UbuntuDupe's Journal: Ubuntu haunts me from the grave

A lot of you are aware by now of my ... shall we say ... unpleasant experience with Ubuntu. It cost me a lot of grief, despite my above-average (wait, think about who we're averaging over) computer knowledge, experience with swapping out components in my box, and intense preparations. Over the years, more events have rubbed it in:

-The fact that people get modded up for making the exact same design criticisms I've made, in different contexts.
-The fact that I gain hordes of freaks and downmods whenever I discuss my experience.
-The fact that I have to read about how "easy" Ubuntu is.
-All the stories I see of people talking about their multiple hard drives, while they acted like I was a freak from a different planet for having more than one HD on my setup.
-The fact that the install process hasn't been updated per my recommendations (make sure everyone installing has the necessary tools for fixing the problem of being locked out BEFORE they go through with it; making sure GRUB isn't HIGHLY RECOMMENDED if someone can load their OS by picking a different drive to boot from), or, if it has, I have not received a gold-plated apology.

But with help from my brother, I was able to regain access to Windows, which I have used all through today.

I thought the story was over. All of you thought the story was over. It's not.

Yesterday, I was looking at my 3rd hard drive's free space, and I saw that there was still about 60 gigs allocated to the Ubuntu partition. So, I decided to go into disk manager and delete that partition. But after I did it, suddenly, the Windows side is recognized as "free space" as well.

Oh, shit.

I turned off the computer and disconnected the third hard drive. Then I downloaded Partition Magic (on advice from my brother), then turned it off again, reconnected, and turned it back on and opened PM. It identified several problems with the boot sector on the 3rd HD, all of which were made through the Ubuntu CD. It corrected them, but Windows still sees it as being all "free space", but still partitioned. In the hope of salvaging the data on this hard drive, for now I have disconnected it again, and will meet with my brother in the future to see what we can do to correct it. In the mean time, I'm doing without the 160 gigs of data.

You couldn't leave me alone, could you, Ubuntu?

You brought it on yourself

[illumin8]

I have to say, I've read a lot of your comments, and especially in any Ubuntu story, you seem to have a pre-determined negative opinion of Ubuntu. Also, I read the painful thread you posted over at the Ubuntu forums. Those people were honestly trying to help you, and you deliberately refused to be helped, and just wanted to complain about how "Installing Ubuntu requires Microsoft software." No, it doesn't require MS software, but if you got your system into a state where you can't boot either Linux or Wi

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[UbuntuDupe]

I have to say, I've read a lot of your comments, and especially in any Ubuntu story, you seem to have a pre-determined negative opinion of Ubuntu.

No, I really wanted to have something non-MS, but Ubuntu's incomplete install instructions and HIGHLY RECOMMENDING I take an unnecessary risk, changed all that.

hose people were honestly trying to help you, and you deliberately refused to be helped,

No, I just couldn't do the things they asked ... like burning CDs ... because I installed their OS in the first place

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[CheShACat]

Not to the "newbies" that Ubuntu is targeted toward. I would have thought anyone that had the inclination to do any type of operating system installation would be able to work this out. Except you, apparently.

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[illumin8]

Any reason you friended me? Shouldn't you be foeing me?I must have friended you because you wrote an interesting comment in some probably non Ubuntu story. I'm no Ubuntu shill, I just think they make a decent OS, but it's not for everyone. Hopefully you give it another chance sometime soon and lose the chip on your shoulder.

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[UbuntuDupe]

I must have friended you because you wrote an interesting comment in some probably non Ubuntu story

Yes and this is what mystifies me. Look at my posting history as a whole. Look at my steady history of positive contributions to discussion. Judge for yourself the intelligence of my remarks. Ask yourself if these are the posts of an idiot, of an unreasonable individual.

I think it should give you pause when you view my posting history as a whole, and then consider my experience with Ubuntu. I think it sho

You're a severe outlier.

[SanityInAnarchy]

Outlier as in, statistical improbability.

Most people I have talked to who have tried to install Ubuntu either don't have the experience/intelligence to pull it off themselves, or find their heads spinning at how easy it was. Most problems with Ubuntu are after installation, and are usually the user complaining about some missing feature, or some unsupported hardware.

It is an interesting dichotomy -- you've got multiple hard drives. Lots of us do, but most of us who have multiple hard drives also know fstab

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[UbuntuDupe]

Whoa whoa whoa, I don't understand. I'm supposed to have a second, backup hard drive -- you know, for recovery in case something goes WRONG on the install -- but Ubuntu isn't designed to be easy for people with more than one hard drive? And on top of that, when I *do* (responsibly) confine Ubuntu to a second hard drive, the install process HIGHLY RECOMMENDS that I *disable* this very wise precaution by overwriting my MBR?

Make sense.

It doesn't matter than I'm a statistical outlier. Basic design principles

I didn't say any of these things.

[SanityInAnarchy]

I'm supposed to have a second, backup hard drive -- you know, for recovery in case something goes WRONG on the install

I didn't say that. All I said was, the kind of experienced person who would have a backup hard drive, and would be installing multiple OSes, is not usually the kind of person to have trouble installing Ubuntu.

And on top of that, when I *do* (responsibly) confine Ubuntu to a second hard drive, the install process HIGHLY RECOMMENDS that I *disable* this very wise precaution by overwriting my

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[UbuntuDupe]

How many people installing Ubuntu on a second hard drive are going to have some way (other than Grub) of choosing which hard drive to boot from?

Try "everyone".

*Turn on computer*
*hit F8* (or whatever)

"Choose which drive you would like to load from."
*choose 3rd HD*
*loads Ubuntu*

THAT should be the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED option. It should advise you to ONLY modify the boot record of the HD containing the Ubuntu partition. Advanced users (who know enough to weigh the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED option) are then free to ris

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[SanityInAnarchy]

THAT should be the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED option.

