[SOLVED] dual boot ubuntu/windows ME

sluggo123 · 05-07-2007, 08:42 PM

All the instructions from Ubunto talk about dual booting with XP or Vista. I have an older machine with Windows ME already on it. I would like to install Ubuntu as a dual boot. I have a CD that I downloaded as an ISO and then recorded a cd from that and works up to the point of starting the partitioning. Nothing seems to work, the instructions said use Manual when I came to the partitioning page. Cannot get anything to open. Stuck on page 4 of instructions. Just point me to where I need to look.
Thanks,
sluggo123

**Bartender** · 05-08-2007, 08:17 AM

sluggo -
Did you run the Check CD for Errors" option at the very first window on the LiveCD? First thing I'd do is check the CD for errors. You did burn it slowly, didn't you? 4X or less?

As far as software goes, Me would be a better choice for dual-boot than XP or Vista because it's still FAT32 which is more compatible with Linux than NTFS.
As far as hardware goes, if you've got less than 256 RAM you'll have problems. But since you got the LiveCD to run, maybe you're OK.

Partitioning is certainly the hardest/scariest part of the installation. First off, let me tell you this - you can dink around with the partitioner and still abort the installation routine as long as you didn't have the CD make or change any partitions.

It sounds like you have broadband. if so, download GPLCD. Process is same as making a Linux CD. Download the .iso, convert to a bootable CD, then run from your optical drive. GPLCD is the full-featured version of the scaled-down partitioner inside the Ubuntu CD and it just works better.

Even if you don't do anything, at least look at the partitions you have and try to get a feel for how Linux identifies them. hda1 instead of "C Drive" etc.

Anyway, you don't have to go with Manual partition. If you're sure you've got some free space on the drive (defrag it several times) then go into the guided partitioning option and let Ubuntu decide how to do it. Seems like they change the wording every time - on Dapper it was "resize the partition", then on the next release the CD said "Create new partition from largest free space", I don't know the wording this time

Make sure you have backed up your personal data, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to think hard about what you would do if you wiped out the Windows install by mistake. It happens. Can you rebuild everything?

The Ubuntu partitioner is pretty good, and they try to make it as fool-proof as possible. I think it's usually operator error - the person doesn't understand that hda1 is the Windows partition, etc.

Oh, yeah, another thing to try if you can't get into the partitioner when trying to install is abort. Start the PC again. Let the LiveCD bring up the desktop, then plug in a USB thumb drive. See that it is recognized and an icon comes up on the desktop. Then go to System>Administration>Gnome Partitioning Tool (or Gnome Partitioner or something similar) and try to get a look at your partitions that way. Take a screenshot (Applications>Accessories>Screenshot) and save it to the thumb drive. Then get out, come back to the forum, attach the screenshot. I'd like to see what you have.
EDIT: I attached a screenshot from a LiveCD so you can see what it oughta look like. Of course, yours won't be identical, but similar.

sluggo123 · 05-10-2007, 07:11 AM

Bartender,
I see I have a lot of problems. I will download the partitioning software recommended. I never get a screen that looks like your screen shot. I am will redo the CD and burn it at a slow speed this time. I never get anything about check disk for errors. Perhaps this comes up following the burn. Missed it. If it does come up when I burn a CD from the ISO I will check it. I do have hi speed cable. Nice. I ordered the free CD, but I was told it could take up to 10 weeks to get here. I have printed out your info and will digest it slowly. However, I have to do one thing first, my fish pond is running out of oxygen as the water pump is barely running. I am headed for Pets Mart now to get another pump and start two filters to running. Should be back here with more info at least by 2PM CDS (USA)about 6 hours from now.
Ed (sluggo)

**Bartender** · 05-10-2007, 07:31 AM

The "Check CD For Errors" option I refer to comes up on a functional LiveCD.

It would go like this: You set your PC to boot from the optical drive, then put the LiveCD in your optical drive and restart the PC or restart the PC and slip the LiveCD in before it gets to starting up Windows. Either way. Some people's PC's are set to "Quick Boot" and you may not have enuf time to get the disc in. Mine goes thru a memory check and I can usually get the disc in fast enuf.
Your PC sees a bootable disc and you hear the optical drive rev up. You may get some text and whatnot, but the first screen you should see will give you choices -
"Start or Install Linux"
"Check Disc for Errors"
"Run memtest"
"Start in Safe Graphics Mode"
There will be several choices. Run the "Check Disc for Errors" option and the CD will check itself. This isn't 100%. Some folks have reported problems with discs that checked out. But it's certainly a good indicator.

