How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD

Skifer UK · 08-22-2007, 03:57 PM

hey guy's

I've been trying to install ubuntu 7.04 which my cousin made a CD copy for me and i want to install the partion onto my external hardrive how do i do this so i have a selection on ubuntu and windows XP home edition onto my boot menu?.

Thanks.

**Jack.Sparrow** · 08-22-2007, 04:16 PM

It's not a good idea to install an OS on an external HDD, however, if you choose to go forward, once you start the installation, it shuold ask you where the OS is to be installed.

Then you'll have to enable booting from the external hdd from the bios. This can be done be restarting the computer, and when the first screen comes on (usually a page with the manufactorer's logo) Press the Function Key indicated (it's F2 for me) and have a look there.

Skifer UK · 08-22-2007, 04:19 PM

That is the thing im not sure how to make the CD install onto the external HDD if i could select the partion.

http://knolinux.com/images/35596-33125/Bootup.PNG

I get those options and when i press install or start ubuntu it goes into the live CD.

**Jack.Sparrow** · 08-22-2007, 04:27 PM

Here is what I do to successfully load UBUNTU v5.10 on my EXTERNAL USB DRIVE ...

( STEP 1 ) Instead of using "expert" mode to install, I just hit enter to start the install process (using the install CD ... NOT the live CD).

INSTALL NOTE: The installation process will ask you for some information when it starts up ...

first it will ask for your language,
then your (language) location,
then your keyboard type,
then it will detect your cdrom(s),
then it will attempt to detect your network configuration,
then it will ask you to give your PC a name (hostname),
then it detects hardware and starts up the partition phase of the install.

INSTALL NOTE: When you get to STEP 2 (the partition phase), there is a simple way to determine how the install program assigns device names to your hard drive(s). Before starting any partitioning activity in STEP 2, choose the GO BACK option in the lower left corner of this screen and then choose EXECUTE A SHELL farther down in the Ubuntu installer menu that appears. Choose CONTINUE at the next prompt. In the shell window that appears, type in fdisk -l (that is FDISK -L in all lowercase). This will give you a list of all the storage devices the installer program sees. Make a note of the device names (/dev/hd? or /dev/sd?) and then type in exit to return to the partition phase (STEP 2) of the install. (Kudos to "RyanGT" for suggesting this in post #257.)

( STEP 2 ) During the partitioning phase, I let the install program format my external USB drive. (I believe UBUNTU calls this a guided partitioning ... which sets up an ext2 or ext3 partition and a swap partition for you.)

INSTALL NOTE: Look for the line during the partitioning phase that might say ... erase entire disk SCSI (0,0,0) (sda). Be careful here as some people have had problems when choosing any partitioning options that include the text "and use LVM" (Kudos to "brucetan" for sharing this in post #268.)

Feel like learning about LVM anyway? Check this link out. (Kudos to "SD-Plissken" for sharing this info.)

BE VERY CAREFUL on these screens to choose the correct SDA drive and NOT an HDA drive or you may unintentionally format another drive in your system. There is no undo button for this!

Once again ... BE 100% SURE OF THE DRIVE YOU WANT TO FORMAT!

( STEP 3 ) When the install gets to loading the GRUB bootloader ... DO NOT LET IT LOAD TO ANY OTHER DRIVE BUT THE EXTERNAL USB drive we are working with here.

The install program will ask to load GRUB to the master boot record (MBR) of your internal hard drive (HDA). Say NO to this, and on the next screen, type in the correct path to the SDA (external USB) drive where we want to install the GRUB bootloader.
(Mine was /dev/sda [NOT sda1] ... but yours may be different depending on the number and/or types of drives in your system)

COMMENT: I loaded GRUB to sda (the bootsector of the external drive) and NOT to sda1 (which would be the first partition on the external drive).

INSTALL NOTE: at this point, the install program loads some stuff and ejects the CD ... wanting you to do a reboot.

( STEP 4 ) BE 100% SURE to leave the CD in the drive (and close the drive door) before rebooting. When the PC reboots, type in rescue (to load UBUNTU in rescue mode) ( Review REQUIREMENTS at the beginning of this guide! )

Why do we startup in rescue mode you might ask? It's because we have to edit a few files to get USB support loaded before UBUNTU actually gets going. And, we also need to change a setting in the GRUB menu file to make it work correctly.

