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**vinnywright** · Aug 14, 2012, 05:48 PM

can you still boot into windows7 ?

will the Kubuntu cd you have load into the live desktop (not the installer) ?

both of these answers will help us in helping you ......along with any system specs of the laptop you can provide.

VINNY

**Keith Sayers** · Aug 16, 2012, 03:33 PM

Loading Kubuntu 12.04 onto a laptop

Thank you for the response -

answers :

can you still boot into windows7 ? Yes

will the Kubuntu cd you have load into the live desktop (not the installer) ? Yes - it was a bit slow - the better part of five minutes I think - but eventually I got the usual desktop. As a test I then clicked on the K icon in the bottom left corner, from that opened Dolphin and in that went to My Pictures and opened one (successfully). In the meantime the bottom left line was indicating that I was working from the CD.

......along with any system specs of the laptop you can provide.

Make : emachines
Manufacturer : Acer
Product Name : Aspire 5552G
CPU type : AMD Athlon II P360 Dual-Core Processor
CPU speed : 2300 MHz
HDD Model name : ST 9500325AS
ATAPI Model Name : Optiac DVD RW AD-7585H
System BIOS version : V2.14

- what else would be helpful, please?

**vinnywright** · Aug 16, 2012, 05:57 PM

OK
I to am curious about the 6 primary partitions ?? and just why the cd takes so long to load with 4Gigs of RAM (according to some googling ) can you boot to the live cd agin and open a terminal and run

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

and post the output?

the freezing at file 43 of 105 usually indicates a bad/no network connection or got stuck trying to get some extra package.... you may be abel to get around this by NOT checking the boxes to install updates and non free software during installation and then do the updates after install!!

when you did the install did you just click the option to install side by side with windows or do the manual partitioning and installing?

yes it obviously installed some thing/part of the system as you do get the grub screen to chose windows or Kubuntu .....but maby not much sense its looking for the cd instead of the install .

but lets see that fdisk output before we do anything else

VINNY

**Keith Sayers** · Aug 18, 2012, 04:07 AM

> ........ but lets see that fdisk output before we do anything else

Hereunder :

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc8aeb821

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 45858815 22928384 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2 * 45858816 46587903 364544 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 46587904 433851210 193631653+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 433852414 976771071 271459329 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 771973120 976771071 102398976 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 433852416 763594751 164871168 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 763596800 771971071 4187136 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

..................................

> when you did the install did you just click the option to install side by side with windows or do > the manual partitioning and installing?

I am pretty certain that I took the side by side option - but would you have any cause to recommend the one option or the other? Incidentally when I loaded this time from the CD it was much quicker - barely a minute - which did make me wonder if some impediment had cleared. Might it be worth another go at installing? But I will wait for your comment on this fdisk output.

>the freezing at file 43 of 105 usually indicates a bad/no network connection or got stuck trying >to get some extra package.... you may be abel to get around this by NOT checking the boxes to >install updates and non free software during installation and then do the updates after install!!

Point noted.

**vinnywright** · Aug 18, 2012, 02:57 PM

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

> ........ but lets see that fdisk output before we do anything else

Hereunder :

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc8aeb821

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 45858815 22928384 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2 * 45858816 46587903 364544 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 46587904 433851210 193631653+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 433852414 976771071 271459329 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 771973120 976771071 102398976 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 433852416 763594751 164871168 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 763596800 771971071 4187136 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

..................................

> when you did the install did you just click the option to install side by side with windows or do > the manual partitioning and installing?

I am pretty certain that I took the side by side option - but would you have any cause to recommend the one option or the other? Incidentally when I loaded this time from the CD it was much quicker - barely a minute - which did make me wonder if some impediment had cleared. Might it be worth another go at installing? But I will wait for your comment on this fdisk output.

well we see hear that their are not 6 primary partitions , there are 3 primary /sda1-3 an extended /sda4 and 3 logical /sda5-7 .
I did not know that the installer would make 2 ext? partitions during a guided install .
the 2 ext? partitions look to be around 100+- Gig's each . (should have had you do "sudo parted -l) and it would list in Gig-Mib instead of bite/sector

any way at this point I would make a Gparted live cd/usb and ether check the partitions (/sda5&6) to make sure that the installer did it's job right then reinstall and at the point where you chose install side by side chose manual and install it in /sda5 use as / (thats root) then you can use the /sda6 as storage after install OR use the Gparted live cd/usb to delete the /sda5&6 and make 2 new partitions 1 of 15-20 Gig's ext3 or 4 for / (root...the mane part of the system) and the rest of the free space as ext3 or 4 for /home ,,,,then when you chose manual in the installer select the partitions you made and set to use as as described.

