Ubuntu install problem

I've googled & didn't find anything...

You guys have made me an Ubuntu convert, I've been running it on a crappy Dell for several weeks, and the install was painless.

I decided to load it on a home PC that has a corrupt/illegal copy of XP Pro, and completely get rid of XP.

When I get to the Ubuntu screen to select a partition, there is nothing there to choose from & I can't go any further.

How do I get past this?

Is it a SATA hard drive? Maybe check BIOS and see if it has an IDE mode for the SATA controller.
But I have an all SATA setup and didn't have that problem installing Ultimate Ubuntu 2.3, 2.4 or 2.5.

Yes, it's SATA formatted with NTFS.

Ok, this is odd...

From the Ubuntu installer I did ctrl/alt/f1 to get to the command line & ran "sudo lshw -C disk" but it didn't find the HDD, just the DVD drive???

That's odd since XP is still booting.

Hmm...this may have something to do with it - just checked bios & see the HDD is listed as "third IDE master".

Not sure what's up with that?

That is odd. Maybe open the PC and move the HD connector to another SATA port on the motherboard.
If you only have the one HD and a DVD, I would put the HD on SATA port 0 and the DVD on port 1.

If you are using a live CD for the install, you should be able to open System->Administration->Partition Manager to see if the drive is present instead of going all the way through the install.

Thanks!

I opened the terminal from the live CD & tried "sudo apt-get -y remove dmraid" which was one suggestion I found online, but when I open up GParted it still doesn't see the HDD. Oh yeah, I did try moving the SATA cable around too.

Does the MB support RAID? Have you tried disabling it in BIOS?

I've installed Ubuntu on a wide mix of hardware and never had a problem with it not seeing a hard drive.

If you have the time (and bandwidth), download Ultimate Ubuntu and give it a try. It is a heavy distro and you will need to burn it to a DVDR.

Another approach would be to make an install on USB, disconnect the DVD drive and boot from the USB.

Wow, never seen that before. What do you get if you run sudo fdisk -l from the boot CD?

Nothing, it doesn't see any drives.

I didn't find any settings in bios for raid. I built this PC about 5-years ago, but I'm not sure if I still have the documentation for the MB around.

I did find some online links referencing similar problems with WD hard-drives(which I have), so I'm going to grab a small/old IDE drive & cable and see if it will recognize it.

What's weird is when I move the SATA cable to each of the 4-ports in bios it only shows up as 3rd-master, 3rd-slave, 4th-master or 4th-slave. I'm not sure how to change it to 1st-master, I'm guessing jumpers, but I'll need to either find the manual or google it & see if anything comes up.

petegossett wrote: Nothing, it doesn't see any drives. I didn't find any settings in bios for raid. I built this PC about 5-years ago, but I'm not sure if I still have the documentation for the MB around. I did find some online links referencing similar problems with WD hard-drives(which I have), so I'm going to grab a small/old IDE drive & cable and see if it will recognize it. What's weird is when I move the SATA cable to each of the 4-ports in bios it only shows up as 3rd-master, 3rd-slave, 4th-master or 4th-slave. I'm not sure how to change it to 1st-master, I'm guessing jumpers, but I'll need to either find the manual or google it & see if anything comes up.

Yeah check your BIOS manual, there was a trick to it with some older mobos but I'm not remembering it now.

If you see nothing at all from fdisk, it's not a software / filesystem level problem. I wonder how you got it installed in the first place actually

Edit: Do I understand correctly that you installed it and now can't boot to Ubuntu, or are you saying you've never been able to choose a partition in the installation wizard?

Most MB manufacturers have PDFs of the MB manuals available on their website if you can find the manf. and model #.

The manual will tell you what the chipsets are, and once you find that, finding a solution should be much easier.

Does the MB have 2 IDE connectors? That could explain the 3rd and 4th master and slave stuff, 1st and 2nd are reserved for IDE.
Is the DVD IDE? With the master/slave wierdness, having a DVD drive on an IDE connector could be masking the SATA HD. If you have access to a USB DVD, you could try disconnecting the internal and boot from USB. That might make the HD visible to linux.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

I've never been able to install Ubuntu, just running it off the disk. It never finds any partitions.

Small update/success - I dug up an old 8.4gig HDD and IDE cable and bios recognized it as primary master, and still saw the SATA drive too.

So I tried installing Ubuntu again, it found the 8.4gig drive fine & I'm doing the install now. It still didn't see the SATA drive, so I doubt it will find it after the install is done, but at least it's up & running!

Thanks for all the suggesions & help!