The stand-alone partitioner I suggested may not be necessary. But if you have broadband and a few good-quality CD's laying around what the heck. It's a good learning experience to look at your HDD thru an open-source lens even if you don't do any partitioning. However, I'm not suggesting GPLCD as a way to partition your HDD even though the LiveCD doesn't work. The LiveCD should work to at least look at your partitions if not make them, and if it can't look at your partitions I'd try burning it again.

If you burned the LiveCD at full-speed instead of 4X or less that's the first thing I'd suspect. Check your Linux download md5 against the md5 that's available at the download website. If the download is good then you can just burn again from the same download. I can get away with 8X on a 3GHz P4 but 8X is kinda pushing it. If you've never checked md5's before I'd suggest md5summer. It's a pretty easy md5 checker.

This website seems like a pretty good dual-boot guide

EDIT: I just noticed something in the screenshot I attached. See the "USB20FD" icon in the upper left corner behind the "GParted" window? That's the icon I got when I plugged in my USB thumb drive. As long as the thumb drive is recognized, it's pretty easy to take a screenshot and save to the drive. If you were going to get out of the LiveCD and boot right back to Windows you could just leave it plugged in. If you want to remove it before getting out of the LiveCD, right-click on the icon and click "Eject". Wait a sec or two. Linux writes data to the drive after you click "Eject" so you don't want to be too hasty.

sluggo123 · 05-10-2007, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bartender

sluggo -
Did you run the Check CD for Errors" option at the very first window on the LiveCD? First thing I'd do is check the CD for errors. You did burn it slowly, didn't you? 4X or less?

"check for errors" No Errors

As far as software goes, Me would be a better choice for dual-boot than XP or Vista because it's still FAT32 which is more compatible with Linux than NTFS.
As far as hardware goes, if you've got less than 256 RAM you'll have problems. But since you got the LiveCD to run, maybe you're OK.

RAM 512

Partitioning is certainly the hardest/scariest part of the installation. First off, let me tell you this - you can dink around with the partitioner and still abort the installation routine as long as you didn't have the CD make or change any partitions.

"OK I did dink around"

It sounds like you have broadband. if so, download GPLCD. Process is same as making a Linux CD. Download the .iso, convert to a bootable CD, then run from your optical drive. GPLCD is the full-featured version of the scaled-down partitioner inside the Ubuntu CD and it just works better.

I will download this since I could not see anything, just one big hd. Supposed to be 80 gigabytes. Less than 9 for windows and the other 68 gig for ubuntu.

Even if you don't do anything, at least look at the partitions you have and try to get a feel for how Linux identifies them. hda1 instead of "C Drive" etc.

Could see no partitions at all, see attachment and see if you see any.

Anyway, you don't have to go with Manual partition. If you're sure you've got some free space on the drive (defrag it several times) then go into the guided partitioning option and let Ubuntu decide how to do it. Seems like they change the wording every time - on Dapper it was "resize the partition", then on the next release the CD said "Create new partition from largest free space", I don't know the wording this time

The partition is it was going to create was hda

Make sure you have backed up your personal data, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to think hard about what you would do if you wiped out the Windows install by mistake. It happens. Can you rebuild everything?

Yes except for what I forgot to back up :-)

The Ubuntu partitioner is pretty good, and they try to make it as fool-proof as possible. I think it's usually operator error - the person doesn't understand that hda1 is the Windows partition, etc.

I did not see any of the partitions. When I got further along it said the only partitions it would create was the hda and the hda swap

Oh, yeah, another thing to try if you can't get into the partitioner when trying to install is abort. Start the PC again. Let the LiveCD bring up the desktop, then plug in a USB thumb drive. See that it is recognized and an icon comes up on the desktop. Then go to System>Administration>Gnome Partitioning Tool (or Gnome Partitioner or something similar) and try to get a look at your partitions that way. Take a screenshot (Applications>Accessories>Screenshot) and save it to the thumb drive. Then get out, come back to the forum, attach the screenshot. I'd like to see what you have.
EDIT: I attached a screenshot from a LiveCD so you can see what it oughta look like. Of course, yours won't be identical, but similar.