( STEP 5 ) When the system comes back up it will ask for a partition to mount. Pick the correct mount point for your external drive from the list.
(Mine was mount /dev/discs/disc1/part1 ... but yours may be different depending on the number and/or types of drives in your system)

COMMENT: /dev/discs mount points start with disc0 (with 0 meaning the first drive in a system). So, my mount point of /dev/discs/disc1/part1 was really the second disk [disc1] (the sda drive we are working with) and the first partition [part1] on that disk.

( STEP 6 ) When it comes up to a terminal window (with RESCUE MODE in the upper left corner) and just sits there, hold down Ctrl-Alt-F2 to open another terminal window for us to do our edits in.

( STEP 7 ) Type in these lines before we start editing out files ...

mount -tproc proc /target/proc <enter>
chroot /target <enter>
su <enter>

INSTALL NOTE: I used vim to edit the files. (There is a great vim cheatsheet in pdf format available from "TimL".) It is weird to use at first until you learn what a few keys do in it. The INSERT key allows you to actually enter text where you place the cursor ... The ESC key takes you out of INSERT mode ... And hitting : x <enter> saves the file and exits out of vim. (IMPORTANT TIP ... that's a colon and a lowercase x with NO SPACE between the colon and the x)

( STEP 8 ) Run vim to edit the modules file to make sure USB support is added/loaded during UBUNTU startup ...

vim /etc/mkinitramfs/modules <enter>

Right below the last line of text, enter these lines ...

ehci-hcd
usb-storage
scsi_mod
sd_mod

Be sure to save the file changes (using : x)

COMMENT: Some PCs may need a more comprehensive list added here. Please take a look at post #181 or post #406 if you are having startup issues after these edits. (Kudos to "brotorious" for his efforts on this, and to "Jonathan.Martin" for posting his successful resolution to the problem as well.)

( STEP 9 ) Run vim to edit the initramfs.conf file to make sure enough time elapses for USB support to load before UBUNTU gets running ...

vim /etc/mkinitramfs/initramfs.conf

At the very top of this file, add this line which tells UBUNTU to pause for 12 seconds before starting up ...

WAIT=12 (in all caps here, not sure if necessary though)

Be sure to save the file changes (using : x)

INSTALL NOTE: Editing these two files loads the necessary commands to get USB support going so UBUNTU will recognize the external USB drive. But we still need to recompile (or recreate) the initrd.img that UBUNTU uses at startup ... so that these edits actually work.

( STEP 10 ) Recompile (recreate) the initrd.img file to include USB support from these edited files ...

mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-9-386 /lib/modules/2.6.12-9-386

INSTALL NOTE: When you are done with the previous step #9 (and before performing this step), you can run the "ls /lib/modules" command (without the quote marks) from a terminal window to see what kernel version number you should use for this install step. They may be using a kernel version higher than 2.6.12-9-386 that was available when I originally created this help guide. (Kudos to "Saxegaard" for bringing this to my attention in post #235.)

( STEP 11 ) Edit the GRUB bootloader menu file to correct a small error that looks at the wrong drive to boot from ...

vim /boot/grub/menu.lst

Navigate down this file until you get to a section where there is a menu list (not commented out ... no #s) that has Ubuntu mentioned three times (and possibly an area mentioning Windows XP down below it, if you have XP installed on an internal drive of yours).

There is a line in these three Ubuntu menu choices that has root listed on it and probably has (hd1,0) to the right of it. We need to change this to (hd0,0) on all three of these menu choices. Why? Because according to GRUB, the external USB drive will be our first drive (hd0,0) and not our second drive (hd1,0) because we loaded GRUB on it's bootsector.

INSTALL NOTE: You will also want to change a "# groot" line in a section of your menu.lst file that may look something like this ...
## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,3) <<< CHANGE THIS LINE TO READ # groot=(hd0,0)
(Kudos to "archis" for his excellent documentation of this farther down in post #227.)

INSTALL NOTE: You may want to change the root line for the Windows XP section in this file to (hd1,0) just in case you have XP loaded on an internal drive and want the option to boot into XP from the GRUB menu. (See post #2 for more info.) You may have to edit this section whenever you update your kernel version. If you have problems pulling up XP after a kernel update, check this section of your menu.lst file to see if you need to edit it again.

Be sure to save the file changes (using : x)

COMMENT: Feel more comfortable editing this file in Windows? See post #171 for a program that will let you edit files on linux partitions from within Windows. (Kudos to "mickola" for the suggestion.)

( STEP 12 ) Exit out of this terminal window (keep typing exit <enter> until the screen actually says to press enter). Hold down Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get back to the RESCUE MODE terminal window and type exit<enter> to reboot the system.

