Ubuntu error: the installer needs to remove operating system files
June 18th 2009
I started installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 in my ASUS Eee PC, and after the partitioning step, I stumbled upon the following error:
The installer needs to remove operating system files from the install target, but was unable to do so. The install cannot continue
I was installing Ubuntu on top of a previous eeebuntu install, smashing the / partition, while reusing the /home. After minimal googling, I found this bug report at Launchpad, with the same problem (and one year old).
As it turns out, the problem was not with the root partition, as I assumed from the error message, but with the home one. Apparently, Ubuntu didn’t like the idea that my home partition was JFS (maybe it couldn’t mount it, because jfs_utils are not loaded by default). The solution: install the OS ignoring (not using) the home partition, and mount it afterwards.
Shame on you, Ubuntu, this solution is lame!
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3 Comments »
Gary on 11 Mar 2010 at 8:13 am #
I solved it by selecting format partition option
isilanes on 11 Mar 2010 at 10:33 am #
Yes, Gary, that would be a solution. However, it cannot apply when one is trying to reuse the JFS partition. Wiping the /home partition was not an option, as I was trying to keep it from a previous install.
The proper solution would be to have the installer ask if you want to install jfs_utils before trying to mount a partition it identified as “JFS”. This seems a catch-22, because installing software can not be done until partitions are finished. However, Ubuntu could accept your choice of reformatting /, reusing /home as JFS, and installing jfs_utils (later). Then, it could first format and mount /, then install the bare minimum, then mount /home, then go on with the installation.
Or the installer could simply support JFS as it does ext2/3/4.
Jeff on 01 May 2011 at 10:42 am #
I solved it by switching to openSuSE 11.4. :-) Amazingly this still occurs in Kubuntu 11.04 (liveCD AND alternate).
Cannonical kept bragging about how they’ll improve the LiveCD Installer for 10.10, then the alternate-CD (what I use) would also have its Installer improved for 11.04, they said — so I decided to give it a try… same old CRAPWARE with few improvements. (Also needed to re-start my installation after checking out LVM then deciding it wasn’t for me; could not un-do the LVM (even after removing the Logical Volumes then the Logical Group, they RE-APPEARED in my Kubuntu Installer’s ‘proposed’ partition table!), until I re-booted & went thru all the Installer’s settings before the Disk Partitioning.)
I might switch back to Kubuntu someday but not until they make their Installer at least HALF as good as SuSE’s (especially in the complex ‘alternative CD’ partitioning).