installer hangs on starting partition editor

[Daniel Kinzler]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

When trying to install Ubuntu 8.04 on an Asus F3JC laptop, the installer (ubiquity) hangs after choosing a keyboard layout, while starting the partition editor (the message being shown is something like "determining file systems", I used the german version so i'm not sure about the wording). The system remains reactive, and I can even abort ubiquity cleanly -- it just does not continue and shows no message.

This problem occurs when booting into the installer directly as well as starting it from a live session. It happens with Kubuntu as well as Ubuntu.

When running ubiquity with the -d option, an error message is shown, with the option to continue anyway and a hint to look at the system log (excerpt attached). If I tell ubiquity to continue anyway, I can perform some more setup steps, but when ending step 5/6 (or starting step 6/6), the UI freezes and nothing happens further (again, the system itself remains reactive).

This is a complete show stopper. I will now try the text based installer. I hope it works....

[Evan (ev)]

Is this a standard 8.04 Ubuntu desktop CD or a remastered one? Have you run the "Check CD for defects" option? Can you please post the full /var/log/syslog and /var/log/partman files from a failing install attempt?

Thanks!

[Daniel Kinzler (brightbyte)]

I used a standard 8.04 Ubuntu desktop CD, freshly downloaded and burned; Same for the Kubuntu try. I have not run the check from the boot menu, but did verify the burn. Also, the same problem occurred with both, ubuntu and kubuntu, thus a corrupted disk seems unlikely as a cause.

In the mean time, I have used the "alternate" text-based installer, and it worked. However, before and after the partition editor is shown, it shows a blank (blue) screen for a LONG time (several minutes). That fits with the experience from running gparted directly from a live CD session: it works, but takes long to show partitions.

To get you full copies of /var/log/syslog and /var/log/partman, I'd have to rerun the installer - aborting it just in time not to kill my shiny new installation. I'll see if I can muster the motivation to do this :) If I do, I'll also "Check CD for defects" first.

[Daniel Kinzler (brightbyte)]

/var/log/syslog

[Daniel Kinzler (brightbyte)]

/var/log/partman

[Daniel Kinzler (brightbyte)]

Oh wow. While posting the above, i left the hanging installer open. Turns out, the partition editor does start eventually, after about 10 minutes of playing dead. I wonder what its doing all that time... no hd activity is shown, nothing. The text-based installer took a while before showing the partion editor, too, but not *that* long.

I restarted ubiquity with -d -- interestingly, this time, no error messages is shown, as was the case before. Now it just sits there (and probably will show parted at some point). Maybe the original error went away because there is no longer an NTFS-Partition with an XP-Pro on it... maybe that's what triggered the original problem.

I'm a bit confused.

Anyway, I'll attach /var/log/installer/debug for good measure.

PS: i did run an integrity check on the cd this time. no errors.

[ArdyFalls (afalls)]

This is happening when I try and Install Kubuntu 8.10 amd64. After telling me that I have a big hard disk, it hangs on 50% forever.

[ArdyFalls (afalls)]

"This is happening when I try and Install Kubuntu 8.10 amd64. After telling me that I have a big hard disk, it hangs on 50% forever."
 - This issue can be resolved by disconnecting my IPod from my computer when I install.

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!