BE 100% SURE TO GET THE CD OUT OF THE DRIVE BEFORE UBUNTU RESTARTS

( STEP 13 ) After rebooting, UBUNTU continues to run it's install process and comes to the desktop. Use the username and password you setup earlier in the install process to get into UBUNTU

That's the process I've successfully used to install UBUNTU v5.10 on an external USB drive. I hope this helps anyone whose been wrestling with this process. Let me know if it works out for you.

DAVE

From http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=80811

I guess you need the install CD's. They're free to order from the Ubuntu Site and arrive in about a month. I know this from personal experience.

https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Skifer UK · 08-22-2007, 04:32 PM

Ok i will have a read and try to follow as carefully as i can but aswell i have unbuntu 7.04

**Jack.Sparrow** · 08-22-2007, 04:33 PM

(using the install CD ... NOT the live CD)

That's another difference

Skifer UK · 08-22-2007, 04:35 PM

Ok i will ring my cousin and ask him tommorw as it is late here thanks for the help Jack and i will get into this tommorow

**Jack.Sparrow** · 08-22-2007, 04:54 PM

No Prob's. If you have any more questions, post back, someone will get to it.

**LoneWolf071** · 08-28-2007, 11:32 AM

If you don't want to start up the LiveCD, there's a version called the alternative CD. http://releases.ubuntu.com/feisty/ub...rnate-i386.iso

That'll let you do an install without having to use the GUI install.

08-22-2007, 03:57 PM	#1 (permalink)
Skifer UK Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 266 OS: Vista 32 bit Ultimate	How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD hey guy's I've been trying to install ubuntu 7.04 which my cousin made a CD copy for me and i want to install the partion onto my external hardrive how do i do this so i have a selection on ubuntu and windows XP home edition onto my boot menu?. Thanks.

08-22-2007, 04:16 PM	#2 (permalink)
Jack.Sparrow Resident Pirate Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Qld, Aus Posts: 17,867 OS: XP SP3/Vista SP1 My System Blog Entries: 6	Re: How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD It's not a good idea to install an OS on an external HDD, however, if you choose to go forward, once you start the installation, it shuold ask you where the OS is to be installed. Then you'll have to enable booting from the external hdd from the bios. This can be done be restarting the computer, and when the first screen comes on (usually a page with the manufactorer's logo) Press the Function Key indicated (it's F2 for me) and have a look there. __________________ //PC Wizard//Speedfan//Can you run it?//Posting Screenshots//Posting System Specs//Donations//

08-22-2007, 04:19 PM	#3 (permalink)
Skifer UK Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 266 OS: Vista 32 bit Ultimate	Re: How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD That is the thing im not sure how to make the CD install onto the external HDD if i could select the partion. http://knolinux.com/images/35596-33125/Bootup.PNG I get those options and when i press install or start ubuntu it goes into the live CD.

