Posted on Thursday 13th of April 2006 at 17:57 in Linux

How to NOT install Linux Ubuntu (Breezy Badger)

This story comes from the bottom of my heart and is an embarracing tale of how dual booting this popular Linux distro can turn into 2 days of pure agony.

Firstly, the scene. Breezy Badger is out and the world revels in it's ease of use, quickly becoming popular and more approachable for non-Linuxheads. Excellent says I, I've always wanted to play with Linux in a proper standalone environment, furthermore, the 64bit distro is out meaning I can unleash this chip in full glory. The 64Bit Ubuntu CD is downloaded (none of this Live CD stuff for me!) and burnt to CD.

After a brief refreshing of Linux-XP dual boot installation procedure I feel I have this down:
- Use the Linux partition manager to make the respective partitions
- Install Linux
- Install the Grub Boot loader
- DONE

How wrong I was (or so it seems). Linux installs fine onto my system SATA drive - "do you wish to install the Grub Boot Loader?" - yes please. Grub installs, computer requires a restart... and that was the last time I saw my precious XP. On boot i'm met with a friendly "Boot sector error". Nadgers. Linux won't boot, nor will XP. Double nadgers.

I format the Linux off the machine - still no boot. I attempt all manner of XP recovery, reloading the boot sector, and even a repair install (which incidentily never finished - it got stuck and wouldn't move). I concede defeat (for the moment) and install a fresh XP on the Linux partition - at least this way I can investigate the problem from a comfortable environment. XP installs (with the major crime that the only entertainment I had at this point was 3 episodes of Malcolm in the Middle I had on my laptop - as the trusty lappy decided TODAY was the day it would stop playing DVD's). So on my second watchthrough of each episode I'm in my fresh XP install and attempting to fix my original install.

No level of changing the boot.ini helped, the rig would only ever boot into this XP. Arses. With my system operational I copied my entire C: drive onto my H:/ (a 300gb drive I use for the FTP) to ensure that whatever incompetence I have cannot result in data loss from this point forward. Back into format land. Original XP - deleted. The new fresh XP - deleted. New fresh XP (install #2) goes on, happily, works.

THIS is the moment I should take note of past experiences and admit defeat. No. I MUST get Linux working. So (sigh) I return to the original plan of installing Ubuntu in dual boot. Guess what? The same thing happens again (fairly obviously) which leaves me with the same situation as before. Two formats and XP install #3 later and i'm back in Windows and feeling a tad disgruntled. Fortunately the last time I was in a working O/S I moved more Malcolm in the Middle over to the laptop.

Amazingly, I decide to try something different... install Linux with a DIFFERENT boot loader. Reflecting on this makes me look like an absolute idiot but you must understand - I NEEDED to get this done once the task was started. So back into Linux install... different boot loader, same result. Format Linux. Format XP. Install XP (installation #4) and i'm unhappy. Not only have I lost my original XP installation (albeit backed up on another drive) but Linux is still not installed. [Sigh].

There is a lesson to be learnt from this - and I am aware that it CANNOT be this difficult to dual boot Linux, the lessons are:
- make sure you are NOT me when doing this
- ensure you have stuff backed up incase it does go explosive on you

Now, take heed and be safe, secure and less incompetant than me.

 

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