trying to install the 32 bit version of Ubuntu or the 64 bit version?
i downloaded the 32-bit iso. the name of the file is "ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso"

4) When you say that windows installer installs fine but the pc will hang when booting are you saying that Windows will not boot?
I should have clarified first. sorry. XP runs fine but Ubuntu hangs when i select it from the boot menu. i have now deleted Ubuntu from XP because i gave up but i will try again because i have found awesome support in shape of you guys. hope we can land somewhere

5) Are you trying to install Ubuntu onto its own partition or are you trying to install Ubuntu inside Windows?
i tried both. i formatted my drive because i only wanted Ubuntu but it didnt work so i installed XP and then chose wubi but that too didnt work
hope we can reach somewhere
 
Old 12-12-2010, 02:26 AM   #5
zimmi
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2010
Posts: 30

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Originally posted by stress_junkie

Quote:
Please answer the following questions:

1) What brand and model of computer are you trying to install Ubuntu onto?
Its an IBM NetVista (Intel i845 Motherboard, 2GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD)

2) Does the computer have a 32 bit processor or a 64 bit processor?
my computer has a 32 bit processor

3) Are you trying to install the 32 bit version of Ubuntu or the 64 bit version?
i downloaded the 32-bit iso. the name of the file is "ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso"

4) When you say that windows installer installs fine but the pc will hang when booting are you saying that Windows will not boot?
I should have clarified first. sorry. XP runs fine but Ubuntu hangs when i select it from the boot menu. i have now deleted Ubuntu from XP because i gave up but i will try again because i have found awesome support in shape of you guys. hope we can land somewhere

5) Are you trying to install Ubuntu onto its own partition or are you trying to install Ubuntu inside Windows?
i tried both. i formatted my drive because i only wanted Ubuntu but it didnt work so i installed XP and then chose wubi but that too didnt work
and

Quote:
Originally Posted by paulsm4 View Post

FIRST STEP:
Q: What is your PC make and model?
its an IBM Netvista Desktop (2GHz 32-bit processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, Intel i845 motherboard)

Q: Is XP successfully installed (I presume "Yes")?
Do you want to keep it (I presume "Yes")?
yes XP was running before, i formatted my HDD fully as i thought i would install Ubuntu without problems but that didnt happen so i installed XP again. its working fine. no problems what so ever. i installed XP from a cd. i dont care if i keep XP or not cz i dont do much on my pc instead of watching movies internet music, no games so no tension. i can do that on Ubuntu too. i have a little bit clue of Ubuntu

Q: What are your current partitions?
Go into "My Computer", <right-click>, Manage
Go into "disk manager"
List each partition and partition size
Post back the results

i formatted my HDD. now i have two partitions. one 5GB for XP and one 75GB for multimedia. i can repartition it as you suggest. no problem. i was thinking i will make it a 20GB for Ubuntu and 60 GB for media after i have Ubuntu. and by the way, i am an advanced computer user (atleast i think i am) so i know where to find such information. just telling because i dont want you to write each and every small detail.

Q: Do you have an Ubuntu 10.10 .iso file (I presume the answer is "Yes")
Is it CD (<< 800MB) or DVD (<< 4GB)?
i requested a cd from Ubuntu. i have that. plus i wrote two CD-Rs because when i installed single boot then it gave me an I/O error so i thought there might be an error with the CD. i wrote two times. one with maximum writing speed but then i realized that i should have chosen to write it with MINImum speed. so i did that too but didnt work

Do you have XP software to burn an .iso to media (e.g. Roxio or Nero)?
i used InfraRecorder as suggested by the official Ubuntu site.

Have you tried actually burning your .iso to CD or DVD yet?
yes i have 3 Ubuntu CDs. one requested CD. two written. all scratch free

Otherwise, do you have a USB stick that's big enough to hold the .iso? (e.g. a 2GB or 4GB pen drive)?
Do you know if your BIOS supports booting from USB?
i tried a USB also. but couldnt get my PC to boot from USB. the bios does have an option in the Boot Sequence saying "Removable". i made a Bootable USB and then set my PC to boot from USB but it didnt detect it all i heard was the sound of floppy drive and then it went to the 2nd boot device.
i also have an other problem:
the written CDs only work two or three times. the requested CD and my own written cds all are the same. otherwise they just hang before the "Try Ubuntu" or "Install Ubuntu" could appear. the computer hangs when Ubuntu and five dots appear. it doesnt go beyond that. my cd-rom is ok. i installed xp from a cd. it reads fine. wonder whats wrong

hope we reach some where. and thank you so much for taking out the time to write such a long answer. i had given up but will try again now. thank you. you guys and this forum is awesome.

P.S: i wanted to delete my previous post but realised that could happen. sorry moderators for double posting

Last edited by zimmi; 12-12-2010 at 02:33 AM.
 
Old 12-12-2010, 03:57 AM   #6
repo
LQ 5k Club
 
Registered: May 2001
Location: Belgium
Distribution: Arch
Posts: 8,529

Rep: Reputation: 899Reputation: 899Reputation: 899Reputation: 899Reputation: 899Reputation: 899Reputation: 899
Quote:
the written CDs only work two or three times. the requested CD and my own written cds all are the same.
When you download an iso, you should verify if the md5sum is correct
http://www.pc-tools.net/win32/md5sums/
If this is correct, try to burn the cd on a lower speed.

Kind regards

Last edited by repo; 12-12-2010 at 03:59 AM.
 