08-22-2007, 04:27 PM	#4 (permalink)
Jack.Sparrow Resident Pirate Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Qld, Aus Posts: 17,867 OS: XP SP3/Vista SP1 My System Blog Entries: 6	Re: How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD Here is what I do to successfully load UBUNTU v5.10 on my EXTERNAL USB DRIVE ... ( STEP 1 ) Instead of using "expert" mode to install, I just hit enter to start the install process (using the install CD ... NOT the live CD). INSTALL NOTE: The installation process will ask you for some information when it starts up ... first it will ask for your language, then your (language) location, then your keyboard type, then it will detect your cdrom(s), then it will attempt to detect your network configuration, then it will ask you to give your PC a name (hostname), then it detects hardware and starts up the partition phase of the install. INSTALL NOTE: When you get to STEP 2 (the partition phase), there is a simple way to determine how the install program assigns device names to your hard drive(s). Before starting any partitioning activity in STEP 2, choose the GO BACK option in the lower left corner of this screen and then choose EXECUTE A SHELL farther down in the Ubuntu installer menu that appears. Choose CONTINUE at the next prompt. In the shell window that appears, type in fdisk -l (that is FDISK -L in all lowercase). This will give you a list of all the storage devices the installer program sees. Make a note of the device names (/dev/hd? or /dev/sd?) and then type in exit to return to the partition phase (STEP 2) of the install. (Kudos to "RyanGT" for suggesting this in post #257.) ( STEP 2 ) During the partitioning phase, I let the install program format my external USB drive. (I believe UBUNTU calls this a guided partitioning ... which sets up an ext2 or ext3 partition and a swap partition for you.) INSTALL NOTE: Look for the line during the partitioning phase that might say ... erase entire disk SCSI (0,0,0) (sda). Be careful here as some people have had problems when choosing any partitioning options that include the text "and use LVM" (Kudos to "brucetan" for sharing this in post #268.) Feel like learning about LVM anyway? Check this link out. (Kudos to "SD-Plissken" for sharing this info.) BE VERY CAREFUL on these screens to choose the correct SDA drive and NOT an HDA drive or you may unintentionally format another drive in your system. There is no undo button for this! Once again ... BE 100% SURE OF THE DRIVE YOU WANT TO FORMAT! ( STEP 3 ) When the install gets to loading the GRUB bootloader ... DO NOT LET IT LOAD TO ANY OTHER DRIVE BUT THE EXTERNAL USB drive we are working with here. The install program will ask to load GRUB to the master boot record (MBR) of your internal hard drive (HDA). Say NO to this, and on the next screen, type in the correct path to the SDA (external USB) drive where we want to install the GRUB bootloader. (Mine was /dev/sda [NOT sda1] ... but yours may be different depending on the number and/or types of drives in your system) COMMENT: I loaded GRUB to sda (the bootsector of the external drive) and NOT to sda1 (which would be the first partition on the external drive). INSTALL NOTE: at this point, the install program loads some stuff and ejects the CD ... wanting you to do a reboot. ( STEP 4 ) BE 100% SURE to leave the CD in the drive (and close the drive door) before rebooting. When the PC reboots, type in rescue (to load UBUNTU in rescue mode) ( Review REQUIREMENTS at the beginning of this guide! ) Why do we startup in rescue mode you might ask? It's because we have to edit a few files to get USB support loaded before UBUNTU actually gets going. And, we also need to change a setting in the GRUB menu file to make it work correctly. ( STEP 5 ) When the system comes back up it will ask for a partition to mount. Pick the correct mount point for your external drive from the list. (Mine was mount /dev/discs/disc1/part1 ... but yours may be different depending on the number and/or types of drives in your system) COMMENT: /dev/discs mount points start with disc0 (with 0 meaning the first drive in a system). So, my mount point of /dev/discs/disc1/part1 was really the second disk [disc1] (the sda drive we are working with) and the first partition [part1] on that disk. ( STEP 6 ) When it comes up to a terminal window (with RESCUE MODE in the upper left corner) and just sits there, hold down Ctrl-Alt-F2 to open another terminal window for us to do our edits in. ( STEP 7 ) Type in these lines before we start editing out files ... mount -tproc proc /target/proc <enter> chroot /target <enter> su <enter> INSTALL NOTE: I used vim to edit the files. (There is a great vim cheatsheet in pdf format available from "TimL".) It is weird to use at first until you learn what a few keys do in it. The INSERT key allows you to actually enter text where you place the cursor ... The ESC key takes you out of INSERT mode ... And hitting : x <enter> saves the file and exits out of vim. (IMPORTANT TIP ... that's a colon and a lowercase x with NO SPACE between the colon and the x) ( STEP 8 ) Run vim to edit the modules file to make sure USB support is added/loaded during UBUNTU startup ... vim /etc/mkinitramfs/modules <enter> Right below the last line of text, enter these lines ... ehci-hcd usb-storage scsi_mod sd_mod Be sure to save the file changes (using : x) COMMENT: Some PCs may need a more comprehensive list added here. Please take a look at post #181 or post #406 if you are having startup issues after these edits. (Kudos to "brotorious" for his efforts on this, and to "Jonathan.Martin" for posting his successful resolution to the problem as well.) ( STEP 9 ) Run vim to edit the initramfs.conf file to make sure enough time elapses for USB support to load before UBUNTU gets running ... vim /etc/mkinitramfs/initramfs.conf At the very top of this file, add this line which tells UBUNTU to pause for 12 seconds before starting up ... WAIT=12 (in all caps here, not sure if necessary though) Be sure to save the file changes (using : x) INSTALL NOTE: Editing these two files loads the necessary commands to get USB support going so UBUNTU will recognize the external USB drive. But we still need to recompile (or recreate) the initrd.img that UBUNTU uses at startup ... so that these edits actually work. ( STEP 10 ) Recompile (recreate) the initrd.img file to include USB support from these edited files ... mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-9-386 /lib/modules/2.6.12-9-386 INSTALL NOTE: When you are done with the previous step #9 (and before performing this step), you can run the "ls /lib/modules" command (without the quote marks) from a terminal window to see what kernel version number you should use for this install step. They may be using a kernel version higher than 2.6.12-9-386 that was available when I originally created this help guide. (Kudos to "Saxegaard" for bringing this to my attention in post #235.) ( STEP 11 ) Edit the GRUB bootloader menu file to correct a small error that looks at the wrong drive to boot from ... vim /boot/grub/menu.lst Navigate down this file until you get to a section where there is a menu list (not commented out ... no #s) that has Ubuntu mentioned three times (and possibly an area mentioning Windows XP down below it, if you have XP installed on an internal drive of yours). There is a line in these three Ubuntu menu choices that has root listed on it and probably has (hd1,0) to the right of it. We need to change this to (hd0,0) on all three of these menu choices. Why? Because according to GRUB, the external USB drive will be our first drive (hd0,0) and not our second drive (hd1,0) because we loaded GRUB on it's bootsector. INSTALL NOTE: You will also want to change a "# groot" line in a section of your menu.lst file that may look something like this ... ## default grub root device ## e.g. groot=(hd0,0) # groot=(hd0,3) <<< CHANGE THIS LINE TO READ # groot=(hd0,0) (Kudos to "archis" for his excellent documentation of this farther down in post #227.) INSTALL NOTE: You may want to change the root line for the Windows XP section in this file to (hd1,0) just in case you have XP loaded on an internal drive and want the option to boot into XP from the GRUB menu. (See post #2 for more info.) You may have to edit this section whenever you update your kernel version. If you have problems pulling up XP after a kernel update, check this section of your menu.lst file to see if you need to edit it again. Be sure to save the file changes (using : x) COMMENT: Feel more comfortable editing this file in Windows? See post #171 for a program that will let you edit files on linux partitions from within Windows. (Kudos to "mickola" for the suggestion.) ( STEP 12 ) Exit out of this terminal window (keep typing exit <enter> until the screen actually says to press enter). Hold down Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get back to the RESCUE MODE terminal window and type exit<enter> to reboot the system. BE 100% SURE TO GET THE CD OUT OF THE DRIVE BEFORE UBUNTU RESTARTS ( STEP 13 ) After rebooting, UBUNTU continues to run it's install process and comes to the desktop. Use the username and password you setup earlier in the install process to get into UBUNTU That's the process I've successfully used to install UBUNTU v5.10 on an external USB drive. I hope this helps anyone whose been wrestling with this process. Let me know if it works out for you. DAVE From http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=80811 I guess you need the install CD's. They're free to order from the Ubuntu Site and arrive in about a month. I know this from personal experience. https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ __________________ //PC Wizard//Speedfan//Can you run it?//Posting Screenshots//Posting System Specs//Donations//

