Ubuntu handicapable

I'm having a hell of a time with this damned thing. I've never worked with linux before, granted, but how difficult does this have to be? Now I have downloaded 3 different versions of the iso and still don't have an OS to show for it. The first was ubuntu server 8.10, when that didn't work I used the ubuntu alternative version, now I'm trying ubuntu LTS and still nothing. I've taken the hard drive out and deleted the partitions then formatted in both NT and FAT and nothing. BIOS does recognize there is a drive there but whenever I try running the install disks it loads a command line interface called "Busybox". Anyone here know what the hell I'm doing wrong? I've tried loking in ubuntu's documentation and I can't find a solution.

Thats weird. From my experience, its just a matter of popping in the CD and after the computer does some booting up it pops up an install screen for ubuntu with multiple options. Like install ubuntu, or run ubuntu off of the disc, etc.

Maybe you have to enable booting from disc in the bios or something like that?

I guess I didn't describe the install very well. When I boot with any of the discs in the drive, I do get the initial options menu screen where I first select my language and then select "install ubuntu". After that, I get the ubuntu splash screen with a crolling activity bar, after a few moments it crashes to the busybox screen.

What hardware are you trying to install on? I've only installed Ubuntu once, on a AMD-K6-2 400 in a laptop with 96MiB ram, it was literally follow the prompts (I have much more experience installing Gentoo on VMs and real hardware).

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Originally Posted by jdbnsn

I guess I didn't describe the install very well. When I boot with any of the discs in the drive, I do get the initial options menu screen where I first select my language and then select "install ubuntu". After that, I get the ubuntu splash screen with a crolling activity bar, after a few moments it crashes to the busybox screen.

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Ohhhh... I see. You know, I've actually had that problem before now that I think about it! But I can't remember how I fixed it. lol

At the time I was using really crappy discs, but even when I used a quality one I still had the same problem. Trying to think what I did after that...

ooh, I think I might of fixed it by swapping out the CD-ROM drive with another drive. I remember doing that. Not sure if it was the solution though.

I also remember figuring out my hard drive was some sort of messed up. Either broken or corrupted or something. That might be the problem too? I can't remember if I swapped out the hard drives or not, I've gone though so many of them. lol

CURSES BRAIN! Why won't you work! Maybe I got a corrupted memory brain cell? lol

Does running Ubuntu straight off of the disc work?

You may want to check if you are running AHCI sata mode in the bios. I dont know if this applies to Ubuntu but I have to run IDE mode for XP to run and install. I havent tried changing it back since i put Ubuntu on my laptop. Just an FYI, AHCI allows you to hot swap sata drives so you wont be able to do so once you set it to IDE.

System specs please. We'll make a geek out of you yet.

Haha, thanks guys. I've set this one aside for the time being. When I get the table built for the coroner's microscopes and get my PC set back up I'll jump back on this project and post all the hardware specs so you can help me follow the yellow geek road.

Dban the drive first. Make sure it's completely wiped, and unformatted. One of the problems you're having is using an NTFS formatted drive. Linux won't read/write to NTFS without using SAMBA, so when you're trying to install, it gets confused, and just hangs. If you're wanting something with a GUI, stay away from Ununtu Server. It's CLI only.

Well, I'm setting up a webserver and I understand that Ubuntu Server will make it much easier for me by installing all of the necessary components. But I also understand that I can use regular ubuntu and just install the extra stuff later. A GUI would be much easier for me especially since I'm totally unfamiliar with linux commands so if I went that route, what else would I need to install?

BTW_ Curtis mentioned Dban to me the other day and said that your had good experience with it, so I may just do that.

As soon as the microscope table is finished I'm hitting this full force, I was getting too irritated bouncing from one project to the other while both were giving me problems. It's taking me much longer than I had hoped to get the table done, but ever since I started paying attention to modder's work I've found that I am getting to be more of a perfectionist! Damn you little over achievers!

Cool, easy enough. Using Ubuntu for a web server is a breeze, though I do prefer Fedora. Basically all you do is install the OS, and then build the rest of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) from there, via the command line. It's real easy. "sudo apt-get install apache2" is what you'll run to install apache, your http server. 'sudo apt-get install mysql" for mysql.. you get the idea. From there, it's all a matter of configuration. The default directory for your sites will be /home/whatever_the_user_is. There are some really great tutorials on the net for installing LAMPs with Fedora and Ubuntu, but I'll help you out with whatever you need. I still have my Fedora LAMP in my shop. It's just unplugged.

First thing first.
We can wonder around and think what is wrong but without specs, you know.

Take in mind what Zephik wrote.
Since I cleaned my dvd drive live cd starts much faster.
Last time with my 9550 ATI card due to somewhat drivers issues live-cd took light years to start up.
There might be something wrong with card or drive its self. NTFS partitions shouldn't be much problem I think. Installer(gparted in this case afair) should be able to reformat hdd/partitions to other format.
Installer seems hangin up then check cd for errors too.

