Media: kubuntu installer 5.10 for i386, ISO image, burned in DAO mode, MD5 sum checked, "binary equivalency" checked post burn.

Box: Netvista, 2.8 GHz, >>>0.5Gb RAM

Box setup last week:
i) a bootable HDD with kanotix linux on it,
ii) an old WinXP physical HDD being successfully read by kanotix (for purposes of data storage only, really, folks!)
The kanotix linux system is functioning quite well.

Surgery: Take out that HDD with had kanotix linux on it, physically plug in a brand new Hitachi Deskstar HDD, making sure master jumper switch is set. NOTHING more is done in BIOS or anything for HDD. (is this the problem?)

Installation: It recognizes the new disk (right number of Gb), lets me go through a very long process of partitioning, installing new software, etc. Then it says it's rebooting and it locks up for >>>10 minutes in the message that starts like, "GRUB is loading....."

Repeats: Tried kubuntu 5.10 x3, ubuntu 5.10, newly downloaded and burned kubuntu using DVD burner on a different box.


Have I done anything wrong? Are you supposed to do something to BIOS to make it recognize the new HDD (but hey, I did A LOT with it in the install process!)

On repeat attempts does the drive appear empty or are the partitions being created and populated?

Upon the repeated attempts at installation, it sees the previous structure I had previously tried to set up. It knows I wanted a 100 Gb and a 57 Gb and a 3Gb partitions, its default options just gives them wierd settings like none of them being a root. (It is of course a simple matter of setting them back up the other way of course).

I've got a few knoppix and kanotix live CD's. Any tips on ways I could diagnose the problem using these.

Again, thanks greatly for taking the time to reply. I thought I was moderately knowledgeable with 'puters given that this is the 5th or 6th HDD install I've done. And I was hoping that it was the last-- I figured that distrowatch ranking couldn't be too wrong.

Hmmm ... have you checked your bios settings on the drive (UDMA and all that fun stuff?) also where are you telling it to install GRUB to?

I've run into this same issue during my long distro sampling process. Its not even specific to ubuntu, all of them gave me this problem. Easily resolved if you wipe the disk/partition prior to installation. If you have a Rescue or Live CD, you can use the dd command to wipe it. Once that's done, I'm sure it will install flawlessly.

Hey, thanks for this insight. It's perhaps the only thing that makes sense-- ubuntu couldn't be that incompetent (no offense). Like Commander Data being so slow at math.

So with knoppix, I could use qparted to format the new HDD.

Q: Is it just as well to

a) have knoppix format but leave it unpartitioned, and then have ubuntu's installer to the partitions,

OR

b) is ubuntu essentially choking on making partitions itself, whereby it's better for knoppix to handle it?

thanks.