08-22-2007, 04:32 PM	#5 (permalink)
Skifer UK Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 266 OS: Vista 32 bit Ultimate	Re: How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD Ok i will have a read and try to follow as carefully as i can but aswell i have unbuntu 7.04

08-22-2007, 04:33 PM	#6 (permalink)
Jack.Sparrow Resident Pirate Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Qld, Aus Posts: 17,867 OS: XP SP3/Vista SP1 My System Blog Entries: 6	Re: How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD (using the install CD ... NOT the live CD) That's another difference __________________ //PC Wizard//Speedfan//Can you run it?//Posting Screenshots//Posting System Specs//Donations//

08-22-2007, 04:35 PM	#7 (permalink)
Skifer UK Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 266 OS: Vista 32 bit Ultimate	Re: How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD Ok i will ring my cousin and ask him tommorw as it is late here thanks for the help Jack and i will get into this tommorow

08-22-2007, 04:54 PM	#8 (permalink)
Jack.Sparrow Resident Pirate Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Qld, Aus Posts: 17,867 OS: XP SP3/Vista SP1 My System Blog Entries: 6	Re: How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD No Prob's. If you have any more questions, post back, someone will get to it. __________________ //PC Wizard//Speedfan//Can you run it?//Posting Screenshots//Posting System Specs//Donations//

08-28-2007, 11:32 AM	#9 (permalink)
LoneWolf071 Be Free Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Texas Posts: 840 OS: Windows XP, Linux	Re: How do i install unbuntu properly without doing a live CD If you don't want to start up the LiveCD, there's a version called the alternative CD. http://releases.ubuntu.com/feisty/ub...rnate-i386.iso That'll let you do an install without having to use the GUI install. __________________ Suicide Command in Linux : rm -rf / ;) AIM:TheLoneWolf071@aim.com--If You Need Help, Don't Hesitate...