After buying a laptop I wanted to experiment with my old desktop computer:

HP Pavillion 522n
Intel Celeron 1.8 GHz/400MHz
Cache RAM 128KB
Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
Motherboard Imperial_GL_VE 20021218
1.3 GB DDR SDRAM

I loaded a copy, which I had won, of Microsoft Windows .NET Server 2003 Standard Edition. Everything went just fine and worked great.

Then I learned about Ubuntu and wanted to loaded it. I got the Official Ubuntu Book, Third Edition, and used the Version 8.04 LTS Diskette. The load went through the paces and then I had trouble with the partitions. I tried manually and it would loop through steps 4 through 7. Could never install the whole thing, or load the boot sector.

Does anybody know if it is the computer, or just me?

By the way, I have been working with Microsoft Products for over 18 years, programming in large companies. I am ready to make the switch.

Please help.

Raul

Hi Raul.

I've seen a lot of strange problems with newer version of ubuntu, I personaly have errors when trying to install ubuntu 8.10 and then installed 8.04 and all was fine. In my point of view there aren't so big changes that you can't go to an 7.10 or 7.04 version, maybe to see if they could go trhough all instalation process and then try again with the newer version.

Other things that can be causing problems to your instalation when its about partitions is your bios settings, have you checked any SATA/IDE option?
You can try to fully delete all you partitions and then try again.

By the other side, maybe you could give us some more information: When trying to install, the partition installer can show all your partition and disks like they are suppose to be? Are you creating a new partition with the installer and setting up a root mount point (Ex.: partitiion sda2 as Ext3 mount point / ) and then commiting the changes?

It seens like a very odd behavor you're having, to be honest its looking like you're missing something in the install process, aren't you ?


[ ]'s

Be sure to fully defragment Windows before partitioning with Ubuntu. Also, be sure to burn the install CD at a very slow speed. When the disc boots, first choose the option to "check CD for defects" to verify that the disc is good.

You could also try partitioning with a GParted live CD or Parted Magic live CD:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
http://partedmagic.com/
Shrink the Windows partition if you need to make space for Ubuntu. Then create at least one ext3 partition and a swap partition. Then boot up the Ubuntu live CD and choose "manual partitioning" and install Ubuntu to the ext3 partition.

Thanks guys ... I will look at everything you said. However, I installed Vista, then tried Ubuntu. I installed DOS, then Ubuntu. I did all kinds of things ... different partitions, manual partitions ... who knows what. Then I said, screw it, let's try 7.04, and I picked the Australia version. After two tries, voila ... success!!! I was in heaven. But, now I want to see if I can upgrade to 8.10.

Now I have a tower whos CD does not work on boot which I want to make a Web Server. Thanks again!

If you installed Vista to occupy the entire hard drive you can use Vista's own partitioning tool to shrink the Vista partition and make room for Ubuntu:
http://www.vistarewired.com/2007/02/...-windows-vista

You can't upgrade from 7.04 directly to 8.10. You have to upgrade in succession, that is, 7.04 > 7.10 > 8.04 > 8.10. You can also upgrade from one Ubuntu LTS (long term support) version to the next one. For example 6.06 > 8.04. You would be better off with a clean install of 8.10 if you plan to go from 7.04 to 8.10.

Maybe for him its not an upgrade (not through apt-get) but a new install with a newer version that he mean, I think ...