Old 12-12-2010, 04:19 AM   #7
stress_junkie
Senior Member
 
Registered: Dec 2005
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 10.04 and CentOS 5.5
Posts: 3,873

Rep: Reputation: 335Reputation: 335Reputation: 335Reputation: 335
Quote:
Originally Posted by repo View Post
When you download an iso, you should verify if the md5sum is correct
http://www.pc-tools.net/win32/md5sums/
If this is correct, try to burn the cd on a lower speed.
And you should have the software that creates the CD perform a verify pass. Whenever I've had trouble with a CD booting it was always when I didn't have the CD burning software verify after burning.

Mind you it's rare because I know which of my CD burners can't be trusted to write a good image. ( All three of them are named Sony)

Last edited by stress_junkie; 12-12-2010 at 04:21 AM.
 
Old 12-12-2010, 05:15 AM   #8
Snark1994
Senior Member
 
Registered: Sep 2010
Distribution: Debian
Posts: 1,632
Blog Entries: 3

Rep: Reputation: 346Reputation: 346Reputation: 346Reputation: 346
I don't know, but it's possible that your CD drive isn't working brilliantly. I have on several occasions tried to install Ubuntu (or other distros) on dying computers, and occasionally it would boot, occasionally it wouldn't - and as you said, it tended to work the first one or two times, then not at all after that. If you looked at the output, it often stated there had been an I/O error on /dev/sr0, or something like that. The one time this happened on a desktop, I got a new CD drive and it worked fine. The drive worked in windows, but occasionally made strange noises.

Does your PC support booting from USB, and could you steal (borrow) someone's external CD drive? Or, if you felt confident enough to swap out CD drives, you could even borrow an internal one...
 
Old 12-12-2010, 06:25 AM   #9
zimmi
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2010
Posts: 30

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
so what you guys are suggesting is that i should burn the CD, verify it, then get a new CD-ROM and then try again. RIGHT??
because apparently, i dont think my mobo supports booting from usb

Last edited by zimmi; 12-12-2010 at 06:56 AM.
 
Old 12-12-2010, 07:35 AM   #10
stress_junkie
Senior Member
 
Registered: Dec 2005
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 10.04 and CentOS 5.5
Posts: 3,873

Rep: Reputation: 335Reputation: 335Reputation: 335Reputation: 335
Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmi View Post
so what you guys are suggesting is that i should burn the CD, verify it, then get a new CD-ROM and then try again. RIGHT??
because apparently, i dont think my mobo supports booting from usb
I think that the combined suggestions can be interpreted as

Verify the ISO file to burn

Verify the image on the CD

If that fails then get another CD drive

 
Old 12-12-2010, 07:44 AM   #11
zimmi
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2010
Posts: 30

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
ok will try that and post the results soon

edit: i have looked for a new CD-ROM but a new CD-ROM is not available to me right now. will try again when i get a new CD-ROM with a powerful lens.

but then again, why doesnt the installation work when i use wubi. it installs fine, then i restart the computer and i am asked to choose between xp and ubuntu. i choose ubuntu but the thing hangs before i can get to the desktop. i tried verbose mode to see what the problem is and i found out that every thing is fine and the last line that is displayed is "Setting sensors limit [OK]" and thats it. nothing beyond that. it just stays there

Last edited by zimmi; 12-12-2010 at 08:28 AM.
 
Old 12-12-2010, 01:44 PM   #12
naujokas
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Lithuania
Distribution: Gentoo AMD64
Posts: 7

Rep: Reputation: 0
I have similar problem.
On one PC I tried install ubuntu 10.10 from usb stick, and had same issue like theme author, installer just hang with ubuntu logo and fives dots, if I press ESC see this message "GLib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)" . Live cd I can't run too.

Later with same stick I try install on another computer (notebook) and success.
It seems like something wrong with hardware compatability.

Note: half year ago I have installed ubuntu 10.04 without problems on same PC from usb stick too.
 
Old 12-13-2010, 12:25 AM   #13
zimmi
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2010
Posts: 30

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
i am thinking about trying Ubuntu 10.04 and see if it works. or may be even an older version that 10.04
lets see if it works. i will post the results here
 
Old 12-13-2010, 12:45 AM   #14
EDDY1
LQ Addict
 
Registered: Mar 2010
Location: Oakland,Ca
Distribution: wins7, Debian wheezy
Posts: 6,841

Rep: Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649
You have winsxp download and install cdburnerxp and make it you default iso-burner, that way when an iso gets downloaded, it will label it as iso.
 
Old 12-13-2010, 12:47 AM   #15
EDDY1
LQ Addict
 
Registered: Mar 2010
Location: Oakland,Ca
Distribution: wins7, Debian wheezy
Posts: 6,841

Rep: Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649
Starting from dec 2009 to mar 2010 I copied alot of cd's the wrong way and still haven't thrown them away. Lot's of coasters.
 
  


Reply



Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
[SOLVED] winxp in qemu+kvm on ubuntu 10.04: extremely poor performance [GOD]Anck Linux - Virtualization and Cloud 2 12-02-2010 09:58 PM
Ubuntu Studio 8 runs extremely slowly MrRandomPerson Ubuntu 3 02-11-2009 08:44 PM
LXer: The extremely simple guide to installing Ubuntu using Wubi LXer Syndicated Linux News 0 10-12-2008 09:51 PM
Ubuntu installer extremely slow... bastawhiz Ubuntu 7 06-18-2006 11:04 AM
Extremely Slow install of Mandrake 10.0 catscradle Mandriva 8 07-17-2004 05:42 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:42 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration