I'm trying to install 32bit Linux on top of Vista (trying to install to replace, since I don't want need or desire to use vista ever again) and i'm at a bit of a loss. I had to use Unetbootin since both usb drives and disk drives are disabled by malware on vista. It worked so far, got me to live mode (where I'm posting this from) but i'm having trouble with selecting partitions.


-- http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z10/leecarey_2007/Screenshot.png

For some reason SDA and HDA partitions do not come up (as I was told they should be on another forum) when trying to replace vista.

I also tried to use the "something else" option, but again, this is a little confusing for me, here are some screenshots of the partitions i get on this menu:

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z10/leecarey_2007/Screenshot2.png

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z10/leecarey_2007/Screenshot3.png

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z10/leecarey_2007/Screenshot4.png

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z10/leecarey_2007/Screenshot5.png

Some extra info:

I haven't edited any windows partitions -- since I thought i'd be replacing vista with Zorin, and I have no idea how to edit partitions
I haven't uninstalled vista or formatted the drives (though I have deleted everything apart fom MS word and firefox and defragged both drives)
There's no way I can use usb or disk drives. both have been corrupted by malware, which is the reason I'm switching to Zorin OS

Any other info you need, please ask, im not entirely sure what else I should include

sda is visible when doing a "something else" install.

Select all the partitions one by one and press the "delete" button. Now select the free space (usually called "unallocated space") and press the "add" button.

From there you should have a bunch of options, one should be size (commonly in mb), set this to 25600. Another one of the options should be something like "mount point" select "/" (may say "root" next to it, or "root" instead of / ). Yet another of the options should be filesystem, select ext4 (may default to this). Ok out of that window

Once again select the "unallocated space" and click the add button. The window full of options should appear again

Set the size (in MB most likely) equal to your RAM size, maybe 1 or 2 GB bigger. for filesystem type, select "swap". You don't set a mount point for this

Once again select the "unallocated space" and click the add button. The window of options should appear again

Use all the remaining space. for the mount point select "/home" and make the filesystem ext4 again.


*all the above is based on general linux installation knowledge, I've never used Zorin and the exact wording may be different*

Ok that worked, got me to the next page where you set the time zone, and the following arrived in a popup, with the option to ignore or cancel "Parition(s) 2 on /dev/sda have been written, but we have been unable to inform the kernel of the change, probably because it/they are in use. As a result, the old partition(s) will remain in use. You should reboot now before making further changes."

Pressing ignore does nothing, Cancelling or closing the notification box crashes the installation menu.

At this point I blam Zorin, never heard of the distro, so can't speak of the quality, but it sure does seem to be having quite a few problems for you. I suggest a distro more suited for you and known to behave well, like Ku/Lubuntu or Linux Mint.

It's just searching for a bootable device and can't find one, as your did change your partitions (though the final write for one of them failed). Change your boot priority in BIOS to boot from CD and USB before HDD.

Why are you sticking with Zorin when it's giving you nothing but problems? As far as I can tell there's nothing special about the distro, just yet another Ubuntu respin with extra junk installed by default and a different DE. Kubuntu/Lubuntu/Linux Mint would probably suit you much better.

Changed the BIOS and no change. As for zorin, I think most of the failures I've experienced with it are down to personal error combined with the use of unetbootin instead of a disk boot, I've not seen any installation attempt fail as spectacularly as mine so far.

That's not going to change anything unless there's something else to boot from at a higher priority. Older BIOSes are also notorious at not being able to remember booting from USB settings properly.

Just don't understand what's so good about the distro, it seems pretty sub-par and doesn't have much in the form of support sources.