yet another Ubuntu problem

[lazarus]

So, my daughter's laptop. Dual boot with Ubuntu and Vista. When we downloaded Ubuntu, it partitioned automatically. I think we gave it 20 GB.

Thing is, it won't look at the rest of the HD, so it thinks it's out of space already. Do we need to repartition? How can she tell Ubuntu to look at the rest of the HD?

And if anyone knows why it won't connect to the trendnet router, that'd be great. It sees the network, but it won't connect to it. (Wireless, of course.)

On edit: She's tried mucking about with this, but there's something about administrative function still being with Windows that I don't understand and can't figure out any better than that. Sorry it's not much help.

[Syrinx]

1. is the space that she's trying to read formatted at all?

It sounds like she may have a big chunk of her HD that isn't formatted at all, thus it doesn't really exist as far as Linux can tell. If that is the case, she'll either need to enlarge her Linux partition, or add a new one, with the fdisk command, or a front-end GUI to fdisk.

Or is it that she is unable to access her Windows partition from Linux?

[lazarus]

2. she can't access the Windows partition from Linux

That's it exactly. Most of the HD is in the Windows partition.

[pokerfan]

3. usually it's the other way around

It's Microsoft that refuses to recognize open file formats. I've never had any problem mounting and reading Windows partitions (NTFS, FAT) from Linux. In fact, I often use a Linux thumb-drive to rescue data from a crashing Windows installation.

[Syrinx]

4. can you post the contents of her /etc/fstab file?

You probably need to add an entry to that file.

Or try running System ---> Administration ---> Disk Utility and see what shows up. Does that program recognize the Windows space?

[Syrinx]

5. let me try again

At a command prompt, type:

sudo fdisk -l

That should list your partitions. Do you see one that is listed as "NTFS?" That's your windows partition. Note the name of the device. That's the field in the first column. It will look something like "/dev/sda1."

Decide where you want to access Windows in your linux filesystem. "/media/windows" might be okay to use. Whatever location you choose, make sure such a directory exists.

Then fire up a text editor, and load up "/etc/fstab." Add a line like the following:

/dev/sda1 /media/windows ntfs users,auto,rw,nodev,exec,nosuid 0 0

Change "/dev/sda1" to whichever device name you determined earlier was your windows partition. Replace "/media/windows" with the filesystem location where you wish to access your windows data.

If you want to only read from the windows partition, change "rw" to "ro."

Next time you boot up into Linux, your, well your daughter's Windows files should be available under "/media/windows," or whatever.

To test it without rebooting, issue the "mount" command, with your mount-point, eg. /media/windows, as your only argument.

I hope I got that right. Good luck. :hi:

[lazarus]

6. we'll try that when she gets home from school

thanks!

oh, and RTR!

[RoyGBiv]

7. Question ...

From my reading of your OP, I get the impression that the fundamental problem is that your Ubuntu partition is too small. That is, when you installed Ubuntu, you accepted the default arrangement, and now that you're using it a lot, you need more space.

If that's the case, accessing the windows partition isn't going to solve your problem really because you're not going to want to save data to the windows partition, and you can't install software there.

If I'm correct, what you'll need to do is resize the windows partition, making it smaller, and then resizing the Ubuntu partition, making it bigger. Before getting into the details of how to do that, just let me ask if I'm understanding you correctly. Actually, you might be able to figure that out yourself. You'll be using the Disk Utilities application Syrinx mentioned.

OnEdit: BTW, the last version of Ubuntu (I'm not using 10.04 yet) would automatically mount the windows partition for you. If 10.04 continues that, it should already be there but may be marked as "read only." If I recall correctly, it is mounted at /windows as opposed to /media/windows.

[lazarus]

8. actually, that's exactly right

I'm still working out exactly what's going on, as I'm not the one using the laptop, but you clarified it for me. We need to resize the partitions, and I get conflicting info on how to do that from the internets.

[struggle4progress]

9. First, try to compact the files on the Windows partition

You don't want to resize with some stuff from your Windows installation lost to the new partition. There are some graphic tools that can help you visualize where files are. When I did this, I removed Norton, since it left some junk in the far reaches of the disk. Then use the partition editor gparted. With the GUI, this is pretty easy. Then reinstall Ubuntu. The reinstallation may confuse the bootloader: IIRC several ubuntus listed in the boot-menu may not actually be there, so a little bit of further work may be needed to clean things up

Here's a thread with my experience from last summer, if it helps

How da F! does I git my Windows files more together earlier on my disk?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=242&topic_id=26522

[RoyGBiv]

10. Those plays by plays you did were great ...

That's the kind of thing that has lasting benefits.

[lazarus]

11. so this is embarrassing

I downloaded the GParted iso and burned it to disc. I must be doing this wrong, as it just appears on the disc as an iso file, and her laptop won't boot from it.

Me feel dumb. How, exactly, should I be burning this thing?

[RoyGBiv]

12. You burned it as a data disc ...

You need to burn it as a bootable disc.

What program are you using to burn it?

And don't feel dumb. It's a very common error. I still do it sometimes if I'm not paying attention to the menu option.

[lazarus]

13. Windows 7

It has a way where you can just drag and drop a file into an explorer window and it burns automatically. Apparently that isn't right.

On edit: I went here
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
and it said in Win7 I can right click on the image and select "Burn Image", but that option doesn't come up for me.

:shrug:

[RoyGBiv]

14. ##*!^^!@$$

Windows makes me mad.