**Bartender** · 05-11-2007, 05:45 AM

Well, sluggo, I think we're making progress.
Maybe.
I had to put my reading glasses on to read the fine print on your screenshot (good job, by the way, getting one) and I still wasn't sure I got all the details.

In the gray area that should be a map of your HDD, it says "76.33 GB unallocated". Under that, it says "Maxtor 5819, 76.33 GiB, dev/hda" All of that indicates a screenshot of a Maxtor 80GB HDD. You'll never see the full 80GB, by the way, so don't worry about that part.

It sure looks like the HDD is completely blank, at least according to GParted. No operating system or formatting at all.

Oh, hey, sorry, I sent you a link for dual-booting Vista. I forgot you have (well, had) ME.

I don't know what went wrong but it appears that the HDD has been wiped clean. The Ubuntu LiveCD deleted all data. It didn't re-format to ext3, the Linux file system format. Do you want to re-install ME and try again? If you have your original ME CD and broadband it shouldn't take too long to re-install, find latest drivers for your components, and update it. Download anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware first, and load those programs before going online.

This isn't necessary, but it's something you might want to think about...when I built a dual-boot from scratch, I had Windows make a second partition during the process of installing it. Then, when I put in the Ubuntu LiveCD, the partition was already there. I just pointed Ubuntu at that blank chunk of HDD and it did its thing. That was with Ubuntu 5.10, so the details wouldn't be very helpful to you.

Or do you want to install Ubuntu and take it out for a spin?

Oh, yeah, it's good that you have 512 RAM.

sluggo123 · 05-11-2007, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bartender

Well, sluggo, I think we're making progress.
Maybe.
I had to put my reading glasses on to read the fine print on your screenshot (good job, by the way, getting one) and I still wasn't sure I got all the details.

In the gray area that should be a map of your HDD, it says "76.33 GB unallocated". Under that, it says "Maxtor 5819, 76.33 GiB, dev/hda" All of that indicates a screenshot of a Maxtor 80GB HDD. You'll never see the full 80GB, by the way, so don't worry about that part.

It sure looks like the HDD is completely blank, at least according to GParted. No operating system or formatting at all.

Oh, hey, sorry, I sent you a link for dual-booting Vista. I forgot you have (well, had) ME.

I don't know what went wrong but it appears that the HDD has been wiped clean. The Ubuntu LiveCD deleted all data. It didn't re-format to ext3, the Linux file system format. Do you want to re-install ME and try again? If you have your original ME CD and broadband it shouldn't take too long to re-install, find latest drivers for your components, and update it. Download anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware first, and load those programs before going online.

This isn't necessary, but it's something you might want to think about...when I built a dual-boot from scratch, I had Windows make a second partition during the process of installing it. Then, when I put in the Ubuntu LiveCD, the partition was already there. I just pointed Ubuntu at that blank chunk of HDD and it did its thing. That was with Ubuntu 5.10, so the details wouldn't be very helpful to you.

Or do you want to install Ubuntu and take it out for a spin?

Oh, yeah, it's good that you have 512 RAM.

sluggo123 · 05-11-2007, 09:29 AM

Originally Posted by Bartender
Well, sluggo, I think we're making progress.
Maybe.
I had to put my reading glasses on to read the fine print on your screenshot (good job, by the way, getting one) and I still wasn't sure I got all the details.

"Me too, I do not know why the letters are so small. I think it maybe coming up 1024x768 or larger. I will make it 800x600 in ME and see if that makes a difference. Oh yes I still have the Complete ME installed and all its programs, images, etc., I just went over and checked it. "

In the gray area that should be a map of your HDD, it says "76.33 GB unallocated". Under that, it says "Maxtor 5819, 76.33 GiB, dev/hda" All of that indicates a screenshot of a Maxtor 80GB HDD. You'll never see the full 80GB, by the way, so don't worry about that part.

"yes I understand that, it looks as if it adds up to about 78 G. I checked it by bringing up ME and checked the C HDD and it said 8.7g was used and the rest blank. "

It sure looks like the HDD is completely blank, at least according to GParted. No operating system or formatting at all.

