Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

hold on aiiee I'm tird that should be sda not sda1 ...oops dont do the sda1 that wont be the MBR

and I just notesed you arnt the OP what;s you'r disk lay out start a new thred.
and post the output of

sudo fdisk -l

and your plans for the insall

VINNY

I can't get to the old mandriva install any more, it's been wipedd. But sda is the first partition on my list, just like the OP. I'll post a pic, with the ext4 partition sized as I want it. Will that do?

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

ok, win partition is a-ok pic may be awhile, but basically sda shows first in the grub install dialog, then sda1. More detail when I get there, hopefully a pic.

[vinnywright]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

naw thats ok ......BUT I think I would go with ext3 thare have ben probs with ext4 for some pepol

if you know what your doing just reformat the partition you'r planing to put Kubuntu on to ext3 and I would sugjest having a sepret /home partition if you have space.

hears my layout

vinny@desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for vinny:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4b36bdea

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 570 4496 31543627+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1 569 4570461 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda3 4497 7073 20699752+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 7074 24321 138544560 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 7074 24183 137436043+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 24184 24321 1108453+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
vinny@desktop:~$

sda1=windblows
sda2=rescu partition from factorey
sda3=/root=20Gig
sda5=/home
sda6=swap=2Gig

but it can all go on 1 if you dont have the space

and if you get a chois do grub not grub2

VINNY

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

naw thats ok ......BUT I think I would go with ext3 thare have ben probs with ext4 for some pepol

if you know what your doing just reformat the partition you'r planing to put Kubuntu on to ext3 and I would sugjest having a sepret /home partition if you have space.

hears my layout

vinny@desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for vinny:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4b36bdea

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 570 4496 31543627+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1 569 4570461 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda3 4497 7073 20699752+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 7074 24321 138544560 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 7074 24183 137436043+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 24184 24321 1108453+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
vinny@desktop:~$

sda1=windblows
sda2=rescu partition from factorey
sda3=/root=20Gig
sda5=/home
sda6=swap=2Gig

but it can all go on 1 if you dont have the space

and if you get a chois do grub not grub2

VINNY

Ok, use ext3

When I boot now, the old Mandriva boot screen comes up ( no idea if it's grub or the older boot manager ), listing windows and the old mandriva choices, no sign of Kubuntu or grub menu.

As I said before, the 9.10 install by default puts grub in partition sdc.

I can't get a picture, its a CRT, but partitions are as follow:

/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ntfs
/dev/sdb
/dev/sdb1 fat32
/dev/sdc
/dev/sdc5 ext4 ( going to change that to ext3 )
/dev/sdc3 swap

Soooo, where does grub go again ?

[vinnywright]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

sda you dont see it becose it wint to sdc5 and you'r still using the one frome manderva!!
VINNY

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

Ok, so again no pics, sorry. After the formatting and sizing of the partitions, a 'Ready to install' screen is presented summarizing the changes that will be made. At the bottom right side of the dialog, there is an 'Advanced...' button. Pressing it displays the 'Advanced Options' dialog.

The first choice in this dialog is where to put the boot loader. There is a check box labeled 'Install Boot Loader' , and a drop down indicating on which device to install the boot loader.

I am presented with the following choices:

/dev/sda
/dev/sda1
/dev/sdb
/dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb-1
/dev/sdc ( which is selected by default)
/dev/sdc5 ( my ext3 partition)

Not very helpful is it?

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

you snuck in vinnywright. So you are saying install grub in SDA? man, they do not make this clear enough.

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

This is for anyone, like I did last night, searching for a solution to the issues they are encountering trying to install the standard 9.10 into an existing dual boot set up. The solution is easy: YOU CANT.

From the Kubuntu Guide, the 'Karmic' page:

Installing Kubuntu

Warning: Kubuntu Desktop edition installer no longer allows a custom installation of GRUB, and it now uses GRUB2, which allows very little customization. DO NOT USE the Karmic Koala Desktop edition if you use a boot partition, use multiple OS (more than 2), or chainload bootloaders. The Kubuntu installer will overwrite your Master Boot Record and you will later be forced to recreate it. This is a serious flaw in Karmic Koala. Use the Ubuntu Server edition instead (and then later add the kubuntu-desktop).

The Kubuntu Server edition installer does not have this problem, and, in general, I recommend its use instead (adding a kubuntu-desktop to the server afterwards).

We'll see how well the server installs now. Wow. Why in the world switch to Grub2

[kevinc]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

Kubuntu have an alternate cd as well as the desktop cd. The alternate cd has some advantages, including choosing before you do anything options such as expert mode, which gives you the maximum control. In that, you can choose ext3, ext4 and many others, GRUB or GRUB2 install to MBR or to any partition that you choose.

Note: if you install GRUB to another partition, then you will need to edit manually your MBR to include the version and number of the Kubuntu Karmic vmlinuz and initrd

A number of Kubuntu users choose the alternate CD instead of the desktop CD because of the control, it is also recommended for updates and computers with lower memory.

