I installed the wrong version of Ubuntu! Help!

[umfan92]

How can I delete the other one and install the right one? I installed the desktop version and I needed the netbook version. Can I delete the partition and install the right version like new?

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome.
As long as there is nothing on the partitions that you need to save, just restart the installation CD/DVD of the correct version and just install over the wrong version, be sure to format the partitions during installation too.

[umfan92]

Well I just want to completely delete everything of linux off of my computer and try to reinstall it. How can I do that? Can i just delete the partitions in Windows?

[devils casper]

Do not delete partition in Windows OS because Windows OS will not boot after partition deletion until you re-install Ubuntu.
As MikeTbob suggested already, you should re-install correct version over existing Ubuntu partition(s).
Or
Boot up from correct version of Ubuntu LiveCD and open Partition Manager. Delete all Linux partitions. This will create a free, unused space. Do not restart machine because Windows OS will not boot up and you have boot up from LiveCD again. Just re-install Ubuntu after deleting partitions.

[umfan92]

Well when I have the partition manager there, it ignores the already created linux partition. And if I go into the advanced options, I can't figure out how to format the previous linux partition to install the new versoin.

[Jonathan183]

When you installed Ubuntu did you:-
boot the netbook from a live CD/USB
or
boot Windows and do a Wubi install?

It's important to know which you did ... the first method will have created partitions on the hard drive while the second method will not. The link to Wubi also contains information for how to uninstall.

[umfan92]

no i booted linux from a live usb and then partitioned the hard drive and installed it. I just want to completely delete it now and try it again. I already tried unity and didn't like it but i'm having some issues with ubuntu and I just want to reinstall it. How can I delete it without messing with windows?

[Jonathan183]

Boot from the live USB drive, open a terminal and post the output of

sudo fdisk -l

the -l has a small L. That way we can advise which partitions to delete before you re-run the installer.

[umfan92]

So I type exactly that into the terminal and tell you what it says? I'll do that as soon as I can. One of the problems I am having is that the brightness settings are all out of order. Should I try a different distribution to see if it works better with my system? I was told to try debian. I know this is the ubuntu section of the forum but what should I do? I'm a beginner and I have heard debian is a little more intermediate so I don't know but I'm willing to try if it will be better.

[umfan92]

I have no idea what I am looking at. I think you're trying to identify which partitions are linux right? /dev/sda1 says hpfs/ntfs (that's windows)....../dev/sda2 says efi (fat-12/16/32)..../dev/sda3 says extended (i'm not sure what that means)..../dev/sda5 says linux...../dev/sda6 says linux swap.....there is no sda4 and i'm not sure what the extended means. I would guess that the linux partition are just the linux, linux swap, and extended ones....Actually, I think the linux and linux swap are in the extended one. Is that right? Ok so how do I go about deleting linux completely so I can reinstall? I'm sure there are better ways to reinstall but I just want to delete it so I feel better about it.