O and wile you on that screen make sure that grub gets installed to the MBR or /sda (depending on the choses it lists )it will be a drop down box at the bottom of the page/screen (it appears that it did last time as you got the grub screen to chose to boot Kubuntu or windows) but make sure

when the cd loaded so much better this time that makes me think maby it's got some bad scratches on it or some dust got in the cd tray and cosed some problems last time .... OS cd's are far more finicky than say a music cd ....one missed bite on a music cd and you wouldn't even notes it,,,,, one missed bite on a OS live cd in the wrong place and you mite not even load up

thats one of the reasons that when you burn a OS cd it's recommended to burn it at as slow a speed as possible!!

VINNY

**james147** · Aug 18, 2012, 06:20 PM

Looks to me like it installed the system then failed to update it, leaving a broken system. Try installing it again but with out selecting the "download updates and additional software" buttons. These can easily installed after you boot the system anyway.

**Keith Sayers** · Aug 22, 2012, 08:20 PM

Dear Vinny,

On Sunday 19 August 2012 you wrote:

> when the cd loaded so much better this time that makes me think maby it's
> got some bad scratches on it or some dust got in the cd tray and cosed
> some problems

That sounded like good sense - in fact I should have thought of it
myself - so I cleaned it and retried.

> use the Gparted live cd/usb to delete the /sda5&6 and make 2 new partitions

I did try with the hard drive partitioned as it was but failed so took
this advice and made two new partitions, but then stumbled at :

> make sure that grub gets installed to the MBR
> or /sda (depending on the choses it lists )
> use as / (thats root)

I understand that but I get to a screen :

Boot loader
Device for boot loader installation
/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ntfs
/dev/sda2 ntfs
/dev/sda3 ntfs
/dev/sda4 ext2
/unusable

That 'unusable' perturbed me but I decided to try for sda4 as being the
most likely, clicked Continue and proceeded to a screen :

No root file system is defined
Please correct this from the partitioning menu

I went Back, could see no Partitioning menu so described but assumed it
was the one with this dropdown box. The only sensible alternative to sda4
seemed to be sda itself so I tried that, again clicked Continue and again was
given the No root file system response. For the moment I have paused. Could
you give me any advice as to how to specify that the MBR should be in the root
directory? Presumably the Win7 has something already there - could there be a
conflict?

In the meantime I am going to go back to Win7 and see if I can use that
partition manager to carefully have a look at this unusable section and see if
I can format it.

Again my thanks for you help - it is much appreciated even if I am still
having difficulties. :-)=

Later - I tried the Win7 disk management which showed me 244Gb at the end of the
drive 'unallocated'. That looked promising for conversion to a partition but
after selecting the various options I got 'The operation you selected will
convert the selected basic disk(s) to dynamic disk(s). If you convert the
disk(s) to dynamic you will not be able to start installed operating systems
from any volume on the disk(s) (except the current boot valume). Are you sure
you want to continue?

That made me step back so I tried again with the options changed to not format
the new volume but got the same result.

I think I understand what is wanted - that both the Windows and Kubuntu root
systems should be in the Master Boot Record and the rest of the Kubuntu
operating software then put in a partition by itself and a further partition be
allocated for swap. Achieving that though seems easier said than done......

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Sayers keiths@apex.net.au
6 Clambe Place
CHARNWOOD, ACT 2615,
Australia http://www.apex.net.au/~keiths
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**vinnywright** · Aug 22, 2012, 10:10 PM

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

Dear Vinny,

On Sunday 19 August 2012 you wrote:

> when the cd loaded so much better this time that makes me think maby it's
> got some bad scratches on it or some dust got in the cd tray and cosed
> some problems

That sounded like good sense - in fact I should have thought of it
myself - so I cleaned it and retried.

> use the Gparted live cd/usb to delete the /sda5&6 and make 2 new partitions

I did try with the hard drive partitioned as it was but failed so took
this advice and made two new partitions, but then stumbled at :

well from your fdisk output before

/dev/sda1 2048 45858815 22928384 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2 * 45858816 46587903 364544 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 46587904 433851210 193631653+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 433852414 976771071 271459329 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 771973120 976771071 102398976 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 433852416 763594751 164871168 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 763596800 771971071 4187136 82 Linux swap / Solaris

you have hear 3 primary partitions (sda1-sda3)you can only have 4 primary partitions on a disk, so to get around that, you make the rest of the space on the disk an extended partition (sda4,then you can make as many logical partitions in side the extended as you kneed .
in the above readout your sda5,sda6 & sda7 are inside the extended sda4 in the below list that the installer gave you for a place to install Grub it's listing 4 partitions and unusable space .......this makes me think you deleted your extended partition and now have 4 primay partitions and can make no more or use the rest of the space.

