Can't Install Ubuntu.....

[xaccessxdeniedx]

After testing the Live CD I had burned I decided to install Ubuntu on a seperate partition. I wiped the hard drive and installed Windows XP (I use this for work and a back up until I become familiar with Linux) on a 4 GB partition (Primary and with bootable flagged). I also made a 4 GB partition for my Linux install (logical and tried install with bottable flag on and off). I also created a 300 MB swap file. I arrowed down to the "Install the Base System (or something to that effect)" and hit enter to start the OS install. After a few secs of the install three red boxes pop up. The first says that there was an install error and that the install failed. The second just repeated the same thing the first one said but refered me to a boot log it had written the error to (I did check for the log once I booted up in Windows but it did not appear there). The third was just a notification stating it was returning me to the main screen. I ran this four or five time and got the same result. I also ran the check disk integrity and that came back as good. What's the deal? Did I do something wrong on not do something? Hope this is something someone has run across before. Thanks in advance.

[je_fro]

So you burned a ubuntu iso and booted it, and went through the install process to get an error? (Sorry, just making sure)
Was your partition layout like:
hda1(primary) 4G winxp
hda2(logical) 4G ubuntu /
hda3(logical) 300MB swap
?
can you try making all 3 primary partitions?

[xaccessxdeniedx]

Yes you are correct. My current set up is:
4 GB Win XP (Primary) (Boot Flag)
4 GB Ubuntu (Logical) (No Boot Flag)
300 MB Swap File (Logical) (No Boot Flag)
20 GB Ubuntu Data Partition (Logical) (No Boot Flag)
140 GB Win XP Data Partition (Logical) (No Boot Flag)

Win XP installed clean and I can write to both its system and data partitions. I can also read the linux system and data partitions through Win XP due to using FAT 32 on the Ubuntu partitions.

I went to www.ubuntu.com and downloaded the distro from one of the sites it has the houses the OS. The Live CD worked great that I downloaded and burned. The actual install iso that I downloaded and burned seemsed to work fine until I tried installing. I'm just wondering if it sounds like a bad version (i.e. contains some sort of bad file or malicious wares) or if I am just doing something wrong. I will try making the Ubuntu system partition and the Swap File primary and see what happens. Any other suggestions or questions? Thanks all.

[hard candy]

First, you want any partition that has an OS installed on it to have the boot flag set.
Second, you have the ability to use 3 primary partitions before you have to use a logical partition. Primary partitions are limited to 4, and when you start using logical partitions, the limit on primary partitions has to be 3, the 4th is used to create the logical partitions.
Here is how I would do it:
partition 1- WinXP, primary and bootable
partition 2 - Ubuntu, primary and bootable
partition 3- Swap, primary, not bootable
partition 5- Ubuntu data, logical, not bootable
partition 6- WinXp data, logical, not bootable.
And I may be reading this wrong in your post, the partition that Ubuntu is installed on, partition 2, cannot be FAT32. It has to be a linux filesystem, numer 83 in fdisk. Then when you install Ubuntu, you can choose to format it as ext3 or reiserfs.
The Ubuntu data partition can be FAT32, but this partition can only be used for files that are compatable with FAT32. I would suggest using another partition as a "shared partition" with the FAT32, i.e partition 7- data, FAT32, non bootable. Keep the Ubuntu data partition as a unix type filesystem, ext3 or reiserfs.

[IsaacKuo]

First, you want any partition that has an OS installed on it to have the boot flag set.

Assuming the Ubuntu partitioner is like the Debian partitioner (a good assumption), then you can only have the boot flag set on one partition. That had better be your Windows partition, or Windows will have a hissy fit!

My experience with dual booting has told me one thing--do NOT mess with the boot flag. Ever! It'll screw up your Windows install even if you try and undo the change. If you mess with the boot flag at all, then you'll have to repair your Windows install.

The only time I ever mess with the boot flag is when I'm doing a pure Linux install. You need to have a boot partition.

Second, you have the ability to use 3 primary partitions before you have to use a logical partition. Primary partitions are limited to 4, and when you start using logical partitions, the limit on primary partitions has to be 3, the 4th is used to create the logical partitions.

I always make exactly one primary partition (hda1), and put all other partitions in an extended partition. Whenever I had multiple primary partitions, GRUB wouldn't work right.

[xaccessxdeniedx]

"Assuming the Ubuntu partitioner is like the Debian partitioner (a good assumption), then you can only have the boot flag set on one partition."
This is true. I can only set the boot flag on one of the partitions.

[IsaacKuo]

BTW, here's how I'd partition it:

hda1 - primary - ntfs - Windows XP (about 4 gigs)
hda5 - extended - FAT32 - big main data partition (as big as will fit)
hda6 - extended - ext3 - Linux OS partition (3-4 gigs)
hda7 - extended - linuxswap - swap partition (.5 gigs)

[xaccessxdeniedx]

Ok, I got it up and running now. I used the guidd partioning option and looked at what it did. It put the partition as a primary (Linux System) as a primary and dumped the FAT 32 on the system partition but everything else was correct. So now it installed without a problem and I just finished downloading updates. When I reinstall everything again (I want 2000 instead of XP but couldn't get my boot disk to work do to really old disks) I will probably set my hard drive up like you did IsaacKuo. So far so good! Thanks for all the help!

[je_fro]

Why go straight to logical partitions without using up all your primary partitions first?
i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4(logical), 5, 6...

[IsaacKuo]

Because GRUB wouldn't work. I started off with Knoppix using LILO, and at that time I just used primary partitions. LILO worked just fine.

When I switched to Debian and Mepis, which use GRUB by default, this no longer worked. GRUB worked just fine when /boot was in either hda1 or a logical partition...but it simply couldn't access any other primary partition.

This was extremely frustrating!

Since then, I've always used exactly one primary partition. I've never had any issues with GRUB or anything else.