Ubuntu Installer Shows No Partitions

[Pumalite]

XP or Vista?

[mxcrowe]

The machine as spec'd in my first post is loaded with Vista Ultimate SP1 in a single partition. I used Vista to create a new 80G partition for Ubuntu. Now, whether that partition is unformatted, formatted NTFS, or formated ext3 (via Gparted), the Ubuntu installer does not see either my original Vista partition or the new partition I have created to install Ubuntu. As far as I can tell, this installer does not recognize that I have a hard drive. Gparted sees the partitions right away, and I used it to reformat the new NTFS partition to ext3, but the Ubuntu installer acts the same every time - no partitions seen, no O/S loaded.

[Pumalite]

Time to try some boot parameters. Try first:
all_generic_ide
at the end of your boot line

From another thread:

'I had the same problem installimg from the Live USB stick, I didn't see the hard drives. When you start the LiveCD, in the end, before clicking install, open a terminal.

#sudo passwd (to set the root password)
#sudo -s (to become root permanently)

#modprobe ide-generic

Now, I think you will be able to see the other install drives (at least it worked for me).

Now you can start the install clicking the Install program.'

[xjgnsdof]

I had the same problem, and adding "all_generic_ide" to the end of my boot sequence (after pressing F6) allowed me to install Hardy from the LiveCD.

Can someone explain (to me and to the OP) why Ubuntu would fail to recognize hard drive partitions that were there?

[Pumalite]

You might have a SATA controller configured as IDE

[IMSciFi]

Same issue here, but on a Foxconn P45A-S board (Same chipset), 8.04(.1) does not see the SATA drives at all, but 8.10 Beta does. I'm at work atm but will attempt the appended install command when I get home and report back.

[ph8]

To get around this bug in Hardy I had edited a setting in the BIOS which presented my SATA drives as IDE - since this was fixed in Intrepid without (apparently) being backwards compatible - I changed them back to being presented as straight SATA and all was well with the world.

Weird, I know

[ubiubi]

Hi

I have the identical problem as descibed at the top of the thread. But the problem of sata drive recognition continues with PCLINUX and FEDORA. I'm going to try the boot line alterations / verify the sata controler is not set up incorrectly.

Window XP
ABIT P35-E
E4300

do these problems only concern Intel based systems?

Cheers for the advice!

[Soturi]

I also had this issue, booting with all_generic_ide=1 at the live CD prompt fixed it. Interestingly, enabling AHCI mode in the BIOS also allowed the installer to 'see' the hard drive. I believe that this error is the result of the ICH10 chipset present in P45 and P43 series motherboards, possibly in G45 series as well. The chipset seems to present non-AHCI enabled drives as an unknown device to Ubuntu, but the workarounds are easy enough.

[mxcrowe]

Just as a follow up, 9.10 installed on the exact same system configuration, no change to BIOS or mobo, with no problem. Recognized my hard drive right away. Set up to partitions for Win7 and Ubuntu 9.10. Using GRUB2.
-MXC