I wanted to try Ubuntu on my machine, and got another harddrive to install it on. The other harddrive has XP and Mandriva on it.

I partioned the new drive. I created one / (root) and one /home partition. I believe they are both ext3. I didn't create a swap space since I already have this, and it didn't ask for it either.

The install failed early on with the following error:
Base System installation error
The debootstrap program exited with an error (return value 1). Check /target/var/log/
bootstrap.log for the details


Second error when I try to install base system again:
No such script: /usr/lib/debootstrap/scripts//target
Check /target/var/log/bootstrap.log
I can't look at the file since the install wasn't done.
I tried it a couple of times, but with the same error.

Any suggestions? I should be able to use the same swap space as another install, but I don't know if it will cause a problem if it's not on the harddrive the base install is being done on.

The fact that swap space is on a different drive really doesn't matter. As for the error log, you should be able to read it from your Mandriva install, assuming it actually got written to the new disk and didn't occur in a virtual filesystem (i.e. in RAM before the installation begins).

My advice would be to try a more up-to-date version of Ubuntu. 5.10 is no longer being updated, and if the problem you're getting is caused by a problem with your hardware, chances are it's been fixed in 6.06 or 6.10. Without the log file, it's a total mystery to me what's causing the problem.