Okay, I don't know Windows 7 at all, so I'm not sure what tricks you could use. I'm guessing that feature is not available on whatever version of Windows 7 you have, but it could be something else.

So, I'll suggest a third-party CD/DVD burner.

I think this was the last Windows burning software I used: http://infrarecorder.org/

Free/OpenSource. Just install and burn the image.

[lazarus]

15. found one that works

thanks.

I'll try to figure this out from here, but I'm fairly sure I'll be back.

[lazarus]

16. damned if I know what to do now

Okay, we got GParted to work. Got to the graphical interface, looking at the HDD:

Partition - System File - Label - Size - Used - Unused - Flags
Unallocated - Unallocated - 1.00 MiB
/dev/sda1 - NTFS - Toshiba System Volume - 1.56 GiB - 500.25 MiB - 999.75MiB
/dev/sda2 - NTFS - SQ004992V01 - 218.75 GiB - --- - --- - Boot
/dev/sda3 - NTFS - HDDRECOVERY - 12.67 GiB - 6.99 GiB - 5.67 GiB - Hidden

Sda1 and sda3 have a little teal square before the System File entry. Sda2 has a yellow caution triangle.

I can't make heads or tails of this, it looks nothing like the tutorials I've seen. Should we wipe the HDD and just install Ubuntu new? If so, how do we do it?

[RoyGBiv]

17. Is there not an Ubuntu partition?

What that shows is that your hard drive is partitioned into three sections. I'm not sure what's on the system volume ... some Toshiba specific stuff apparently. The second partition (sda2) is your Windows partition. The third one is the recovery partition, which you can use to restore the computer to its factory state.

The "caution" sign is there to warn you that there's a bootable operating system there and that re-sizing it could potentially cause problems. Windows doesn't like being resized, and you usually have to run chkdsk /f on it after a resize to "fix" it.

From my perspective, the simplest thing to do if you're wanting to install Ubuntu and not keep Windows also is to delete sda2 and then repartition it into two partitions, one about 20GB, the other the remainder, and install Ubuntu on the 20GB partition and mount /home on the other one you created. Doing it this way means that if you reinstall Ubuntu at some point or install a new version or whatever, you don't have to worry about your user data. You'd just install the new OS over the old one on the 20GB partition.

If you want to keep Windows, you need to resize sda2. (Before doing so, make sure you've defragged the drive so that the data isn't spread out over the drive.) What you'll do is make the Windows partition smaller, which will leave you with unallocated space you can then use to create a new partition for Ubuntu. Again, it's preferable that you make two partitions for Ubuntu, one for the system, the other to mount /home where your user files are stored.

Do not mess with sda3. If it all goes to crap, as long as that is there, you can restore the machine as it was when you first got it.

I've kinda lost track of what you're trying to accomplish overall and what you've done already, so consider that before acting.

[lazarus]

18. okay

I think we're just going to dump Windows at this point. The only thing she would ever use it for is Skype, and I think we've found a way to make that work in Ubuntu.

There is no Ubuntu partition, weirdly enough. :shrug:

We'll stay away from sda3, I promise.

Thanks for all the help!

Oh, one other thought, how does she set the /home partition thingy?

[RoyGBiv]

19. It's done through the Ubuntu installer ...

I can't remember what Ubuntu defaults to when it suggests your partitions, so I'm gonna go install it in a virtual machine and find out.

Suffice to say it's done at the point the installer recommends your partitions. Some distros do this automatically, but I can't remember if Ubuntu is one of them.

[RoyGBiv]

20. Specify Paritions Manually

You can do all this with the Ubuntu installer since you're deleting Windows.

When you get to that section, you'll be given a default option, which will be weird since the hard drive is full with partitions. Below that is the Specify Partitions Manually (advanced) option. Click that and proceed.



The next screen will show you your current layout. You'll have to begin by deleting sda2. You'll get warnings, dire predictions about the end of the universe, and a suggestion you go to confession. This is your second-to-last chance to change your mind about deleting Windows. Again, don't bother the other two partions.

Yours will look differently than this. This is what it would look like with a clean drive.

After deleting the sda2 partition, you'll have to highlight the free space, and then add a partition by clicking the add button.



First create your root partition. Make it around 20 - 25 GB, which is more than you need, but just to be safe.



You'll notice a field that says "mount point." Click on that, and you'll get some options. You want the root partition mounted at / as so:



You'll also need to create a SWAP partition. This can be small. A good rule of thumb is double your physical memory, so if you have 2GB, make your swab 4 GB. (In this example, I just made it 1MB for simplicity. I don't suggest actually making it that small.) Instead of a "mount point," here you'll click on "Use as" and select "swap area."



Now create your /home partition using what's left of the free space. Select the "mount point" and choose "/home"



When you're done, you'll have something that looks similar to this, only with your other two partitions intact.



You haven't actually made physical changes to your hard drive yet, so this is your last chance to back out. Once you've decided to take the plunge, click forward and continue with the install.

[lazarus]

21. I hate to say this

because you went to a lot of work to make that great post, but she decided to wipe the hard drive and use an Ubuntu CD I had burned for her. She ran off to her room to do all of this, so I have no idea if she created all these partitions.

I'm sure we'll be fixing that problem next.

:hide:

[RoyGBiv]

22. Nah, that makes me happy actually ...

... best way to learn is just to blow it up and then try to rebuild it.

And it's reference if anyone else needs it in the future.