"That is what I thought when I saw the Ubuntu desktop and the HDD figures as I played with the installation. Scared me, so I checked immediately by removing the LiveCD and rebooting the computer and would you believe everything is there. In fact I just checked again a few minutes ago and yep it is all there SO, my question is why is Ubuntu not showing this?"

Oh, hey, sorry, I sent you a link for dual-booting Vista. I forgot you have (well, had) ME.

"Do you have a link for dual booting using ME?"

I don't know what went wrong but it appears that the HDD has been wiped clean. The Ubuntu LiveCD deleted all data. It didn't re-format to ext3, the Linux file system format. Do you want to re-install ME and try again? If you have your original ME CD and broadband it shouldn't take too long to re-install, find latest drivers for your components, and update it. Download anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware first, and load those programs before going online.

"As I said no data was deleted, just does not show up in the Ubuntu partitioner. Again why? What is your thoughts here?"

This isn't necessary, but it's something you might want to think about...when I built a dual-boot from scratch, I had Windows make a second partition during the process of installing it. Then, when I put in the Ubuntu LiveCD, the partition was already there. I just pointed Ubuntu at that blank chunk of HDD and it did its thing. That was with Ubuntu 5.10, so the details wouldn't be very helpful to you.

Or do you want to install Ubuntu and take it out for a spin?

"If it had wiped out the disk I would just go ahead and install Ubuntu but it appears that I can still, Maybe, dual boot. I am not sure what is going on."

Oh, yeah, it's good that you have 512 RAM.

sluggo123 · 05-11-2007, 11:06 AM

I loaded Ubuntu again and looked at the file browser, under places, it shows Ubuntu, Desk top, File System, floppy drive (unmounted) Disk and HP_Pavilion.
Now as I go down through those, when I get to disk, it is blank, but when I go to HP_Pavilion, which is the name of C drive it shows all my programs etc. I think somehow we need to get rid of Disk and Make HP_ Pavilion the Disk. The partitioner is looking at the wrong disks. And I found how to make my screen 800x600 and now every thing looks normal size.

~~PureEvilDan~~ · 05-11-2007, 11:57 AM

If disk is free space, you can install Ubuntu to that, but I'm not sure if HP has some weird system where it stores all the backup data to a weird hard drive partition, instead of sending out CD's.

**Bartender** · 05-11-2007, 05:19 PM

Hey, Dan, I hope you're dropping in on this thread because I value your insight -

sluggo, I gotta go have dinner with the mother-in-law so I can't write as much as I would like. It is very weird that the Ubuntu partitioner is not seeing ME. It should see a partition labeled "hda1" or similar, and identified as "vfat".

Do you have one HDD or two?

~~PureEvilDan~~ · 05-11-2007, 07:42 PM

In terminal can you please do:

fdisk -l (thats an L)

That way, we can know exactly what hard drives your running with.

Quote:

Hey, Dan, I hope you're dropping in on this thread because I value your insight

I'll try & help, I don't have much experience with GUI partitioner's & Ubuntu as a whole

sluggo123 · 05-11-2007, 09:09 PM

Dan found the terminal and did as you asked. I am including a screenshot of the results and I do not understand what is happening here. This is only part of the HDD. I only have the one. This is the Windows ME and it does not show the rest of the disk, an 80 gig disk

sluggo123 · 05-11-2007, 09:15 PM

bartender,

Quote:

sluggo, I gotta go have dinner with the mother-in-law so I can't write as much as I would like. It is very weird that the Ubuntu partitioner is not seeing ME. It should see a partition labeled "hda1" or similar, and identified as "vfat".

Do you have one HDD or two?

The screenshot of the results of going to terminal and fdisk -l
There we see hda1 and not the rest of disk.

1 HDD only.

**Bartender** · 05-12-2007, 06:02 AM

If someone asks you to type something into the terminal, we won't need a screenshot. Just swipe the text, copy it, and save it in - well, if you're bringing it over to Windows on your thumb drive, I guess the simplest thing to do would be to start OpenOffice, paste the text into a new message, then - wait a minute, you'd need Open Office on the Windows side too.
The few times I've copied text to a thumb drive I used OpenOffice. Anyone have a simpler way to do it?

OK, sluggo, I want to make sure we're on the same page.
Question #1 - You have one hard drive, right?

