• Registered: 2009-09-22
  • Posts: 8

Topic: Installation of #l not even remotely funny with several big(?) HDD's

Hi there,
first time poster here. First let me state that I really like #l, it's extremely fast and streamlined and just flies
away on my Dual-Core Athlon XP 7750 BE/4 GB OCZ PC1066 RAM. I have 5 SATA II HDD's in my machine,

  • 2 x 320 GB SAMSUNG SPINPOINT

  • 2 x 160 GB SAMSUNG SPINPOINT

  • 1 x   80 GB SAMSUNG SPINPOINT

When clicking the install shortcut, I choose my language, kbd layout and location and then the installer
apparently proceeds to the disk partitioner.
However it takes at a bare minimum 20 minutes before the loading of the last is done. In between nothing
happens, the wheel keeps spinning, CPU indicates a bare 1% of useage, giving the impression that nothing
is done. At this point i have given up a couple o' times, believing that a restart would cure the problem.
Only by accident did I discover on the last try that I should just leave it alone for a while. I made some coffee,
went to the shop nearby to buy some milk, and when I came back, oh wonder, the partition tool finally
decided to show up.
Now I don't know if that is a problem of the Ubuntu installer (it sure looks like) or if there's maybe some
not so well laid out scripts of yours that make it behave the way it does, but it sure isn't funny. I guess
many people would have given up long before I decided to try it one last time, and if I didn't let it run as
long as I did this last time, I wouldn't have insisted on trying again or even recommending #l to others.
I'm happy it turned out as it did finally, but like I said, the process isn't even remotely funny by a long shot.

I really hope that for future versions these shortcomings will be ironed out cause I'm sure you actually miss
out on a lot of folks if they have a similar experience than I did.

Anyway, still a thumbs up for an all around nice distro/variation on *buntu. I Know I'll keep using it for a while
to see how smp support is working and if I can maybe even use it as a base for my next
Linux DAW/Multimedia workstation.

Cheers,

Raphael wink

  • Toolz
  • #! Die-hard
  • Offline
  • From: Asia
  • Registered: 2009-02-02
  • Posts: 937

Re: Installation of #l not even remotely funny with several big(?) HDD's

The issue might be that the partitioner is running ntfsresize on each of those partitions. I encountered this issue:
http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … ize-issue/
Try 

ntfsresize --info --force --no-progress-bar /dev/sdax

On each of your partitions. If you come to one that takes ridiculously long then format it and try again. Formatting reduced the time from many minutes to abt 30 seconds for me. That disk seems to be dying now so it could also be an indicator of serious problems.

This error should occur on various dsitros - definitely anything Ubuntu-based.

Consider Gsmartcontrol too.

  • Registered: 2009-09-22
  • Posts: 8

Re: Installation of #l not even remotely funny with several big(?) HDD's

Hi Toolz,
thanks fot the reply. As to the drives, they're relatively new. The 2 320 GB HDD's have been bought in mai this year, the 2 160 GB ones
are around a little more than 1 year old. Only the 80 GB drive is a little older already.
But #l is the first distro needing so long for the task, and I install/try out quite some distros.
Just a few days ago I deeply checked all my ntfs drives/partitions under WinXP and all seemed fine.

But I'll definitely have a look at/try out your tips. Just to be sure.
Cheers,

Raphael wink

  • Toolz
  • #! Die-hard
  • Offline
  • From: Asia
  • Registered: 2009-02-02
  • Posts: 937

Re: Installation of #l not even remotely funny with several big(?) HDD's

funkster1 wrote:

Hi Toolz,
thanks fot the reply. As to the drives, they're relatively new.

Mine was - it was bought in December and spent half the year in the drawer. Windows was fine with it.

A very quick test is to run Gparted. If all the partitions are mounted it should open quickly. If they're not you experience exactly the same problem you did during installation. Hopefully one drive is a bit dodgy and I recommend you just remove it.

  • Registered: 2009-09-22
  • Posts: 8

Re: Installation of #l not even remotely funny with several big(?) HDD's

Toolz wrote:
funkster1 wrote:

Hi Toolz,
thanks fot the reply. As to the drives, they're relatively new.

Mine was - it was bought in December and spent half the year in the drawer. Windows was fine with it.

A very quick test is to run Gparted. If all the partitions are mounted it should open quickly. If they're not you experience exactly the same problem you did during installation. Hopefully one drive is a bit dodgy and I recommend you just remove it.

OK wink

  • Registered: 2009-09-22
  • Posts: 8

Re: Installation of #l not even remotely funny with several big(?) HDD's

Toolz wrote:
funkster1 wrote:

Hi Toolz,
thanks fot the reply...

Mine was ...
A very quick test is to run Gparted. If all the partitions are mounted it should open quickly...

Well, opening gparted with all partitions mounted is almost instant. Takes just a few seconds really for
5 HDD's/14 partitions (4 x ext3, 1 x swap, 1 x windows pagefile, 8 x ntfs).

Raphael wink

  • Toolz
  • #! Die-hard
  • Offline
  • From: Asia
  • Registered: 2009-02-02
  • Posts: 937

Re: Installation of #l not even remotely funny with several big(?) HDD's

Great, that's what should happen whether everything was fine or one of the partitions/disks was damaged. Now how about trying the rest of the suggestions.

  • Registered: 2009-09-22
  • Posts: 8

Re: Installation of #l not even remotely funny with several big(?) HDD's

Yup, will do as soon as I get a minute to try. Meanwhile I have another problem with the ATI drivers,
but that's for another thread.

Raphael wink