Server, LTS, alternate.
Those are different distros. I strongly suggest to go with 8.04 HH Ubuntu. It's Long Time/Term Support ( LTS). So updates will be avilable for 3 years and 5 for servers. Not as for other version of distro - 1.5 ( AFAIR).
Check out this.
AFAIR altarnate has this semi text install proces. Like in screenshots from link above. I realy prefer this way of installing things. Live cd of Ubuntu is like 100 years behind banana-republics compared to Knoppix - loading full enviroment to install distro is stupid to me anyway.

Last thing.
You rather be friend with terminal. It won't bite, trust me. Terminal, next to google, is best friend of admin.
You can install things via GUI or command line.
I prefer second. Faster and easier way to search and install things.

Code:

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sudo aptitude search [name]

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To find app/lib names you need. Then simple apt-get install name.

Good luck. From my expierience - stop thinking Windows-way in even Ubunty. I only got frustrated by this.

Sorry I haven't been updating this thread, I set this project aside to get the microscope table done. Now it's done and delivered so this is back on the front burner. I was able to wipe the HDD using dBan as SgtM suggested. My next move will be to figure out which version of linux is the best suited for my plan. The machine I'm installing it on is a Dell PowerEdge SC420. He wants this to be a webserver/mail server. I'll get started on this tomorrow probably, just put in a 12 hr days with no breaks so I'm pretty wiped out tonight. Thanks for all the great advice so far guys, and keep in mind that I'm completely new to linux so much of the stuff you're telling me doesn't make sense yet, I have to learn the basics I guess.

So Jon, you're setting up a webserver? If that's the case, I'd download the Server version (release doesn't really matter all that much, I've had good luck with all of them). My reason for this - you have the option to have it installed as a LAMP right from boot, no software selection required. After it's set up correctly as a LAMP (which it does itself) it's just a matter of running "sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop" for the GUI.

Still the same story. No matter what I do, or which version I use I try to install and sometimes it looks like it was successful and other times clearly not but before it will load after installation it crashed to Busybox with a command prompt (initramfs) It seems that the disk drive can't be found after install. I'm reading up on this but if anyone has any other ideas not listed in this thread already, please help.

BTW- I used dban between each installation. To answer Zephik's question "does it work direct from CD?", yes, I can load to the ubuntu desktop by selecting "try ubuntu without any changes to your computer". I haven't messed around with this much but I'm loaded there now and I am going to try to make sense of this from here.

I just don't get it, how could working with linux be this difficult???? I keep hearing about how great linux is, what horse ****!

I had a heck of a time trying to get it to install from the disk to my laptop. What I tried and I don't know if it will work for you is had to install from my thumb drive. Unfortuanly I have to stuff to use in windows for work and couldn't get Wine to play nice with it so I had to go back to XP. I'm going to be watching this though because I really want to change my file server around to be a web server instead. UNetbootin really helping getting Ubuntu to run from the USB drive for install. Maybe give that a try.

I tried that already and no matter how I install it the result is the same, crash to BusyBox. The issue may have something to so with a delay setting (either ubuntu isn't waiting long enough for the hardware or vice versa). Anyway, I can type exit to pass this stage which I didn't know until a long internet search. So now, I'm formatting with dban again and going to go all the way back to the original plan, setup with server edition using CLI. We'll see if I have any more luck this time.

Well after much heartache and many attempts, I finally got it working! Turns out the server edition I downloaded last time wasn't really server edition. I downloaded another copy and installed it and for the most part it seems to be functioning correctly with ehcp. Now I need to finish the website files and figure out how to configure this puppy.

Fantastic! That is great news. I have never used the ehcp but it looks pretty cool, I think you will be good to go in no time at all.

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Originally Posted by OvRiDe

Fantastic! That is great news. I have never used the ehcp but it looks pretty cool, I think you will be good to go in no time at all.

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It would not have come along at all without your help Curtis, you are the man! I really appreciate all of the "tech support" :D

Damn, forgot about this thread. Hey Rick, there's an easier way to get the desktop version of Ubuntu set up for LAMP.

tasksel

I believe this is inherent in all the most recent debian based nix distros now.

Lemme tell ya, tasksel is soooo much easier than sudo apt-get install apache mysql5 php6.

Actually, I did it the other way around as you suggested Joe. I installed the real server version and did the sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop (which actually took longer to install than the entire OS for some strange reason). Then I installed ehcp which handled all of the mysql, apache, php, etc...

If I may add.

For linux beginers great place to start ( to get know with) is linux/unix section on digg. Just for readin' some fine articles( most of them for Ubuntu, SUSE, Fedora). No ofence man, they are idiot-proof mostly and give much info in simple way. If you're about to stay with linux for some time consider this.

Regards