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

> make sure that grub gets installed to the MBR
> or /sda (depending on the choses it lists )

it gave you the choice sda

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

> use as / (thats root)

when I sead that I was refering to using sda5 (in your last fdisk output) as the place for / to be installed.
when you are on the manual partitioning phase of the install you half to pick a partition for at least / and can pick more than 1(if you have them) for lets say ,,,/home(your files) but you must chose at least 1 partition to put / on AND tell it where to install Grub to (the boot loader) and as sead that would be in sda.....sda is the hole hard drive or in this case the MBR(master boot record ) of the drive.

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

I understand that but I get to a screen :

Boot loader
&nbsp

evice for boot loader installation
/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ntfs
/dev/sda2 ntfs
/dev/sda3 ntfs
/dev/sda4 ext2
/unusable

That 'unusable' perturbed me but I decided to try for sda4 as being the
most likely, clicked Continue and proceeded to a screen :

boot loader IS GRUB it goes in sda

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

No root file system is defined
Please correct this from the partitioning menu

you had not picked a partition to install to yet(just whare to put grub the boot loader not the system) you must set 1 partition to be used as / (the root file system or Kubuntu it's self)

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

I went Back, could see no Partitioning menu so described but assumed it
was the one with this dropdown box. The only sensible alternative to sda4
seemed to be sda itself so I tried that, again clicked Continue and again was
given the No root file system response. For the moment I have paused. Could
you give me any advice as to how to specify that the MBR should be in the root
directory? Presumably the Win7 has something already there - could there be a
conflict?

it's ok your just getting confused with where GRUB goes (sda) AND the root file system (/)((Kubuntu it's self)) ,,,,/ you set by clicking the partition to use and "use as" and set it for /

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

In the meantime I am going to go back to Win7 and see if I can use that
partition manager to carefully have a look at this unusable section and see if
I can format it.

you wont be able to!!

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

Again my thanks for you help - it is much appreciated even if I am still
having difficulties. :-)=

Later - I tried the Win7 disk management which showed me 244Gb at the end of the
drive 'unallocated'. That looked promising for conversion to a partition but
after selecting the various options I got 'The operation you selected will
convert the selected basic disk(s) to dynamic disk(s). If you convert the
disk(s) to dynamic you will not be able to start installed operating systems
from any volume on the disk(s) (except the current boot valume). Are you sure
you want to continue?

That made me step back so I tried again with the options changed to not format
the new volume but got the same result.

right you have 4 primary partitions already and can use no more of your space until you delete 1 and make all the free space 1 big extended partition ,,,,then you can make as meney logical partitions as you like/need inside the extended.

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

I think I understand what is wanted - that both the Windows and Kubuntu root
systems should be in the Master Boot Record and the rest of the Kubuntu
operating software then put in a partition by itself and a further partition be
allocated for swap. Achieving that though seems easier said than done......

no only 1 boot loader (grub) will be in the MBR(sda) the root file systems of windows and Kubuntu go eatch in thare own partitions ,,,,windows is allready in it's partition (sda3 I think),,,now you kneed to get Kubuntu into it's partition.

at this point I would just use your Gparted agin and delete sda4-ext2 and then make an extended partition using all the free space ,then a 2-4Gig swap partition (inside the extended) and the rest of the space as 1 big partition ext3 or ext4 (inside the extended) ,,,,,what ever you do do NOT delete sda 1,2,or 3 it would kill windows!!

then run the Kubuntu installer agin and dont check the boxes to install updates and other software and on the manual partitioning page just right click the big partition you made inside the extended and click "use as " and chose /
then in that drop down box for GRUB install chose sda

VINNY

**SteveRiley** · Aug 22, 2012, 11:41 PM

Here's your partition table, set inside [ CODE ] tags so that the monospace font helps line the columns up:

Code:

Device     Boot  Start      End        Blocks      Id  System
/dev/sda1        2048       45858815   22928384    27  Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2  *     45858816   46587903   364544      7   HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3        46587904   433851210  193631653+  7   HPFS/NTFS/exFAT9
/dev/sda4        433852414  976771071  271459329   5   Extended
/dev/sda5        771973120  976771071  102398976   83  Linux
/dev/sda6        433852416  763594751  164871168   83  Linux
/dev/sda7        763596800  771971071  4187136     82  Linux swap / Solaris

The three partitions inside your extended partition are numbered out of order. /dev/sda6 is physically the first one, followed by /dev/sda7, and then finally /dev/sda5. Ordinarily this isn't a problem, but it might be a source of confusion.

