Error message: Out of Disk
 

Installing Ubuntu 11.10 on a new IDE 160Gb hard drive in an older HP Pavillion 7955 desktop computer with an 1.5Mhz Intel processor. No other operating system on drive. Everything runs normally until I'm asked to restart the system when I'm faced with the following message:
Error: Out of Disk
GRUB Rescue>

I also tried to install Kubuntu 11.04 on the same system with the same result. Unfortunately, none of the recommended GRUB commands are recognized at the command prompt including "help".

I should be noted that a Win7 32bit Ultimate operating system was able to install and run on this same system (since removed).

Try booting from this Ubuntu disc. Take evaluation/demo/try mode from os selection menu.

Next when reach desktop - you fire terminal window and do some fdisk stuff or use some disk management tool to what exactly is there - try managing partitions manually if at all.

I did a Google search. There are lots of posts/emails mentioning this, but sparse when it comes to solutions.

Those that do try to diagnose or solve the problem seem to focus on a few things:
1. partition size (for older machines)
2. partition alignment
3. partition filesystem

Here's one page that seemed like it could be useful: What to do when grub says: out of disk. (grub2)

EDIT:
As a side note, I think that blogger has a typo. I believe "137M" is used when "137G" is meant.

Also, it's been a while since I looked into it, but I remember older grub versions requiring ext2 or ext3 filesystems for booting purposes. I think most distributions these days default to ext4. So, maybe formatting as ext3 is worth a shot--or create a separate partition for /boot as ext3 and use ext4 (or whatever you prefer) for the rest.

In the process of changing the partitions, keeping the boot partition below 60Gb, well see what happens. Unfortunately, the only bios for this machine is the same as the latest as posted by HP and would require it to be running XP which I don't have anyway. So much for trying to revive old hardware!

Richard

Here's one for the books! After a lengthy install time wise I have gotten rid of the "Out of Disk" error only to have a new error message "Unknown File System" with the same GRUB RESCUE> prompt following?? I'm sure that it has something to do with my partitioning of the hard drive, however, being a long time user of MS software doesn't provide a clue as to what I did wrong. Is there anything I can do from this prompt to correct the situation without going thru the whole installation again??

Richard

What filesystem are you using? ext2, ext3, ext4, xfs, jfs, etc.?

Ubuntu might want to default to ext4. You might not have seen the last part of my message (because I added it in after my original message). I'm no expert on grub, but I have never had problems when it tries to boot from an ext2 or ext3 filesystem.

There may be a way to get the system to boot without going through the install process again--some grub2 rescue mode commands, filesystem module to load, but unfortunately I'm not the man with those answers. I'm just not that familiar with grub2.

Though, believe me when I say "you're almost there." If you can stomach the install process one more time, pay careful attention to the partitioning setup and try ext3 for all your partitions. If you're just trying out linux for the first time, chances are all the different filesystems will make little difference to you. When you're more comfortable later on, then you might branch out for more performance-specific filesystems.

possibly could we have results of following

Also please let us know what partition you are trying to install Ubuntu.

Changed all my partition file systems to ext3, the first and largest as the "\boot" and the next as "\" . Installation #5 in process as I write this! Well keep you all informed. Thanks for the responses.

Richard

Attempt #5 failed with the dreaded "out of disk" error again, currently working with a new hard disk configuration. Changed the boot partition to 60Gb (same size as the OEM hard drive in this system) configured as a ext4 which seems to be the preferred configuration for Grub2. The balance of the drive except for the SWAP file which Ubuntu creates is configured as a ext4 root drive. Install #6 is currently in progress. Wonder if you can wear out CD or hard drive???? or just the installer!

Richard

Abysmal failure! Still receiving the "Out of Disk" error message. Last chance for Ubuntu, I'll go back and reconfigure the partitions, if that doesn't work I'll take the disk out and use it for target practice.

Richard

If you have been using (g)parted to set up the partitions, you could try using cfdisk or fdisk this time instead.

My 2 cents - please try out carving smaller partitions.

/boot could be about 5 Gigs (Considering its huge waste - But I will live with it)
/ - 40 Gigs
/home - 40 Gigs
swap - 1 Gigs (I am not going to work on technicalities on size etc)
/Downloads 160-86 = 74 Gigs.


Please try partitioning and let us know how it went through.

I really think that the original problem that you were having is that there was probably a confusion about which partition was which, so if you do get any chance to do

(it does need the '-', otherwise it interprets the 'l' as a device, and that is a lower case letter L) as asimba asked, it will be a lot easier to be clear about what is actually going wrong


You don't need a /boot partition anything like this big (actually, you often don't need /boot, at all, but that's another story). It should work like this, but you could use anywhere above 100M, and 220M is a reasonable number. I'd make /boot (and only /boot) ext2; it doesn't need nor does it really take advantage of any of the flashier features of the more recent filesystem types, and, with older distros, ext3/ext4 have been problematic.

I'd push the swap size up a bit, to maybe 2 gigs, but there really isn't much point in going much higher, as performance will probably be poor if you have that much swap in use...unless you intend use suspend and resume, in which case there just might be a point in having the larger partition. But, in any case, the install ought to work with 1 G of swap.

Personally, I wouldn't be making Downloads a separate partition, nor would I be using 'Downloads' when I could use 'downloads' (just let it be part of your /home, and use the space that you might be going to use for /Downloads to /home), but that's just a matter of personal taste.

For the rest of the partitions, I'd use ext4. ext3 would work, too, but I'd use ext4, as it seems to have a slight edge on speed, on average.

In any case, this setup ought to work, so if you are still having problems, we do know that what you are trying to do ought to work. At that point we would absolutely need something more, like error messages, or the output of fdisk or even the contents of /etc/fstab (you would type 'cat /etc/fstab', in a shell without the quote marks, but I am not sure whether you get chance to do this, at exactly the right time), because otherwise we are guessing what is wrong, and that doesn't really make a good place to start from, when giving advice.

Does Ubuntu not offer the possibility of automatic partitioning?

That would be the easy (and generally perfectly acceptable) way to go. I'd advise a seperate /home partition, though, if it offers that alternative.

If Ubuntu fails again, you might try Debian -- Squeeze isn't as up to date as Ubuntu, but it is much less flakey!

About partitions you might want to take a look at this: http://linuxmafia.com/~karsten/Linux...partition.html

Regards