Thread: Switching to Linux

not formatting, resizing

gparted needs a clean NTFS partition before it can resize it

Ie.

|------------------------------NTFS----------------------------|
becomes
|---------NTFS--------|---------EXT3---------|---swap---|



*edit*

Originally Posted by TweaK

Anyway, does the latest Ubuntu (8.10 I think?) support SiS 966 chipsets yet? When I tried installing several linux distros on my "off-"PC upstairs, my hard drives weren't detected and there were lots of incompatibilities due to my chipset.

Oh jeez, I'd think so

found this - http://www.sis.com/support/support_faqs_16.htm
says the SiS966 LAN chip is fully supported (and this is seriously old - mentions RedHat 9.0, which is 7 years old - and obsolete, RHEL has long superseded RedHat Linux)

These days, you have to look pretty hard to find something not supported in Linux

Hey Ynot, I defragged and then I did a disc check and when I booted the disc i had the option Guided- use extra space or something like that, i chose it and the partition resizing started. About an hour and a half later it said there was an error and it had to abort. it then took me to do it manually. As I don't have a goddamned idea about how to resize a partition, i just shut down my computer in disdain.

Any ideas?

Boot up into the LiveCD using the "try without changing anything" option
from here, you can use Firefox, etc.

You'll see on the desktop an icon called "Install"
click this, and it'll start the install process

When you get to the partitioning, take a screenshot of the window
(press the "print screen" button on your keyboard)

Upload that somewhere, and I will have a look

Bearing in mind I don't know how the defrag / chkdsk turned out
I'm just guessing off the top of my head,
I'd say that the windows partition was reported as being bigger than it actually was (hence the installer being nervous about resizing)

After running defrag / chkdsk, the correct partition size is now set
and you have a little bit of extra space after the windows partition

This space is probably far too small for an OS install
so you'll still have to resize windows

But if you could let me have a screenshot of the partition window during install, I'll try to walk you through it

one other thing. when I ran the defrag, i went to sleep and let it run overnight, but when I checked on my computer it was just back to where i could set it to start defragging again, there was no confirmation that it did anything. is that normal?

I don't know if that's normal or not,
but if the Ubuntu installer options have changed since you did it, then chances are it did something

ok.
after it came across an error resizing the partition, i went back and was going to try it again but the option to resize and use remaining space was gone.

have you run chkdsk in windows?

it really sounds like you have minor errors (bad sectors, etc.) on your disk

yeah I ran it and it didn't find any problems.

booted in the Ubuntu LiveCD,
go Applications > Accessories > Terminal

and can you post the output of this command

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

thats, sudo <space> fdisk <space> dash little L

select the output and use the edit menu to copy the text and post it here

ok. regrettably i wont have time to do it tonight, as i'm supposed to be in bed in a few minutes and the disk whirring in the disc drive is going to make too much noise as my stepmom often sleeps in the living room.

I'll do it first thing tomorrow and get back to you with the info.

ok, no problem

You could try the Wubi install
on the Live CD, there is a Windows program called Wubi
this will install Ubuntu "inside" windows

I've not mentioned this before, as I have no first hand experience with Wubi
I know what it is, what it does, and even how it does it
but I am not confident I can field technical questions / troubleshoot problems with it

You may want to give this a go, though
as it means you don't have to worry about setting up proper disk partitions

The downside to Wubi, is decreased performance (due to using a virtual hard disk)
but the decrease is minimal

This may be the best way to go, but as I said, I'm not confident I can help with any issues


Just FYI
I'm thinking 3 possible culprits for the failed resize are:

1) The defrag is failing
You cannot resize the windows partition if it's severely fragmented
The defrag can fail for a number of reasons

1a) You have set a static swap file under windows
For some reason, this causes the windows defragger to puke
Set it back to dynamic, and defragging should work

1b) the fragmented files are system files in use while windows is booted
You'll have to boot to safe mode (or worst case scenario, the Windows CD recovery console) to defrag your disk


2) You have some sort of hidden "restore" partition on your machine
Some OEM's create 1 or more hidden partitions to ease recovery of machines if you send it back under warranty

see this thread where someone else had hidden restore partitions
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=71887

Specifically, posts #11 - #24


3) There is some sort of protection active on your windows partition
There are a few things out there that "protect" a windows machine from 3rd party changes
I doubt this is the case, but it could be



After all that,
the other option is to get a second hard disk,
and install on that
1 disk for windows
1 for Linux

But if you're still willing, I'd give Wubi a try first

1a) You have set a static swap file under windows
For some reason, this causes the windows defragger to puke
Set it back to dynamic, and defragging should work

how do i set it to dynamic?
sorry, i know next to nothing about computers.

