Linux: Ubuntu 8.04 Released today

[directhex]

the "desktop" cd loads a working desktop, with a clicky gui installer (ubiquity) on the desktop

the "alternative" cd loads into a text-mode installer (debian-installer)

if you're being dumped into a busybox shell, it usually means the kernel has failed to find the drive to boot from, in my experience. this is bad. check your bios for settings which attempt to pretend nothing's changed since 2001 for XP's benefit - "legacy" or "emulation" settings, and change them. especially where disk controllers are involved

[Fraz]

OK - I'll have a flick through the BIOS and then I'll give that a go again with the normal install CD. Just waiting for the alternate install CD to finish burning at the moment.

[Fraz]

OK... so the only thing that is remotely "emulated" in my BIOS is that my disk controller is set to IDE mode rather than AHCI. I tried it with AHCI enabled and it liked it even less.

You're right though, it is a problem finding the disk. The error is along the lines of:

ata1.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5)

The alternate installer has exactly the same problem, unsurprisingly.

[Fraz]

In fact, this is pretty much a perfect description of the problem I'm having:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/218617

[directhex]

In fact, this is pretty much a perfect description of the problem I'm having:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/218617

that bug is marked as a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...22/+bug/153702 - there seem to be two fixes:

1) in the BIOS, set the disk to "RAID" mode (assuming it;s in your BIOS, of course), rather than IDE or AHCI

2) add the option "all_genetic_ide" to your boot settings. i can't remember off the top of my head how to sort it when booting from the CD (which uses a boot loader called isolinux), but if you can work out how and get a system installed, the following should (no promises) fix it "permanently":

a) on the grub screen, press E to edit the option, select the options line (which should start with "kernel" and end with "splash"), and press E again to edit that line

b) type "all_generic_ide" and hit enter, then B to boot your freshly edited entry

c) from the desktop, hit alt-f2 to get a run box up, and type "gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst". this should allow you to edit the list of entries, so you don't need to do it every time

d) scroll to the line starting "# defoptions =" and add "all_generic_ide" to the end

e) save, quit, hit alt-f2 again, and run "gksudo update-grub"

again, no promises. feel free to say "bugger this" and give up.

[Fraz]

Seriously underwhelmed with this.

I added a "generic.all_generic_ide=1" option to the install options list, after looking through the help files in the install menu, and it finally recognised my disk and managed to get to the install process proper. I told it to use the unpartitioned free space on my disk and it it set up an ext3 and swap partition. All good.

Great! I thought. It's working!

Then it got to 90% on the install progress bar, and locked up on "Configuring Hardware..."

I left it for about half an hour, and it got no further.

I think I'll be steering clear of Ubuntu. I might try SLC4 instead... as I'm more used to it anyway. I figured Ubuntu would be the easiest option.

Thanks for your help anyway, DirectHex

[pp05]

I have an empty partition (D drive).

Am unsure whether to install via wubi from within windows or from ubuntu installation on reboot. I have XP on C drive, will I also have dual boot menu? Has it sat nicely without problems for others?

[aidanjt]

Try wubi first, then if you want to commit, then do a proper install. At least that way you can decide if it does what you need it to do. I find the above error pretty odd though, ACHI should work all the time.

[Fraz]

Try wubi first, then if you want to commit, then do a proper install. At least that way you can decide if it does what you need it to do. I find the above error pretty odd though, ACHI should work all the time.

Believe me, I find it pretty odd too!

[pp05]

Try wubi first, then if you want to commit, then do a proper install. At least that way you can decide if it does what you need it to do. I find the above error pretty odd though, ACHI should work all the time.

I did via wubi, selecting a empty drive and it rebooted. On boot menu there were 3 items. XP, 'an unspecified OS' and ubuntu. I select ubuntu and goes through wizard to set time up and then partition utility throws an error 10 or something. After that it asks username etc.. but i haven't bothered yet.. I uninstalled it from control panel in windows and i still get dual boot menu xp and unspecified..

[Apex]

Played with the beta but it broke and ever since then i've not managed to get to to work right, even taking it off completely and putting the new version on i now get it

Where trying to install samba / ntp or any other service fails to install with no error and this is from a fresh install

Where it picks up that i have ATI x1950pro card in the rig it use to say that it found it and that the drivers where not in use and not installed thus allowing me to install and use them, now from a install it says installed but not in use and under no circumstances will it allow me to turn the hw on.

The network when set to static would require me to sudo ifconfig up at every boot to get it to work.
Setting a dns server would default to the 2nd box down in the add dns server and soon has you typed it in and pressed enter / ok would disappear ( this vexed me for the best part of a day )- you had to manually click on the first line in add dns server and type the number in and then it would stick and this was both in the beta and the final LTS version

This plus other odd issue with apps just failing to install / run as made me take it off completely.

It also for reasons unknown to me made the primary windows os boot like a snail, suspect this was down to mft fragmentation.

I've no taken it back off but there's a niggle in the back of my head that the way wubi installs this into the windows system that some how it still retaining the old settings.

I don't know enough about the way it achives the install in side of windows to try and track and see if this is the case.

It looks good but for me am going to stick with XP.

[Apex]

I did via wubi, selecting a empty drive and it rebooted. On boot menu there were 3 items. XP, 'an unspecified OS' and ubuntu. I select ubuntu and goes through wizard to set time up and then partition utility throws an error 10 or something. After that it asks username etc.. but i haven't bothered yet.. I uninstalled it from control panel in windows and i still get dual boot menu xp and unspecified..

Check the boot.ini file in the root of C:\ and paste the details here if you wish

[Apex]

the "desktop" cd loads a working desktop, with a clicky gui installer (ubiquity) on the desktop

the "alternative" cd loads into a text-mode installer (debian-installer)

if you're being dumped into a busybox shell, it usually means the kernel has failed to find the drive to boot from, in my experience. this is bad. check your bios for settings which attempt to pretend nothing's changed since 2001 for XP's benefit - "legacy" or "emulation" settings, and change them. especially where disk controllers are involved

That was the other issue i had, a fresh install onto a new hdd on the HP laptop would result in being dumped into the busybox shell and that was it...

[Jay]

going to set this up in a VM see what its like.