Install Ubuntu 12.04 on desktop with partitions on multiple hard drives

Question

Here are the specs of my rather old desktop computer:

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.41GHz;
  
• 2GB RAM DDR2 800 MHz
  
• Nvidia 9600 GT 1GB 128-bit
  
• Asus P5KPL-VM motherboard
  

3 HDDs:

• 160 GB Western Digital
• 320 GB Western Digital
• 1 TB Western Digital

After having Windows 8 installed and setting up an Ubuntu 12.04 install, I ran into a couple of problems. I decided to delete everything on the hard drives and tried a fresh Ubuntu install.

How do I setup all the partitions for all the drives? The only pointers that I found were for setting up partitions for only 1 HDD, but that didn't work for me. I followed these steps, but after installing and rebooting I get a black screen that says:

error : no such partition grub rescue>

I tried installing and running boot repair, but nothing changes. I still get that error and Ubuntu doesn't boot. Following the steps above, I have only partitioned 1 HDD, the 160 GB one, with a 4GB partition for the swap area and the rest of the available memory is for the ext4 partition - for my Ubuntu install. The other hard drives remain intact and are seen as free space. How can I partition all my drives and install Ubuntu correctly?

On the first install, I have stumbled upon some other problems as follows:

1. My motherboard has an integrated sound card (the only one I have available) Realtek Ac97, but after install only my front 2 speakers work. I have a 5.1 sound system that is connected via my 3 jack ports, rear speakers plugged in the auxiliary jack port, mid/subwoofer plugged into the microphone port. I followed another guide that said I should change the alsamixer channels from 2 to 6 (for 5.1), but I don't know if this works as my Ubuntu crashed because of my next problem.

2. Ubuntu asked me to update my Nvidia driver. It gave me a list of possible updates and due to my inexperience, I chose the one that had (Recommended) at the end of the line. It asked me to reboot, but after the reboot, I got to a screen full of loading commands with one faulty line:

   Starting load fallback graphics devices [fail]

These 2 problems can wait because for the moment, I can't run anything on my desktop.

Edit: I installed Ubuntu from a USB flash that I made and there doesn't seem to be any problems with it.

Answer 1

Was Win8 completely erased and are you gonna reinstall it? I'd suggest splitting the smallest HDD evenly between the two and using the other for both as media (like I do).

NVidia + Ubuntu = Bad There's probably a better way, but I'd suggest using a Live CD/USB to back up your files and do yet another fresh install. Make sure you have wired internet plugged up during installation.

Answer 2

So it seems like you killed your nvidia drivers. I assume that after boot, you have a blank screen (and maybe hear the drum sounds).

As this answer may help new linux users during their first install (since failing Nvidia is a common problem), I will be very descriptive in the following explanations.

We'll first go in a shell. What you usually use in Ubuntu is X (or desktop environnement). That's just a nice and sleek graphical interface to interact with your computer. Other than that, you can interact with the computer through a text interface

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What to do (paritions)

Installing Ubuntu Alongside a Pre-Installed Windows with UEFI

It treats the issue with pre-installed windows on which you slap over Ubuntu. This direction (windows first, linux second), is usually the easiest get things to work out.

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What to do (fix grub)

You will want to install the grub from one of your linux partition, since sometimes, boot-repair fails. Let me explain.

We will first boot from a live-cd, then chroot in your linux partition, then call update-grub. To "chroot" means to make the shell think the root directory is in a different place. It allows terminal access to a partition as if you booted from if. You can use that method to run an apt-get update, too.

1. Boot from live-usb.

2. In a terminal (or shell: ctrl+alt+F1), call sudo fdisk -l

3. Find your linux partition. I will assume your partition is /dev/sda1 from now on, but it may be sdb2 or else

4. Call sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt.

5. Mount the filesystems too. This allows you to call the partition’s commands while chrooted.:

   mount -t proc none /mnt/proc

   mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev

   mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys

Now, just call sudo chroot/mnt, and you're in your partition. We'll install, check and update the grub:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
sudo update-grub

Note that you only call the drive name (sda) and not the partition name (sda1).

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What to do (graphic card)

Once your computer is fully booted, press ctrl+alt+f1 until you see the shell appear. you should see:

Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS <computer> tty1

<computer> login:

For reference, "tty1" just means you're using shell #1. By default, you have access to 6 independent shells through ctrl+alt+F1-6.

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First let's clear all nvidia drivers installed. Call the following commands:

sudo service light-dm stop
sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

The first line stops the graphical interface, in case it was active but failing. The second removes anything Nvidia related, as the asterisk can be anything. Finally, the "sudo" part that precedes the commands just means "superuser do". It allows you do anything to your computer, including irremediably corrupting it. Whenever possible, try not to use sudo, but this case requires it.

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Next, we'll install nvidia drivers:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings

First line adds a repository where packages can be fetched from. We need to get the drivers from there.

The second line triggers an update: your package list will be checked, and if any discrepancies between available versions and installed versions, they will be downloaded. Note that it only downloads "minor" updates such as bug fixes. Usually, little to no new functionalities are installed by running apt-get update.

The third line installs both the nvidia-current package and the nvidia-settings packages.

From there, call sudo shutdown -r now to trigger a restart.

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If it doesn't work

We'll try different versions of the drivers.

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo apt-get install nvidia-XXX nvidia-settings

Again, remove all nvidia packages and install the new one. From personal experience, XXX can be any of the following: 331, 325, 319, 304. Older versions (like 304 on certain Nvidia models) will not support things like 3D acceleration, so I would recommend trying 331, 325, 319, 304, in that order

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If it doesn't work (bis)

Then it means the current drivers don't mix well with your system. We'll trigger a dist-upgrade, then install the drivers again.

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get instal nvidia-current nvidia-settings

The dist-upgrade line will upgrade your whole install to the newest versions of all packages.