[plug] ubuntu install on netbook fails to create file system

[Robert Parker]

On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 6:17 AM, Tim White <weirdit at gmail.com> wrote:

> (The following is from wolfbite, it got caught in the spam filter. Tim)
> ----
>
> From experience I've found different os & distros mess with the partitions
> not exactly how I like.
>
> I use a system rescue disk and use gparted to adjust partitions,
> it gives consistency to me and does the partitions the way I like
>

gparted comes on the Ubuntu install dvd, certainly on 11.10 and it just
works. Capable of moving and shrinking existing paritions. And it handles
the new drives which come built with 4 k sectors instead of the old 512 b
size. So it automatically aligns your partitions on 4 k boundaries unlike
fdisk etc. Fail to do that right and you degrade your write performance
radically. Not really relevant to the OP I guess.



> then just run the distro and install into prefered partitions
>
> considering I dual boot with windows and constatly messing with distros on
> other partitions, this has been the SAFEST way for years now :)
>
> I ALSO only use 1 partition per distro (instead of seperate home, etc) I
> can still boot into old distro while messing with new distro and can drag
> anything from old to new.
>

I've been using separate and common /home for a few years now, mostly with
Mint, Ubuntu but also with Salix, a Slackware derivative without any ill
effect save one. When I go between 32 bit Ubuntu and 64bit Ubuntu or Mint,
Googles Chromium browser loses my tabs. Only problem.

Bob


> Just my 2 cents
>
> also I have used the wabi from windows xp & 7, works great. but prefer the
> cd method better (just handy if no cd :)
>
>
>
>
> On 04/01/12 15:22, Gavin Chester wrote:
>
>> Hi, I've got hold of an older acer aspire netbook with 160gb harddrive
>> and winxp. I successfully shrunk the xp partition, preserving the
>> rescue partition, and installed ubuntu 10.10 netbook release. I had to
>> use a bootable thumbdrive for this, of course. Everything worked just
>> peachy.
>>
>> In the process of that first install, I elected to encrypt the /home
>> on an extended partition. I fear this may be the root of the problem.
>>
>> Now I'm trying to repeat the process by upgrading with ubuntu 11.10
>> and it balks at the stage of writing the file structure, saying that
>> it is unable to create the ext4fs on the root partition. I have tried
>> restructuring the partition table differently, and even tried ext3fs,
>> but always borks at the same point. And, now that the partition table
>> has been altered (without a filesystem written) grub complains that it
>> can't find a file system.
>>
>> btw: the installation media is fine - I've used it for an install on
>> another netbook the same day.
>>
>> Any clue whether the original encrypted partition is the cause of the
>> problem, and if so how to overcome it?
>>
>> Gavin
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>>
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