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

Kubuntu have an alternate cd as well as the desktop cd. The alternate cd has some advantages, including choosing before you do anything options such as expert mode, which gives you the maximum control. In that, you can choose ext3, ext4 and many others, GRUB or GRUB2 install to MBR or to any partition that you choose.

Note: if you install GRUB to another partition, then you will need to edit manually your MBR to include the version and number of the Kubuntu Karmic vmlinuz and initrd

A number of Kubuntu users choose the alternate CD instead of the desktop CD because of the control, it is also recommended for updates and computers with lower memory.

Good to know. If the Ubuntu server install fails, I'll try this. Grub2 seems broken, I wonder why they chose to use this. This whole release kind of stinks.

Hmm, looks like Ubuntu Server won't replace the Mandriva install either. Man, this is not some exotic request. This is ridiculous. Glad you chimed in kevinc, otherwise I'd have moved on to a different distro...

[kevinc]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

Looking at the screenshots you included in an earlier post, it seems that you chose one of the auto options for partitioning. This is OK if you want to install Kubuntu only or overwrite an existing OS only, but in your case it seems that you want to replace one OS (Mandriva) and keep other partitions,
therefore you should choose the 'manual' option when partitioning. This works quite well, especially in the alternate CD. It will show you all of the partitions available and you choose which partition(s) that you want to use and which you want to leave alone.

To overwrite Mandriva, choose the Mandriva partition as your root partition, choose your swap partition as swap and if you want a separate /home or anything else choose that. Optionally, you can choose to auto mount any other partition and give them a mount point - these will then be included in your /etc/fstab, OR, you can choose to manually mount your other partitions which means that they will not be included in your /etc/fstab and when you want to access them you will need to use the mount command to access them, or, use dolphin and give the su password.

For more information on installing Kubuntu - see http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=197.0

Debian Installation Guide (excellent) http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual

(Kubuntu uses the Debian installer)

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

Looking at the screenshots you included in an earlier post, it seems that you chose one of the auto options for partitioning. This is OK if you want to install Kubuntu only or overwrite an existing OS only, but in your case it seems that you want to replace one OS (Mandriva) and keep other partitions,
therefore you should choose the 'manual' option when partitioning. This works quite well, especially in the alternate CD. It will show you all of the partitions available and you choose which partition(s) that you want to use and which you want to leave alone.

To overwrite Mandriva, choose the Mandriva partition as your root partition, choose your swap partition as swap and if you want a separate /home or anything else choose that. Optionally, you can choose to auto mount any other partition and give them a mount point - these will then be included in your /etc/fstab, OR, you can choose to manually mount your other partitions which means that they will not be included in your /etc/fstab and when you want to access them you will need to use the mount command to access them, or, use dolphin and give the su password.

For more information on installing Kubuntu - see http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=197.0

Debian Installation Guide (excellent) http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual

(Kubuntu uses the Debian installer)

I think at one point I tried this and it did not work well at all. To be honest it's all a blur after 3 days of endless dead ends. GRUB 2 is BROKEN. It never should have been used in a standard release. Stupid stupid decision. I hope whoever did that has seen the error of their ways. But I don't really think so, do you?

[kevinc]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

So far my experience with GRUB2 has been less than satisfactory. I have done several installs in the past few months with the option of GRUB2 or GRUB and only use GRUB - the alternate CD of Kubuntu Karmic (last time I tried it) even gives a warning that GRUB2 is not fully stable, although, interestingly it is the default option so for those who don't use the expert mode or just press 'enter', you get it anyway. Try the install one more time. Read the manual first, make notes of the key points, go slowly step by step and use GRUB.

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

So far my experience with GRUB2 has been less than satisfactory. I have done several installs in the past few months with the option of GRUB2 or GRUB and only use GRUB - the alternate CD of Kubuntu Karmic (last time I tried it) even gives a warning that GRUB2 is not fully stable, although, interestingly it is the default option so for those who don't use the expert mode or just press 'enter', you get it anyway. Try the install one more time. Read the manual first, make notes of the key points, go slowly step by step and use GRUB.

thx. Here's what I did that actually worked:

1. Install Ubuntu Server 8.04 , very stable, robust,etc

2. sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop.

3. upgrade to 9.10.

One try and it worked.

[vinnywright]

Re: Installing Kubuntu Over Another Linux Distribution

hears one for ya @aiiee

not onley did the Kubuntu Karmic-9.10-livecd .ISO I got sunday I think from georgia teck software library (one of the merors from the Kubuntu download page)

not onley would it not allow to install grub to the MBR of the primarey drive with a windows instalation.

I redid the test box with 3 HD's

sda
sda1=swap
sda2=ext3
sda3=ext3
sdb
sdb1=ext3
sdb2=ext3
sdc
sdc1=ext3
sdc2=ext3

all partitions blank and freshley formated with Gparted.

and the Karmic installer wont alow me to do eneything with sda.........and if I set it up on sdb when I get to the sumery page and click that mistereus advanced tab you can onley install grub to the sdb and sdc (all the partitions are shoin in the dropdown box IE sdb,sdb1,sdb2,sdc,&&) I just cant beleave it..................realey nothing elce to say.

VINNY