The Nightmare That Was Installing Ubuntu 9.04 “The Jaunty Jackalope”
I am just about fed up with known Ubuntu installation issues that get passed from one release to the next.
After having many issues with Ubuntu LiveCD installers, I decided to go with the Alternate Install CD for this release, which served me well for Ubuntu Hardy Heron and Intrepid Ibex. This time, however, I got the known (and dreaded) “Change Media” bug, a problem that causes the installer to ask for another CD, even though there isn’t one. Great.
So there I was, with no workable system and an install CD that wouldn’t install. Lucky for me, I had Puppy Linux on a USB stick and my Ubuntu powered Asus Eee PC 701, so I did some working to grab the original ISO from my external hardrive and put it on a USB stick using Intrepid’s “Create Bootable USB Disk” feature on my Eee PC. So, I tried to install via USB. First, the “Select and install software” stage failed, so I double checked the ISO I had grabbed from my hard drive. The MD5SUM didn’t match up, so I repaired the file with BitTorrent. After doing another (passing!) MD5SUM check, I attempted the install again.
Once again, the installed failed at the “select and install software” stage, this time just later in the game. I tried again. This time, the install appeared to complete without a hitch…except that when I tried to reboot into the new operating system I was met by kernel panic. Of course, I’m at my wits end, having tried to install via CD & USB from theoretically ISO images. After a bit of Googling I was able to fix the kernel panic by editing my Grub menu. Nevertheless, I was presented with some sort of ACPI error.
After some more digging I finally concluded that the issues were greater than simply install bugs in the Ubuntu software…turns out I had bad RAM stick in my machine as well.
Once I replaced my RAM, I reinstalled again from USB, and this time everything proceeded flawlessly. It was a long night.
So, do you think that the problems were just due to ram? Or??
@RandyNose Well, the “change media” bug is a known bug in the installer, and then the first failure could have been due a corrupt download. I do think the other failures were most likely RAM issues, because as soon as I swapped out the RAM I had a totally fine install.
Here’s the thing about Ubuntu.
It can never be compared to anything remotely negative…because it can’t possibly be negative…it can’t. No matter what you say, you are a hater if you say a single thing negative about Ubuntu. So, I’ll kindly ask you to change this blog post to be much more positive. Ignore any and all bugs you come across because they don’t exist for anyone out there except you. Also, please drink the koolaide…we can’t have all you negative people running around talking about things that don’t work…when we know that they only don’t work for you.
I too have had no success installing 9.04 on an HP G60 notebook. The installer fails at exactly the same point you described, it does so whether I try the i386 or x86_64 ISO, disc integrity checks out OK, and there appear to be no hardware defects. It seems that I’m always jumping through some kind of hoops to get Ubuntu installed, even though I always research my hardware purchases to ensure Linux compatibility. I like the system (I’m running 64 Studio 3b, based on Ubuntu 8.04) once it’s installed, but it is a royal PITA to get it installed. I’ve searched Google, but I see no help coming from the Ubuntu devs or user community. Can it really be true that I’m the only person experiencing this difficulty ?
@Dave,
I doubt you’re the only person…I’m living proof! Try installing from USB media. That’s what ended up working for me. Best of luck!
Here’s another… and this is from USB media. The problem is their package archives. libnewt0.52 & ex2-modules packages do not exist, which cause the software installer to fail.
I’m a longtime Ubuntu fan, but this experience leaves me extremely displeased. First, upgrading my existing installation from 8.10 caused a condition where my CPUs run 50% at idle, and a fresh install has trashed my entire system, as I can’t boot to the old image anymore either.
The UbuntuStudio team can kiss my ass. I’d rather manually patch a base Ubuntu install over a couple hours than restore my entire system over a weekend. Thanks guys for bringing the Windows experience back into my home!