[ari3312]

ive being having problems with installing ubuntu on a 160gb hd when i install it i get error 17 on boot and i am only installing ubuntu not with windows. i know how to install it cause i have ubuntu in a 6gb hd but want more space

[saikee]

Grub error 17 is "cannot mount selected partition".

This means you have (or rather the installer has) arranged Grub to boot the wrong partition.

You can cure the problem by running a Live CD or any install Linux to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst. If you do not know how to do it then supply the following information

(1) output of terminal command "sudo fdisk -l"
(2) Content of /boot/grub/menu.lst
(3) Content of //boot/grub/device.map
(4) Content of /etc/fstab

An installer is written by human. Human makes mistakes. Happens all the time.

[ari3312]

hey saikee i opened the terminal and put sudo fdisk -l and i got this

Disk /dev/hda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 7295 58597056 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 * 7296 7419 996030 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 7420 7544 1004062+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

when i put the other ones i get

bash: /boot/grub/menu.lst: No such file or directory

and when i put /etc/fstab it said i don't have permission i can access the files by folder but don't know what to do next

[saikee]

The files I asked for are system files. Ubuntu does a good job disallowing an ordinary user getting hold of them unless he/she has the root privilege.

You can get the root privilege by prefix every command with "sudo"

Therefore to see the content of /boot/grub/menu.lst you type at the terminal

sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

If you want root privilege temporary you can get it at the terminal by

sudo su

Thereafter you no longer need prefix every command with "sudo".

The root privilege only given at the terminal. This is for the security reason.

[ari3312]

yes i finally got ubuntu to work thanks for your help saikee it really helped me to see the proplem

[saikee]

Glad you got it sorted.