Dual boot with Mint 14 - installer does not offer sda as option

[Frank616]

I have a 120 GB SSD in my aging desktop Core-2 Duo. I installed Mint 14 a while back, but don't like it that much. I don't want to blow away the install at this point, but I do want to install Kubuntu 12.10 64 bit. I had hoped to do dual boot, but the Kubuntu 12.10 installer only offers to install on the 1.5 Tb sdb. I want to install both OS's on sda, which is the SSD.

I'm trying to avoid a manual install as I usually mess those up.

Suggestions?

Frank.

[oshunluvr]

Ubiquity often doesn't see a partition table but I've never heard of it not seeing a whole device. Try 12.04 and see if it's different. If yes, you could install the older version and then upgrade.

[Frank616]

oshunluvr:

Tried 12.04. Same story.

It is interesting that only the first option fails to see the SSD (sda). The second and third options (use whole disk, or manual) both see the Vertex SSD. Thing is, I don't want it to use the whole disk. I want it to install in a dual-boot setup with Mint.

I guess I can do it manually, but I may need some help with that.

Thanks.

Frank.

[oshunluvr]

Yeah, sounds like the ole' Ubiquity-can't-see-the-partition-table thingy. Been a PITA since 10.10.

When you say First Option - you're referring to "Install along side..." rather than Manual Partitioning?

[Frank616]

When you say First Option - you're referring to "Install along side..." rather than Manual Partitioning?

Yes.

I'm going to try shrinking the partition on sda and create some free space on the drive. Maybe it will see that. I'll let you know. I'm working on it now....

Frank.

[oshunluvr]

Personally, I never trust the installer to partition or format. I always do it in advance so I can focus on what I'm doing. I feel I'm much more likely to make a poor choice (i.e. wiping out something i didn't want wiped) if I'm going through an endless list of configuration questions.

If it were me: I would clear some space, create my /,/home, and swap partitions and format them from a live session. Then select Manually partitioning and set it to use them without formatting.

[Frank616]

Personally, I never trust the installer to partition or format.

I've never had an issue. KParted seems to work as well as GParted, which I have always used as a standalone product.

Anyway, I booted from the 12.04 DVD, shrunk the Mint partition, and tried again. It now sees the Vertex drive, and it sees the free space, but it still will not allow an automated install to that free space. I wants the whole disk. That, or I am offered the possibility of doing it manually. However, even then, it wants to put the bootloader on sdb.

I've never had such an issue with Kubuntu / Ubuntu in the past. I found its installer was mostly intelligent. I can hardly believe that something this simple confounds it.

Anyway, just tried the 12.10 DVD, and I get mostly the same thing, except now it offers me the use of LVM. Still no offer to install to the free space on sda.

Is this a GRUB2 issue?

So, what do I need to do to set up the install manually? I generally leave /home on the same partition as the install so that I don't run into issues with partitions that end up being too small (I'm not sold on LVM yet), but I can do whatever seems expedient. Come the Spring, and I'll be doing a clean 14.04 install anyway.

Or, I can always go buy another cheap SSD and use that. I have multiple disk drive caddies, so popping one out and putting another in is no issue.

So, I'm open to suggestions. However, if I end up doing a manual install, I may need some hand holding.

Frank.

[oshunluvr]

I wouldn't recommend buying new hardware unless you're just looking for the excuse to do so (works @here ). There's no guarantee the same issue won't occur.

Assuming it will work (Ubiquity will see the partition), just create a partition in the free space during a live session and select manual partitioning during the install. If the partition is "seen", it will be in the list. Simply select it and then choose "Change", assign the root partition to "/" and choose "do not format." Also, you should be able to select /dev/sda as the boot device for grub from the pull down tab.

IF you want to use the same /home partition, you should select it as above but be sure you select "do not format"

[Frank616]

Assuming it will work (Ubiquity will see the partition), just create a partition in the free space during a live session and select manual partitioning during the install. If the partition is "seen", it will be in the list. Simply select it and then choose "Change", assign the root partition to "/" and choose "do not format." Also, you should be able to select /dev/sda as the boot device for grub from the pull down tab.

That worked. It is now dual booting, with Ubuntu (Kubuntu) as the default, which is what I want.

However, I bought another cheap 60 GB SSD anyway. I'll keep it for experimental purposes. I have several caddies filled with older HDD's. I'll swap one of those out.

Thanks.

Frank.

[oshunluvr]

Dual SSD's? Ooooo, let's play with RAID! Speedy fun!

[Frank616]

oshunluvr:

Dual SSD's? Ooooo, let's play with RAID! Speedy fun!

Nah. It is a Core 2 Duo Lenovo / IBM Intellistation M Pro. Old.

It is my 'hub' machine for the house. and my main backup machine, though the media PC in the living room also serves as a backup machine. However, it does have a replaceable hard drive bay for sda. The odd time that I have a chance, I try new distros on this machine by swapping out the hard drive (now an SSD) with something else. That way I can try something with minimal danger to the installation. I'm not very adventuresome. All of my machines do real work, so I don't get too wild.

Now I have to set up my user account again so that it will feel like 'home' and then I can ignore the Mint installation until the Spring. I'll put 14.04 on the new 60 GB SSD, which will again preserve the current install 'as is' until I get 14.04 tuned the way I want it. Then it will probably go back to its old boring job of 'hub' machine through which I run most of my rsync scripts that mirror data across all 5 of the other machines in the house.

Frank.

[oshunluvr]

Software RAID is pretty easy to set up and will double drive access times. However, I can see your point. My machines do some real work, but I have several so I also play a bit.

I did eventually build a stand alone server a few years back because my wife and kids got tired of me "breaking" my main machine that, at the time, hosted the media files and the printers. The server took over those tasks and sits rather static. Only rebooting for a new kernel once in a great while.

[jlittle]

Software RAID is pretty easy to set up and will double drive access times

You could underclock, too. Or put a choke on the cable to slow down the bits...

[Frank616]

oshunluvr:

Software RAID is pretty easy to set up and will double drive access times.

I know what you meant. This will work up to the maximum speed of the 'data pipe' in the machine. Doesn't matter how fast the drives can spew it out if the machine can't take it any faster. Don't SSD's come close already to saturating SATA 2?

I did eventually build a stand alone server a few years back because my wife and kids got tired of me "breaking" my main machine that, at the time, hosted the media files and the printers. The server took over those tasks and sits rather static. Only rebooting for a new kernel once in a great while.

That is what I should do as well, but I haven't progressed as far as you just yet. I haven't 'broken' this machine recently, however. Whether this is because of lack of time / inclination, or whether my 'swapping out the system drive before playing' policy has kept me from breaking it, I don't know. I did lose TWO system drives within a few months of each other in that machine last year, but didn't lose any data. I was able to save one with dd. I don't remember what happened to the other, but that was when I put in the SSD and tried Mint. I back up my data drives (usually second physical drives in a box) by mirroring them one to another with rsync across several machines, but I don't keep any backup at all for system drives. Those can be reinstalled.

Frank.

[oshunluvr]

SATA drives all have their own channels so by using RAID you reach near double speeds. The system overhead doesn't decrease obviously. The amount of speed increase you "feel" depends on the function. Basically, anything with lots of drive access will benefit from RAID. I think in most cases, a server doesn't really need RAID because the network is the bottleneck, not drive access times.

I don't use RAID anymore as I have fully transitioned to btrfs instead.