Question #2 - It's an 80GB Maxtor, yes?

Question #3 - Windoes ME is still functional, correct?

Question #4 - That "HP_PAV" icon on your Ubuntu desktop - what happens when you click on that?

Question #5 - When you're out of Linux and in Windows ME, can you go to - er, I don't know where you go in ME, only familiar with W2K - in W2K it's Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management and I get a look at what Windows says I have for disks and how they're formatted. Can you find the parallel in ME and tell me what Windows thinks the disk looks like?

I must be missing something obvious, but it's very weird that Ubuntu is not seeing the Me partition.

EDIT: Back in the Ubuntu partitioner, in the upper right hand corner is a little box that says "hda1" If you click on the up or down arrows, does the partitioner report any other drives?

~~PureEvilDan~~ · 05-12-2007, 06:25 AM

Bartender:

You could always use the build in text editor, Applications -> Accessories -> Text Editor.

Sluggo:

There is something blocking the output on that screenshot. a big white box... Just looking, it also looks like for some reason fdisk is only seeing the USB pen

The command I told you to do, lists all the hard drive(s) and there partitions, if you only have one partition on a drive, it shows up as hda1. if you have more it goes from hda1, hda2, hda3, hda4 etc.

**Bartender** · 05-12-2007, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PureEvilDan

You could always use the build in text editor, Applications -> Accessories -> Text Editor.

Hi, Dan, would that work if he was saving the output to a thumb drive, then bringing the file over to Windows?
Windows will recognize the text? Oh, wait, maybe it's in ASCI and I've been making it overly complicated!!

You know what, sluggo? Let's try Dan's idea again. Don't plug the thumb drive in. Pull up the Console, type in

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

If you can go online via the LiveCD and visit this forum, you can copy/paste that line right into the Console, then click "Enter"

~~PureEvilDan~~ · 05-12-2007, 06:43 AM

ahhh thank you Bartender

I forgot fdisk won't show that unless its run as root

@gedit:

Yes, it should just save as a .txt file and then copy it to your usb pen.

**Bartender** · 05-12-2007, 08:33 AM

OK, thanks Dan for verifying that. The handful of times that I'd copied text from the Linux test PC to our main Windows PC I was using OpenOffice, unaware that the extra steps were unnecessary.

You'd mentioned your familiarity with non-Ubuntu distro's so I figured I'd better add the code. Ubuntu's the only distro I've delved into. As you know, it uses a different model for root/user permissions.

I've noticed that lots of folks don't like the atypical way Ubuntu does it. But the devs made a decision about how to handle root/user and it doesn't seem like they're going to back away from it now.

sluggo123 · 05-12-2007, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bartender

If someone asks you to type something into the terminal, we won't need a screenshot. Just swipe the text, copy it, and save it in - well, if you're bringing it over to Windows on your thumb drive, I guess the simplest thing to do would be to start OpenOffice, paste the text into a new message, then - wait a minute, you'd need Open Office on the Windows side too.
The few times I've copied text to a thumb drive I used OpenOffice. Anyone have a simpler way to do it?

OK, sluggo, I want to make sure we're on the same page.
Question #1 - You have one hard drive, right?
*Right

Question #2 - It's an 80GB Maxtor, yes?
*Yes

Question #3 - Windoes ME is still functional, correct?
*correct

Question #4 - That "HP_PAV" icon on your Ubuntu desktop - what happens when you click on that?
*See image (Maybe, I have been working on this 3 hrs and everytime it is ready to send something happens, usually I hit the wrong key.

Question #5 - When you're out of Linux and in Windows ME, can you go to - er, I don't know where you go in ME, only familiar with W2K - in W2K it's Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management and I get a look at what Windows says I have for disks and how they're formatted. Can you find the parallel in ME and tell me what Windows thinks the disk looks like?
See image Image does not appear to have uploaded.

I must be missing something obvious, but it's very weird that Ubuntu is not seeing the Me partition.

*IS it possible that Ubuntu Partitioner cannot see ME??? in the partitioner. I as I am going through the steps to install unbuntu I get (and I paraphrase) "There are no Operating Systems suitable for importing from."

