Hey Guys, I normally go for "roll yer own" type distro's like Linux from scratch. But feeling lazy, and watning to try out KDE 4, i decided to download Kubuntu.

I am having tons of trouble with the installer.

First off, shortly after booting the CD, the monitor turns off and the system seems to hang.

I have got around this by removing the last paramters to the kernel ( the "quiet splash --") I dont think this should have further repocussions ??


I have a few hard disks, Windows on IDE, and a SATA disk holding Gentoo and Linux From Scratch. So i needed to use the manual option on stage 4 of 6 ( configureing the partitons )

I opted to put it all on a free empty xfs partiton (checked the 'format' option just in case )

When i click next, a warning box pops up saying that GRUB often hangs on XFS, and recomnds i use LILO.. i click "OK", nothing happens. i click Next again, the same box pops up warning about GRUB.. so i click Cancel...
Again nothing happens.

i am stuck on stage 4 of 6, (setting up partitons) attempting to click next warns me about grub, and recomnds LILO... but i can find no option to select LILo over grub...

Infact, the terminal shows that /sbin/lilo is not installed.

after a few more attempts clicking next, after the usual warning, it continues to install (must be a insteller bug ?)

THEN, at 94% grub-install fails.

SO....

I boot into Linux From Scratch, and Install Grub Manually.
I set grub up to load the Kubuntu 7.10 kernel and initrd.
and pass the correct root=/dev/sda2

All other distros i use install grub at the very end... so i assume that Kubuntu is installed, and just needs a boot loader on the MBR.

The Kubuntu kernel Seems to load and run fine, then Panicks trying to mount VFS root.

the root=/dev/sda2 kernel parameter is correct !

What am i missing ??
is Kubuntu kernel compiled without XFS drivers ????

It looks from my own installation that xfs is compiled as a module, so it isn't part of the initramfs. Easiest way to fix would probably be to chroot into the drive (either from lfs or bootcd), add xfs into /etc/initramfs/modules, and do a:

dpkg-reconfigure linux-image-`uname -r`

Reboot, and you should be good to go.

Thanks... Sorted now !.

For anyone else in the same situation (googling shows that there a lot of us)

in addition to the above, i also needed to chroot into a working NON-UBUNTU install (ubuntu's grub seems to be completely borked) and re-install grub.


mkdir /mnt/sda3
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/sda3
chroot /mnt/sda3 /bin/bash
mount -t proc none /proc

## if /dev/sda or /dev/sda3 is missing, create em with
## you will need to lookup the node numbers.
## easyest way to stat them from a working boot ( file /dev/sda3 ) will report major / minor numbers.
mknod /dev/sda 8 0
mknod /dev/sda1 8 1
mknod /dev/sda2 8 2
mknod /dev/sda3 8 3
mknod /dev/sda4 8 4

# mount the kubunto root
mkdir /kubuntu
mount /dev/sda2 /kubuntu


# get grub onto the MBA
grub-install --recheck --root-directory=/kubuntu /dev/sda

# now write your /kubuntu/boot/grub/menu.lst

Now for problem number two... nvidia.ko will not modprobe.. but seems to insmod okay? doesnt load dureing boot.

Kubuntu 7.10 really is riddled with bugs isnt it..