Assuming XP,

Right Click on My Computer
Properties > Advanced
Under the "Performance section, click "Settings"
Performance Options window opens
Select Advanced
Under "Virtual Memory" section, click "Change"
and choose "System Managed Size"

but I'd actually try Wubi first
as it's probably going to be easier

(the fact I, personally don't have any experience with it shouldn't stop you from trying it - It's my failing )

Wubi is designed to minimize the pain of getting Windows to play ball
I'm pretty sure others on this forum have experience with Wubi
(or goto the Ubuntu forums, you'll definitely get the help you need there)

I have Vista, but all my settings are already on "system managed size"
the only problem I have with Wubi is it wouldn't perform as well and I'd like to have it at maximum performance.

Performance loss is minimal (especially if you have SATA drives)
just for the least amount of pain
(it's increasingly obvious that Windows isn't going to play nicely, for whatever reason)

Try Wubi
It's designed for easy installing & uninstalling under Windows
(it even adds an Ubuntu entry in the Windows add/remove apps list)

after a few weeks / months, or whatever, then you can do a proper independent install

Ok. I suppose i dont really have a choice at the moment.
I'll download Wubi tommorow and burn it. Hope it works like it should.

Wubi should already be on the disk you burnt

Under Windows, put the LiveCD in, and open it up in WIndows explorer
there'll be an .exe file called Wubi

Or you could format your HD and try to install there. Wait, is he trying to dual boot? I didn't read the previous posts.

yeah i wanna dual boot

Edit: I have Daemon's tools installed, do u think i could mount the ISO to Daemon's tools and install Wubi that way instead of putting the actual disc in the real disk drive?

Edit again: I tried to install Wubi. It seemed like it was going to work fine. I rebooted and it gave me the option to boot my computer in Ubuntu just like it should've, it installed, but then I booted in Vista since I was told that it runs inside of Vista. There was no icon to run it, I rechecked the Tut I was using and it said I'm supposed to boot it like normal Ubuntu, by restarting and choosing from the boot options. So I restarted and chose Ubuntu, this is where things fucked up. Instead of booting like it should, I got the error that some directories couldn't be found or didn't exist. So what do I do now? I can't get my windows partition to resize with the Ubuntu installer, I don't know how to resize it myself, and Wubi, my last option, didn't work.

As a side note, after I installed and rebooted into Vista, I was told that there was an inconsistency in my C Disk and Windows needed a disc check. I let it check, and it found and deleted some bad files. Did it possibly delete those Ubuntu directories? Forgive me if that sounds retarded, I really have no idea what I'm talking about...

Don't want to sort of "overwrite" (for lack of a better word) your problem by posting my own, but I just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on a PC of my own and internet isn't working :c It's on wired ethernet which obviously works on other PCs, uses DHCP (it gets a proper IP address, when I ifconfig everything looks fine, mad address, obtained IP, gateway, etc), and I can ping everything and get a proper response.

BUT! Anything else doesn't work. I can't visit -any- websites but Google services. I can visit any Google site (Gmail, Google search, etc) just fine, but anything else fails to load. It manages to retrieve the IP, but when it has to actually download the page it just keeps loading for ages and obviously eventually times out. I have also tried downloading Ubuntu updates etc to see if it was Firefox, but no internet service but ping works. All the Ubuntu updates time out too. I have tried Googling my issue and I mostly came up with stuff to either fix the /etc/resolv.conf or something similar, but my DNS is fine since I can look IP addresses up just fine, or solutions to disable IPv6 which I tried but didn't work.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Originally Posted by TweaK

Don't want to sort of "overwrite"

Piss on his parade

your problem by posting my own, but I just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on a PC of my own and internet isn't working :c It's on wired ethernet which obviously works on other PCs, uses DHCP (it gets a proper IP address, when I ifconfig everything looks fine, mad address, obtained IP, gateway, etc), and I can ping everything and get a proper response.

BUT! Anything else doesn't work. I can't visit -any- websites but Google services. I can visit any Google site (Gmail, Google search, etc) just fine, but anything else fails to load. It manages to retrieve the IP, but when it has to actually download the page it just keeps loading for ages and obviously eventually times out. I have also tried downloading Ubuntu updates etc to see if it was Firefox, but no internet service but ping works. All the Ubuntu updates time out too. I have tried Googling my issue and I mostly came up with stuff to either fix the /etc/resolv.conf or something similar, but my DNS is fine since I can look IP addresses up just fine, or solutions to disable IPv6 which I tried but didn't work.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds...interesting. Try reinstalling. Otherwise, maybe it's your ISP's problem. What ISP do you have?

It's not my ISP's problem because all my other PCs and devices work obviously.

Hmm...Try reinstalling. Is it a fresh install?

Yes. Entirely fresh, nothing installed on it yet.