Indeed, if it was present on even half of the computers Ubuntu was being installed on.

I have still seen plenty of machines without such a menu, and almost ALL users have no idea what the menu is, or how to use it. There are also things that make said menu inaccessible -- for instance, hibernation on my laptop makes the BIOS ignore everything you try to do, and simply attempt to boot the first hard drive.

There's also the tendency of some (but not all) BIOSes to

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[SanityInAnarchy]

Not to the "newbies" that Ubuntu is targeted toward.

Not to beat a dead horse, but the newbies that Ubuntu is targeted toward have one hard drive, and it has either one or two partitions -- either Windows, or Windows + recovery partition.

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[chubs730]

What are you trying to accomplish by criticizing one Linux distribution and its community just because you managed to screw up your computer using that software? Clearly you're incompetent when it comes to Linux/operating systems/computers in general so why waste everyone's time complaining about something that is both free and non-binding?

It is obvious that you know little to nothing about bootloaders if you consider installing GRUB a risky operation. It's trivial to configure GRUB for multiple operati

Blaming Ubuntu for Windows Disk Manager

[illumin8]

Yesterday, I was looking at my 3rd hard drive's free space, and I saw that there was still about 60 gigs allocated to the Ubuntu partition. So, I decided to go into disk manager and delete that partition. But after I did it, suddenly, the Windows side is recognized as "free space" as well.

Oh, and how silly is it that you're blaming Ubuntu for the fact that you used Windows Disk Manager and it blew away your Windows partition. Get a fucking clue. You're a loser that doesn't know how to use a computer prope

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[UbuntuDupe]

No, believe it or not, even Windows Disk Manager doesn't arbitrarily delete an entire hard drive (in half a second!) when you tell it to delete a partition. Please. The problem was traced to the boot sector of the 3rd hard drive.

Guess which CD set up that boot sector.

So how does that work?

[SanityInAnarchy]

Specifically, how is it possible for Windows Disk Manager deleting one partition to kill the other? I thought you said you had the Windows partition available there...

I would suggest gpart as a way of finding the original partition layout, if you haven't done that already (through some other means).

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[UbuntuDupe]

Specifically, how is it possible for Windows Disk Manager deleting one partition to kill the other? I thought you said you had the Windows partition available there...

Step back a minute.

My 3rd HD had an Ubuntu and Windows partition. I deleted the Ubuntu partition.

I don't think that WDM deleted the Windows partition. However, because of the boot record placed there, it cannot now recognize the Windows partition. Which is more likely: that Windows has long had a severe, unpatched Disk Manager bug, or that

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[SanityInAnarchy]

Which is more likely: that Windows has long had a severe, unpatched Disk Manager bug, or that an Ubuntu CD, KNOWN to have trouble on large hard drives (mine = 250 Gb), improperly wrote the boot record and caused Windows to be unable to recognize it?

Huh. I have Ubuntu running off a half-terabyte RAID. I also have it running on a 200 gig drive -- encrypted, no less.

Which is more likely: That Windows has a severe, unpatched Disk Manager bug; that Ubuntu has a strange, undocumented installer bug on large hard

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[UbuntuDupe]

Huh. I have Ubuntu running off a half-terabyte RAID. I also have it running on a 200 gig drive -- encrypted, no less.

Which you installed with Breezy Badger's standard install disc, using the official instructions and having installed the GRUB version of that time along with it?

Which is more likely: That Windows has a severe, unpatched Disk Manager bug; that Ubuntu has a strange, undocumented installer bug on large hard drives (but somehow, not mine); or that you managed to screw something up?

What could I ha

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[jamstar7]

Why didn't you just open up a terminal in Windows? Click Start > Run, then type "cmd.com", click enter. Once you're there, type:

fdisk /mbr X:

where X: is the drive you're trying to repair the master boot table.

When a Windows drive has probs in the MBR, that's the first thing I do. 99.99999999999999999% of the time, that's the fix

Two years?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait. It took you TWO YEARS to fix your computer after a boot loader problem?! And you claim to have above average computer experience?

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[UbuntuDupe]

No, I got back into Windows after about a week. I'd been using it just fine after that. Yes, even the 3rd hard drive's Windows partition. Yeah -- the hard drive that every single person there claimed was faulty and OBVIOUSLY was causing the install failure, since it couldn't POSSIBLY be Ubuntu, nope, and I should have test-installed it on a completely different computer first, but GOSH, what weirdo would ever have three hard drives?

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[CheshireDragon]

Even a week is still a bit long for a, say beginner...I am A+ Certified and by no means should it even take a week to buy, build and be in a production environment for a single PC. Before I was A+ Cert, about 12yrs ago when I was still in HS I was peicing together about 10 a day along with install updates and requested apps. I think you really need to listen to people who are genuinely trying to help you. I have been using Linux since it early days when Slackware was 7 and RedHat was 6. NEVER in my exper

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[RAKtheUndead]

>>> No newbie is ready to install any OS, period, although I believe it's also a basic skill that everyone should have. I've been installing operating systems since I was nine - granted, it was MS-DOS 6 and Windows 3.1, which is basically wipe the hard drive and start again. I had problems back when I was trying to install Linux the first few times - Red Hat Linux 4, which didn't have the slick partitioning tool that I got with SuSE 7.0, and for which I had loads of LILO failures (I'm realising no

Yeeeeeah...

[bluephone]

My experience with Linux's partitioning skills. http://burntelectrons.org/item/73 [burntelectrons.org] Best wishes. :)