[SOLVED] Ubuntu Installation Help

[joshklewis]

I had a dual boot with Ubuntu 9.10 and Vista but decided to get rid of Vista altogether and just keep Ubuntu.

Some things happened and I ended up having to put Vista back on here. I want to put Ubuntu 9.10 back on my laptop in a dual boot, but it will not let me install.

When I try to use the live cd and install, I get a Resize Operation Failure when trying to set up the new partition for Ubuntu while keeping the Windows partition. The failure reads:

Resize Operation Failure

An Error occurred while writing the changes to the storage devices.

Resize operation has been aborted.

When I try to use the Wubi installer, I get an error as well. I get:

Permission Denied

and then get a link to a log of the error.

I'm not sure what I need to do, but I really want to put Ubuntu back on here in dual boot because I was enjoying getting familiar with it.

[devils casper]

we have to check Partition Structure of your Hard disk. Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD and post the output of this

sudo fdisk -l

[joshklewis]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l 
 
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders 
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes 
Disk identifier: 0xf0000000 
 
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System 
/dev/sda1   *           1       18753   150632448    7  HPFS/NTFS 
/dev/sda2           18754       19457     5654880    5  Extended 
/dev/sda5           18754       19457     5654848+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

[devils casper]

Open Disk Utility program in Ubuntu ( Its in Administrative menu ) and delete /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda5 partitions.
Delete /dev/sda5 first and then /dev/sda2.

Resize /dev/sda1 and create free space for Ubuntu. Select free space and create an Extended Partition. Make sure allocate all the free space to Extended Partition. Create 2 Logical Partitions inside Extended Partition.

/dev/sda2 - Extended Partition
/dev/sda5 - 10-15GB, ext4 for /
/dev/sda6 - 1GB, SWAP

Start Installation and select Manual Partitioning in Partition Section. Assign / mount point to ext4 partition. Installer will detect SWAP and Windows OS partitions. Continue Installation.

It will be /dev/sda2. Create 10-15GB ext3 or ext4 partition for Ubuntu / and 1GB SWAP partition.

[joshklewis]

I am not sure how to resize the partition to make room for Ubuntu. How do I do that?

[devils casper]

Disk Utility package in Ubuntu will let you do that easily. Just delete /dev/sda5 and /dev/sda2. Click on Apply button.
Select /dev/sda1 and move handle at right side to left. Resize partition and hit apply.

If you are new to partition management then I would strongly suggest you to backup data first. Partition resizing really simple and you can handle partitions easily though.

[joshklewis]

Okay, how much room do I need to allocate for Ubuntu? What size should the partitions be for a 160 GB harddrive?

[joshklewis]

I have the sda1 partition selected but I do not see a slider bar to move to resize the partition.

[devils casper]

As I mentioned earlier, 10-15GB is enough for / partition of Ubuntu and 1GB for SWAP.

Check Disk Utility documentation.

[joshklewis]

I figured out how to resize it. According to ubuntu.help.com, you have to resize a windows vista partition or windows 7 partition in windows instead of in ubuntu. I don't know if that is true, but it worked for me.