EDIT: Back in the Ubuntu partitioner, in the upper right hand corner is a little box that says "hda1" If you click on the up or down arrows, does the partitioner report any other drives?
*no little boxes anywhere on page and no hda1 anywhere. Only when I fdisk -l does it show hda1 and then it only shows that partition. I will see if I can copy and paste the message into something you can read.

05-07-2007, 08:42 PM	#1 (permalink)
sluggo123 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tupelo>Saltillo, MS Posts: 189 OS: XP Home Edition/Vista/ME/Ubuntu	[SOLVED] dual boot ubuntu/windows ME All the instructions from Ubunto talk about dual booting with XP or Vista. I have an older machine with Windows ME already on it. I would like to install Ubuntu as a dual boot. I have a CD that I downloaded as an ISO and then recorded a cd from that and works up to the point of starting the partitioning. Nothing seems to work, the instructions said use Manual when I came to the partitioning page. Cannot get anything to open. Stuck on page 4 of instructions. Just point me to where I need to look. Thanks, sluggo123

05-10-2007, 07:11 AM	#3 (permalink)
sluggo123 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tupelo>Saltillo, MS Posts: 189 OS: XP Home Edition/Vista/ME/Ubuntu	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME Bartender, I see I have a lot of problems. I will download the partitioning software recommended. I never get a screen that looks like your screen shot. I am will redo the CD and burn it at a slow speed this time. I never get anything about check disk for errors. Perhaps this comes up following the burn. Missed it. If it does come up when I burn a CD from the ISO I will check it. I do have hi speed cable. Nice. I ordered the free CD, but I was told it could take up to 10 weeks to get here. I have printed out your info and will digest it slowly. However, I have to do one thing first, my fish pond is running out of oxygen as the water pump is barely running. I am headed for Pets Mart now to get another pump and start two filters to running. Should be back here with more info at least by 2PM CDS (USA)about 6 hours from now. Ed (sluggo)

05-10-2007, 07:31 AM	#4 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME The "Check CD For Errors" option I refer to comes up on a functional LiveCD. It would go like this: You set your PC to boot from the optical drive, then put the LiveCD in your optical drive and restart the PC or restart the PC and slip the LiveCD in before it gets to starting up Windows. Either way. Some people's PC's are set to "Quick Boot" and you may not have enuf time to get the disc in. Mine goes thru a memory check and I can usually get the disc in fast enuf. Your PC sees a bootable disc and you hear the optical drive rev up. You may get some text and whatnot, but the first screen you should see will give you choices - "Start or Install Linux" "Check Disc for Errors" "Run memtest" "Start in Safe Graphics Mode" There will be several choices. Run the "Check Disc for Errors" option and the CD will check itself. This isn't 100%. Some folks have reported problems with discs that checked out. But it's certainly a good indicator. The stand-alone partitioner I suggested may not be necessary. But if you have broadband and a few good-quality CD's laying around what the heck. It's a good learning experience to look at your HDD thru an open-source lens even if you don't do any partitioning. However, I'm not suggesting GPLCD as a way to partition your HDD even though the LiveCD doesn't work. The LiveCD should work to at least look at your partitions if not make them, and if it can't look at your partitions I'd try burning it again. If you burned the LiveCD at full-speed instead of 4X or less that's the first thing I'd suspect. Check your Linux download md5 against the md5 that's available at the download website. If the download is good then you can just burn again from the same download. I can get away with 8X on a 3GHz P4 but 8X is kinda pushing it. If you've never checked md5's before I'd suggest md5summer. It's a pretty easy md5 checker. This website seems like a pretty good dual-boot guide EDIT: I just noticed something in the screenshot I attached. See the "USB20FD" icon in the upper left corner behind the "GParted" window? That's the icon I got when I plugged in my USB thumb drive. As long as the thumb drive is recognized, it's pretty easy to take a screenshot and save to the drive. If you were going to get out of the LiveCD and boot right back to Windows you could just leave it plugged in. If you want to remove it before getting out of the LiveCD, right-click on the icon and click "Eject". Wait a sec or two. Linux writes data to the drive after you click "Eject" so you don't want to be too hasty. Last edited by Bartender; 05-10-2007 at 07:39 AM.

