leopard, I'm not 100% sure I read this line, because it disappeared very fast.
I don't know what a bad inode format is, nor do I know if that's relevant.
Thanks a lot for your help, even though it didn't work.

Eric, I'm going to reinstall everything now, as it is said in post 64.

Ok, best of luck, let us know how it goes.

Kind regards,

Eric

You said I could ask if I had any questions. I've never installed an OS (neither linux nor windows) so this may sound stupid, but am I not supposed to uninstall (or format ?) the ubuntu I have right now before installing a new one ?

Sure you can ask any question you want. If someone here can provide an answer to it, then you're set to go.

Answering your question about installing Ubuntu, no you don't need to format anything before reinstalling. Just let the Ubuntu installer take care of that. Once you're running the installer at some point you'll have to choose the correct partition (/dev/sda5 right?), and tell the installer at that point to use that. The installer will probably tell you that an installation has been encountered on that disk, at which point you'll have the option to delete the existing installation.

Kind regards,

Eric

May I know how long (rough approximation) this is supposed to take ?

My CD driver made some weird scratching noises at some time, I hope this will go well.

I'm at the point where I am asked my GMT time. If I press on my country, it becomes green. But the time that is displayed is 1 hour wrong. Same goes if I choose my country from the zone menu.
Should I press forward anyway, or should I choose a country that is not mine but where the time is correct ?

Depending on your hardware you're looking at somewhere between a half hour and one and a half hour, including updating the base system. Next you'll have to see what needs to be installed, copy over your documents, set your preferences again, ....

You can select your timezone without problems, if the hour is of then most likely the system isn't taking the 'winter hour' into account. You can change that after installation, if it doesn't synchronize automatically.

Let's hope your CD drive doesn't give up now!

Kind regards,

Eric

So I'm on step 4 : "prepare disk space".
it says :
this computer has several os on it.
windows loader dev/sda1
/dev/sda2
ubuntu 910 dev/sda5
swap dev/sda6

where do you want to put ubuntu 9.10 ?
1. install them side by side, choosing between them each startup
2. erase and use the entire disk
3. specify partitions manually (advanced)

i'm guessing i am supposed to choose the 3rd option, but I'm not sure so i'll wait for your instructions.

I also have a few questions :
- why isn't there a sda0, sda3, sda4 ?
- can you explain me in a few words what's the swap partition and its use ?
- I still have a few difficulties to understand why this booting procedure with grub uses words that are specific to linux (/dev/sdax is not a valid path in windows for instance). I thought this part was prior to loading the systems. How would someone manage to have 2 windows (xp, vista) in the same computer ? Would he need to use linux tools as well ?

Sorry for the wait, was having lunch.

Choose option 3, Advanced. When you get to the advanced page you'll see a list of all your partitions. Select the one holding your Ubuntu install (sda5) and delete it. Then you'll have line mentioning Free space. Select that one and click on the Add button.

The Create Partition popup will show the full size of the selected free space, which you can leave as is, and select as mount point /

Then click on forward and you'll get to the 'Who are you?' screen to provide your data.

Kind regards,

Eric

That's scary. I pressed delete but there was no window confirmation. If I had chosen it wrong I would have deleted my entire windows partition.
I have a line mentioning free space. I didn't select it yet.
I just noticed something that I think requires another question :
the linux swap is now called /dev/sda5. Is that normal, and why did it change its location like that ?

Either because they have been used before and deleted later on, or because of naming convention.
swap is like a temporary file that gets used by Linux when there is no more RAM memory avaiable.
Because it is typical to Linux, don't compare Linux to Windows, they are two different worlds. Have a look at this site.
Windows uses its own boot manager/procedure and doesn't understand anything else but Windows, whereas Linux boot managers like grub, grub2, lilo, .... can handle a variety of operating systems.

Kind regards,

Eric

LOL, I told you, look twice before doing anything. You can easily delete another partition without problem. Regular users, and beginning Linux users, don't use this, that's why it's called advanced. It requires more than just point and click, it needs you to understand what you're doing.

The change in names is performed by the partitioner to keep the partition table clean and tidy. It's completely normal. You can delete it if you want and recreate it, just select logical as type and swap area as fileystem.

Kind regards,

Eric

(by the way, I've also noticed that when you delete something in ubuntu, there's no window confirmation before it's moved into the trash. There's no way to change that, is there?)

I won't do any changes unless you think it's necessary.

By the way I just noticed there's an undo button called 'revert'.

Type for the new partition : primary or logical ?
location for the new partition : beginning or end ?
uses as : ext4 journaling file system/ext3 journaling file sytem/ ext2 file systel / reiserFS jorunal file system/ jfs jorunaling file system/xfs journlign file system/fat16/fat32/swap area/ do not use the partition
mount point. I should choose '/' here right ?

Yes you can change that behavior so that the system will ask you for confirmation before deleting. Might be wrong but I believe that Ubuntu has a 'trash can' so that you can undelete stuff that you might have deleted.

Type for the new partition: Primary
Location: beginning
Use as: ext4
Mount point: /

Kind regards,

Eric

I didn't express myself clearly enough. I meant that I would like it to ask for confirmation before sending to trash (as in windows... :S)

primary, you sure ? By default logical was selected. (was it this anyway? and while we're at it, what's the difference between beginning and end?)

Yes you can get that confirmation set up, have to look into it however.

The partition that holds your OS must be primary, so yes, primary, I'm sure. Difference between beginning and end is that they are on opposite sides of the disk? LOL, really if you select beginning the partition will be put at the beginning of the disk/available space. Swap usually goes at the end because it's only used when your RAM runs out.

Kind regards,

Eric