Installation problems with Ubuntu 11.04
 

Well, I've been looking around a lot of questions and answers and can't seem to find the answer to my question, so I made an account here. I have a Gateway 6810, with Windows 7 32 bit, now, i've downloaded the ubuntu iso, and tried both burning it to a disk, and mounting it via magic disc for installation, took a bit, but after some trouble with completing the install, I got to the main screen, however, now i run into the "No root file system" problem. I'm at a complete loss, I have no experience with Linux. Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give!

hmmm ... on searching via google I get 16.5K hits for - Ubuntu "No root file system". Of course I wouldn't expect you have gone through the bulk, but what of the ones you found
have you tried? How much room did you reserve for the Ubuntu installation? What part of the process do you see this message?

Well yes, i did read many, many forums and questions, but most of it I've had trouble with understanding, and most solutions seem to involve having an internet connection, which i do not possess at the moment for Ubuntu, only for windows. I gave it 17 GB, which is what it defaulted to,and as to where I get the error, my PC boots up, goes to Choose windows 7/Ubuntu, choose Ubuntu, goes to the main screen with the dots and Ubuntu in purple letters, then it says validating and at the end of that, i get the error. And most of the solutions I've seen just, to be honest, kind of confuse me.

I hear you on the confusing part :) Sometimes tough to track down what makes sense.

Have you tried booting from your CD / DVD / USB to run Ubuntu in live mode?
If not, give it a go and when you get in, have a look under 'Places' (Press F10 and it will appear in the top toolbar) for your Ubuntu portion of the drive (ie. 17GB partition)

If this can open and you can see the system folders inside we at least know that the install has worked partially.

I also guess you could try reinstalling as well.

Sorry about the delay! I just got back from work, but i will get the results right back in sec. I've also reinstalled this many, many times, however, going to try to see system files now, be right back with a result.

Alright, i'm successfully able to boot from a live cd, as i have before, and when i checked the installation, it says the file is 17.3 Gbs. I noticed you say partition? I used the installer, and it installed as an application(ish), and means i have it currently residing in my C drive, along with most of my other files.

That would be what is referred to as a wubi install (don't know what wubi is an acronym for?) so it is basically just installed in a directory/folder inside windows and is not an actual install to the hard drive. I've never done a wubi install so I can't help you. Usually during an actual install you need to select a mount point for the filesystem. What bootloader are you using? Ubuntu Grub? windows?

Judging from the files in the Linux installation, I'm going to guess Grub here

Have a read of this - just the beginning ... :p

"Purely as a means to try Ubuntu before official install." Oh darn, I guess i'm going to have to partition after all. :P

Don't be too frightened :) The installer is quite adept at resizing without causing issues to your current windows installation.

Should you be a little nervous about jumping straight in, I would suggest that you can easily run it in a virtual environment.
It works relatively well in VirtualBox. Simply install and follow the wizard to create
a virtual machine.

Good luck :)