05-11-2007, 05:45 AM	#6 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME Well, sluggo, I think we're making progress. Maybe. I had to put my reading glasses on to read the fine print on your screenshot (good job, by the way, getting one) and I still wasn't sure I got all the details. In the gray area that should be a map of your HDD, it says "76.33 GB unallocated". Under that, it says "Maxtor 5819, 76.33 GiB, dev/hda" All of that indicates a screenshot of a Maxtor 80GB HDD. You'll never see the full 80GB, by the way, so don't worry about that part. It sure looks like the HDD is completely blank, at least according to GParted. No operating system or formatting at all. Oh, hey, sorry, I sent you a link for dual-booting Vista. I forgot you have (well, had) ME. I don't know what went wrong but it appears that the HDD has been wiped clean. The Ubuntu LiveCD deleted all data. It didn't re-format to ext3, the Linux file system format. Do you want to re-install ME and try again? If you have your original ME CD and broadband it shouldn't take too long to re-install, find latest drivers for your components, and update it. Download anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware first, and load those programs before going online. This isn't necessary, but it's something you might want to think about...when I built a dual-boot from scratch, I had Windows make a second partition during the process of installing it. Then, when I put in the Ubuntu LiveCD, the partition was already there. I just pointed Ubuntu at that blank chunk of HDD and it did its thing. That was with Ubuntu 5.10, so the details wouldn't be very helpful to you. Or do you want to install Ubuntu and take it out for a spin? Oh, yeah, it's good that you have 512 RAM.

05-11-2007, 09:29 AM	#8 (permalink)
sluggo123 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tupelo>Saltillo, MS Posts: 189 OS: XP Home Edition/Vista/ME/Ubuntu	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME Originally Posted by Bartender Well, sluggo, I think we're making progress. Maybe. I had to put my reading glasses on to read the fine print on your screenshot (good job, by the way, getting one) and I still wasn't sure I got all the details. "Me too, I do not know why the letters are so small. I think it maybe coming up 1024x768 or larger. I will make it 800x600 in ME and see if that makes a difference. Oh yes I still have the Complete ME installed and all its programs, images, etc., I just went over and checked it. " In the gray area that should be a map of your HDD, it says "76.33 GB unallocated". Under that, it says "Maxtor 5819, 76.33 GiB, dev/hda" All of that indicates a screenshot of a Maxtor 80GB HDD. You'll never see the full 80GB, by the way, so don't worry about that part. "yes I understand that, it looks as if it adds up to about 78 G. I checked it by bringing up ME and checked the C HDD and it said 8.7g was used and the rest blank. " It sure looks like the HDD is completely blank, at least according to GParted. No operating system or formatting at all. "That is what I thought when I saw the Ubuntu desktop and the HDD figures as I played with the installation. Scared me, so I checked immediately by removing the LiveCD and rebooting the computer and would you believe everything is there. In fact I just checked again a few minutes ago and yep it is all there SO, my question is why is Ubuntu not showing this?" Oh, hey, sorry, I sent you a link for dual-booting Vista. I forgot you have (well, had) ME. "Do you have a link for dual booting using ME?" I don't know what went wrong but it appears that the HDD has been wiped clean. The Ubuntu LiveCD deleted all data. It didn't re-format to ext3, the Linux file system format. Do you want to re-install ME and try again? If you have your original ME CD and broadband it shouldn't take too long to re-install, find latest drivers for your components, and update it. Download anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware first, and load those programs before going online. "As I said no data was deleted, just does not show up in the Ubuntu partitioner. Again why? What is your thoughts here?" This isn't necessary, but it's something you might want to think about...when I built a dual-boot from scratch, I had Windows make a second partition during the process of installing it. Then, when I put in the Ubuntu LiveCD, the partition was already there. I just pointed Ubuntu at that blank chunk of HDD and it did its thing. That was with Ubuntu 5.10, so the details wouldn't be very helpful to you. Or do you want to install Ubuntu and take it out for a spin? "If it had wiped out the disk I would just go ahead and install Ubuntu but it appears that I can still, Maybe, dual boot. I am not sure what is going on." Oh, yeah, it's good that you have 512 RAM.

