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Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Installation: Lessons Learned
Perhaps one of the most puzzling and frustrating issues that was encountered during the course of our work, was with installing the latest version of Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron". What was most troubling was determining the exact source of the problem, and contextualizing it within a logical framework.
The error occurred during installation of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (desktop version) form the liveCD. After partitioning the hard drive to accommodate Ubuntu 8.04 and starting the installation, the installer would crash at different points during installation occasionally throwing out the error message "Errorno5: input/output error" - it would go on to say that it couldn't write files to a particular sector of the hard disk, and subsequently asks to see if the CD is dirty.
When the installer froze, looking at the command line interface screen which runs under the Gnome GUI interface (by pressing Alt+F8) that shows the scripts executing as the installer copies files to the system necessary for setting up Ubuntu; the error message "SQUASHFS error" and two other associated error messages would flood the screen (as if caught in an infinite loop of some sort).
This problem replicated itself each time we tried installing Ubuntu 8.04 on my laptop (which had Windows XP previously installed) or on some of Dell desktop computers (in the research lab) which also had ONLY Windows XP pre-installed on them. Unfortunately at this point I cannot make the generalization that this problem occurs only on systems which have Windows XP pre-installed on them, since one of the lab machines which did have only Windows XP pre-installed, ran the installation program off the liveCD perfectly without any hangups.
However, some of the other lab machines and my laptop weren't lucky, and no matter how many times we re-partitioned and tried installing Ubuntu 8.04, it would crash each time. Subsequently trying to install Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" also failed on those machines; with the exact same error messages!
At one point we conjectured, that the problem might be with the liveCD. This was concluded after reading (on the Ubuntu forums) on the how this problem has plagued the Ubuntu user community at large since 8.04 has been released. Alternatives were to burn the .iso image file at the slowest possible speed - this also failed (and has failed for other users too).
As of now there is no concrete clear-cut method to avoid this problem if it should occur. We have tried reasonging the numerous possibilities, and it could be anything from a bug within the installer that manifests because of certain discrepancies with how Windows XP deals with the hard drive, to overheating of the CD drive causing the installer to crash. There's no definite answer to the problem, and it continues to plague the community at large.
At one point I completely removed Windows XP from my system (using the partitioner within the liveCD in manual mode) and even then Ubuntu 8.04 and 7.10 failed to install. I was temporarily stuck for a day when my computer would start up, display the manufacturer logo and then display a blank screen saying "MBR (master boot record) error / Missing OS".
Finally the problem was resolved by installing Ubuntu 7.04 "Fesity Fawn" (which also failed twice with the same errors during installation!) and then upgrading online to Gutsy first, and then to Hardy (8.04).
As fair warning, be prepared to deal with these issues when installing Ubuntu 8.04, however, if you stick through it, it's totally worth it; the coolest and most hip OS around, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is in da house!
PS: I would direct new users and old who are facing this problem to look it up in the Ubuntu Forums.
The error occurred during installation of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (desktop version) form the liveCD. After partitioning the hard drive to accommodate Ubuntu 8.04 and starting the installation, the installer would crash at different points during installation occasionally throwing out the error message "Errorno5: input/output error" - it would go on to say that it couldn't write files to a particular sector of the hard disk, and subsequently asks to see if the CD is dirty.
When the installer froze, looking at the command line interface screen which runs under the Gnome GUI interface (by pressing Alt+F8) that shows the scripts executing as the installer copies files to the system necessary for setting up Ubuntu; the error message "SQUASHFS error" and two other associated error messages would flood the screen (as if caught in an infinite loop of some sort).
This problem replicated itself each time we tried installing Ubuntu 8.04 on my laptop (which had Windows XP previously installed) or on some of Dell desktop computers (in the research lab) which also had ONLY Windows XP pre-installed on them. Unfortunately at this point I cannot make the generalization that this problem occurs only on systems which have Windows XP pre-installed on them, since one of the lab machines which did have only Windows XP pre-installed, ran the installation program off the liveCD perfectly without any hangups.
However, some of the other lab machines and my laptop weren't lucky, and no matter how many times we re-partitioned and tried installing Ubuntu 8.04, it would crash each time. Subsequently trying to install Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" also failed on those machines; with the exact same error messages!
At one point we conjectured, that the problem might be with the liveCD. This was concluded after reading (on the Ubuntu forums) on the how this problem has plagued the Ubuntu user community at large since 8.04 has been released. Alternatives were to burn the .iso image file at the slowest possible speed - this also failed (and has failed for other users too).
As of now there is no concrete clear-cut method to avoid this problem if it should occur. We have tried reasonging the numerous possibilities, and it could be anything from a bug within the installer that manifests because of certain discrepancies with how Windows XP deals with the hard drive, to overheating of the CD drive causing the installer to crash. There's no definite answer to the problem, and it continues to plague the community at large.
At one point I completely removed Windows XP from my system (using the partitioner within the liveCD in manual mode) and even then Ubuntu 8.04 and 7.10 failed to install. I was temporarily stuck for a day when my computer would start up, display the manufacturer logo and then display a blank screen saying "MBR (master boot record) error / Missing OS".
Finally the problem was resolved by installing Ubuntu 7.04 "Fesity Fawn" (which also failed twice with the same errors during installation!) and then upgrading online to Gutsy first, and then to Hardy (8.04).
As fair warning, be prepared to deal with these issues when installing Ubuntu 8.04, however, if you stick through it, it's totally worth it; the coolest and most hip OS around, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is in da house!
PS: I would direct new users and old who are facing this problem to look it up in the Ubuntu Forums.
sbanerj1 |
Latest page update: made by sbanerj1
, May 24 2008, 4:55 PM EDT
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