hello,

I'm am installing ubuntu *right now* so I need your help with this.
I am in the step 5 of the installation, in which I am asked where to install ubuntu. I have already 2 OS (xp, 7) and would like to install ubuntu in whatever space there is left in the drive (roughly 15GB that I made with gparted).
Selecting the free space isn't enough though. I think I have to set some flags or add a swap or something but I'm afraid to mess it up.

What do I need to do exactly ?

Thanks

You can always remove the new 15 GB partition you created, then tell the install to use the remaining space on the drive.

Josh

What do you mean by 'remove' ? I think that it is already removed, there is no partition set nor file system set, it's just a free space.
What buttons do I need to press to achieve that ?
How do I tell it to use the remaining space on the drive ?

It should be one of the options. Actually, I think it is under manual partitioning, and select to use the remaining space on the hard drive.

I just searched on google for you (something you should have done in the first place....) and came up with this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1055864

Hope that helps man.

Cheers,

Josh

As a matter of fact that's what I did and I found "Restart the installation process. This time use manual partitioning and select the free space."
I think this is what I did. In step 4 I chose "specify the partitions manually (advanced)" and then in step 5 I selected 'free space' and then clicked 'forward'.
The error displayed is 'no root file system is defined. please correct this from the partitioning menu."
I don't know what it means. Maybe it's related to flags ?
Also is it normal that the swap isn't set ?

I highly recommend backing up the entire drive if it's important to you. There is a big risk of you accidentally removing it because you don't seem to have a good grasp on this yet.

Generally with the amount of free space left over (in your case only ~15 GB) you will need to create some partitions for Ubuntu to use.

For example maybe

/boot 100 MB
swap 1 GB
/ 13.9 GB

or perhaps just:

/ 14 GB
swap 1 GB

You will want to read up on this process and definitely back up your data since this is new to you! If it were I, I would manually create these partitions myself (from the free space) using something such as fdisk. I know Ubuntu has a utility to try to partition the drive for you however it's been a while since I did an Ubuntu install and I am not sure if it can handle your exact situation.

The root filesystem is typically where most of the operating system is installed as well as your files (unless you also use a separate /home partition).

I guess tell us exactly which partitions it shows you have now and someone can help from there. Since you choose expert, you will have to specify it manually yourself.

Note when you choose to manually do it, you need to set up your root partition, home partiton, and your swap partition. Read the following:
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/switchi...titioning.html

That should help you.

Josh

Thanks a lot for your replies guys, but I'm sorry I am still quite confunded as to what I need to do exactly.
You asked me to repeat what partitions it shows I have.
So basically the drive I'm interested in looks like:
device | type | mountpoint | format? | size | used
/dev/sdb | | | | |
/dev/sdb1 | ntfs | - | - |140 |50 (this is 7)
free space |- |- | - |15 | - (this is where I want to install ubuntu + swap)
/dev/sdb2 | ntfs |- | - |75 |50 (this is xp)


So how can I make it so that there is 14 GB of the free space used for ubuntu and 1 Go for the swap

How much RAM do you have installed?

2 GB

Well it won't technically be in the middle as you show but apparently this might work:

create these new partitions:

/dev/sdb3 type ext2 (linux) size 250 MB (this will be /boot)
/dev/sdb4 type swap (linux swap) 1 GB (this will be your swap partition)
/dev/sdb5 type ext4 (linux) size 13.75 GB (this will be your root partition - aka /)

Note this is just one way to do it. I did it this way for Grub but I believe Ubuntu has Grub2 by default these days so an ext2 /boot may not be necessary. Also I'm not sure what they need for a /boot size. 250 MB is probably more than enough considering I use 100 MB on other distros. Someone will need to correct me if wrong or offer more modern suggestions. It's been a while since I used Ubuntu.

Swap partition is typically between 500 MB - (Amount of RAM * 2) depending on preference and needs. 1 GB is often a good bet.

Note: ext2 and ext4 refer to filesystem types which are used on the partition after you create them (sort of like formatting a drive on windows). You have different choices for these. Swap refers to a disk partition which will provide virtual memory using disk space once physical memory is exhausted.

Ok. Since you have 15 GB of space left, I would allocate 1 GB to swap, 4 GB to your root partition, and the rest (10 GB) to your home partition.

Point your root partition to mount as /, swap as swap, and your home partition to /home

Please note that configuring your home partition is optional, as you can configure 1 GB to swap, and use the rest of the space to / and let the installer do the rest for you.

Hope that helps.

Josh

I don't exactly understand why it would be requested to make a separate partition for /boot or /home for instance: since a partition is of a fixed size, I either end up with not enough space to put in /boot or too much and lose some space.
"Please note that configuring your home partition is optional, as you can configure 1 GB to swap, and use the rest of the space to / and let the installer do the rest for you."
--> I think I would like this option. Which buttons/actions to press/do to achieve that ?

Thanks

This will not work, you can't have 5 primary partitions on one disk. I would recommend to set up the free space as extended partition (/dev/sdb3), and then create the the other partitions as logical inside that partition (sdb5/6/7).