Also, in your first post, you mentioned "I successfully shrank the main partition to create 10Gb of unallocated space." None of your partitions appear to be 10 GB in size. Using a divisor of 1,048,576 (1024 * 1024) over the block count, I see:

/dev/sda1: 21.87 GB
/dev/sda2: 0.35 GB
/dev/sda3: 184.66 GB
/dev/sda6: 157.23 GB
/dev/sda7: 3.99 GB
/dev/sda5: 97.66 GB

You might consider taking the following steps:

Delete the extended partition (that's /dev/sda4)
Boot a Windows CD and allow it to recover your system -- this will erase any boot loader you have and place a fresh copy of the Windows boot loader into the MBR
Install Kubuntu into the free space on the drive -- keep it simple: create a single primary partition and set the mount point to / and format it as EXT4; unless your computer has < 2 GB RAM, you probably don't need a swap partition
When asked where to install GRUB2, indicate /dev/sda -- this replaces the Windows boot loader with GRUB2, which is exactly what you want to do; GRUB2 can chain-load Windows

**Keith Sayers** · Aug 24, 2012, 03:32 PM

Success! I have finally got Kubuntu12.04 loaded into my laptop and for
anyone following this thread with similar problems I think Vinny's suggestion
about dust on the CD was the real answer. However to finish the story, I went
back into the Win7 partition facility, deleted the sda4 partition, then
created another covering all the remainder of the disk - i.e. the former sda4
and the unusable. It appeared on screen as a Basic partition rather than
extended which bothered me and I was trying to convert it from Basic to
Extended - with the intent of then creating within it two more partitions -
when I noticed in the graphic presentation a thin green line around it. The
legend said that meant an extended partition so I decided to try again loading
Kubuntu from the CD and see what happened. It went through perfectly! My
grateful thanks for all the help.

However now that I can use the KDE partition manager I find I have an sda4
extended partition sub-divided into :
- sda5 - NTFS - 130Gb - 3Gb used ;
- sda6 - ext4 - 125Gb - 4.54 Gb used ; and
- sda7 - linuxswap - 4Gb - non used
Does that mean that my Kubuntu operating software is divided between sda5
and sda6? If so any idea why? I would have expected it to all go into one
partition and then be accompanied by one other partition for swap. But I ask
only out of curiosity - it works! And that is all I really need.

:-)= :-)= :-)=

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Sayers keiths@apex.net.au
6 Clambe Place
CHARNWOOD, ACT 2615,
Australia http://www.apex.net.au/~keiths
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**vinnywright** · Aug 24, 2012, 04:49 PM

pull up a konsole and type in

Code:

sudo parted -l

and post the output.

then type in

Code:

df -h

and post the output.

VINNY

**Keith Sayers** · Aug 26, 2012, 04:18 PM

Hereunder :

keith@keith-Aspire-5552G:~$ keith@keith-Aspire-5552G:~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for keith:
Model: ATA ST9500325AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 23.5GB 23.5GB primary ntfs diag
2 23.5GB 23.9GB 373MB primary ntfs boot
3 23.9GB 222GB 198GB primary ntfs
4 222GB 500GB 278GB extended lba
5 222GB 361GB 139GB logical ntfs
6 361GB 496GB 134GB logical ext4
7 496GB 500GB 4288MB logical linux-swap(v1)

keith@keith-Aspire-5552G:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6 126G 5.3G 114G 5% /
udev 2.0G 4.0K 2.0G 1% /dev
tmpfs 806M 856K 805M 1% /run
none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none 2.0G 80K 2.0G 1% /run/shm
keith@keith-Aspire-5552G:~$

**Keith Sayers** · Aug 26, 2012, 04:21 PM

The three partitions inside your extended partition are numbered out of order. /dev/sda6 is physically the first one, followed by /dev/sda7, and then finally /dev/sda5. Ordinarily this isn't a problem, but it might be a source of confusion.

How do you work that out, please, and why should it be so?

**vinnywright** · Aug 26, 2012, 05:11 PM

Originally posted by Keith Sayers View Post

Hereunder :

keith@keith-Aspire-5552G:~$ keith@keith-Aspire-5552G:~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for keith:
Model: ATA ST9500325AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 23.5GB 23.5GB primary ntfs diag
2 23.5GB 23.9GB 373MB primary ntfs boot
3 23.9GB 222GB 198GB primary ntfs
4 222GB 500GB 278GB extended lba
5 222GB 361GB 139GB logical ntfs
6 361GB 496GB 134GB logical ext4
7 496GB 500GB 4288MB logical linux-swap(v1)

keith@keith-Aspire-5552G:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6 126G 5.3G 114G 5% /
udev 2.0G 4.0K 2.0G 1% /dev
tmpfs 806M 856K 805M 1% /run
none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none 2.0G 80K 2.0G 1% /run/shm
keith@keith-Aspire-5552G:~$

OK your good

I don't quite know how that 139Gig NTFS partition /sda5 got in your extended partition ?maby the installer did it? but thats ok both win7 and Kubuntu can use it for storage .
your hole system (Kubuntu) is in /sda6 !

don't worry about what you asked in post#14 as the partitions have changed sense @SteveRiley made that comment and are now contiguous and numbered correctly

VINNY

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Loading Kubuntu 12.04 onto a laptop

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