05-11-2007, 11:06 AM	#9 (permalink)
sluggo123 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tupelo>Saltillo, MS Posts: 189 OS: XP Home Edition/Vista/ME/Ubuntu	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME I loaded Ubuntu again and looked at the file browser, under places, it shows Ubuntu, Desk top, File System, floppy drive (unmounted) Disk and HP_Pavilion. Now as I go down through those, when I get to disk, it is blank, but when I go to HP_Pavilion, which is the name of C drive it shows all my programs etc. I think somehow we need to get rid of Disk and Make HP_ Pavilion the Disk. The partitioner is looking at the wrong disks. And I found how to make my screen 800x600 and now every thing looks normal size.

05-11-2007, 11:57 AM	#10 (permalink)
~~PureEvilDan~~ Register user Join Date: May 2005 Location: England Posts: 229 OS: Gentoo AMD XP 2400+ 1GB Ram / WinXp Intel 805D 2GB Ram My System	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME If disk is free space, you can install Ubuntu to that, but I'm not sure if HP has some weird system where it stores all the backup data to a weird hard drive partition, instead of sending out CD's.

05-11-2007, 05:19 PM	#11 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME Hey, Dan, I hope you're dropping in on this thread because I value your insight - sluggo, I gotta go have dinner with the mother-in-law so I can't write as much as I would like. It is very weird that the Ubuntu partitioner is not seeing ME. It should see a partition labeled "hda1" or similar, and identified as "vfat". Do you have one HDD or two?

05-12-2007, 06:02 AM	#15 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME If someone asks you to type something into the terminal, we won't need a screenshot. Just swipe the text, copy it, and save it in - well, if you're bringing it over to Windows on your thumb drive, I guess the simplest thing to do would be to start OpenOffice, paste the text into a new message, then - wait a minute, you'd need Open Office on the Windows side too. The few times I've copied text to a thumb drive I used OpenOffice. Anyone have a simpler way to do it? OK, sluggo, I want to make sure we're on the same page. Question #1 - You have one hard drive, right? Question #2 - It's an 80GB Maxtor, yes? Question #3 - Windoes ME is still functional, correct? Question #4 - That "HP_PAV" icon on your Ubuntu desktop - what happens when you click on that? Question #5 - When you're out of Linux and in Windows ME, can you go to - er, I don't know where you go in ME, only familiar with W2K - in W2K it's Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management and I get a look at what Windows says I have for disks and how they're formatted. Can you find the parallel in ME and tell me what Windows thinks the disk looks like? I must be missing something obvious, but it's very weird that Ubuntu is not seeing the Me partition. EDIT: Back in the Ubuntu partitioner, in the upper right hand corner is a little box that says "hda1" If you click on the up or down arrows, does the partitioner report any other drives? Last edited by Bartender; 05-12-2007 at 06:06 AM.

05-12-2007, 06:25 AM	#16 (permalink)
~~PureEvilDan~~ Register user Join Date: May 2005 Location: England Posts: 229 OS: Gentoo AMD XP 2400+ 1GB Ram / WinXp Intel 805D 2GB Ram My System	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME Bartender: You could always use the build in text editor, Applications -> Accessories -> Text Editor. Sluggo: There is something blocking the output on that screenshot. a big white box... Just looking, it also looks like for some reason fdisk is only seeing the USB pen The command I told you to do, lists all the hard drive(s) and there partitions, if you only have one partition on a drive, it shows up as hda1. if you have more it goes from hda1, hda2, hda3, hda4 etc.

05-12-2007, 06:43 AM	#18 (permalink)
~~PureEvilDan~~ Register user Join Date: May 2005 Location: England Posts: 229 OS: Gentoo AMD XP 2400+ 1GB Ram / WinXp Intel 805D 2GB Ram My System	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME ahhh thank you Bartender I forgot fdisk won't show that unless its run as root @gedit: Yes, it should just save as a .txt file and then copy it to your usb pen.

05-12-2007, 08:33 AM	#19 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: dual boot ubuntu/windows ME OK, thanks Dan for verifying that. The handful of times that I'd copied text from the Linux test PC to our main Windows PC I was using OpenOffice, unaware that the extra steps were unnecessary. You'd mentioned your familiarity with non-Ubuntu distro's so I figured I'd better add the code. Ubuntu's the only distro I've delved into. As you know, it uses a different model for root/user permissions. I've noticed that lots of folks don't like the atypical way Ubuntu does it. But the devs made a decision about how to handle root/user and it doesn't seem like they're going to back away from it now.