I'm trying to install 64-bit Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on my Sony VAIO Z (specs below), which has Windows 7.
I boot my computer with the drive in and click Install Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on the Ubuntu desktop. The welcome page asks for a language. Once the welcome page had a sentence of text, but most times I try it does not. I click continue and I do not connect to wireless then I click continue. On the Preparing to install Ubuntu page I click continue. On the Installation type page it says "This computer currently has multiple operating systems on it. What would you like to do?" The options are "Erase disk and install Ubuntu" and "Something else". The one time that the welcome page had a sentence of text the corresponding Installation type page had another option that said something like "install ubuntu alongside Windows". But, as a said earlier, the page only loaded that way once and I can't reproduce the result.
I have consulted other questions, but I do not know how I should partition my drive for the installation. Additionally, I am confident that when I get past this step the problem I will have the same error that I had when I did the erase disk and install (which erased the disk completely but was unable to install because of an error "??? ???", so I had to reinstall Windows)
My questions:
- How should I partition the drive since the install alongside windows option isn't appearing?
- When I get to the "Install now" stage, how can I address the error "??? ???" that comes up on the "Where are you" page and persists (even if I close it many times the computer begins thinking indefinitely with a moving ubuntu wheel as the cursor. Further description: When I get to the screen asking "Where are you?" an error window titled "??? ???" comes up. I click OK and move on to enter a computer name and username and go through the Ubuntu features slide still under the "Install" window. The slides explain some features of Ubuntu. The end slide is titled "Any Questions?" At this point my cursor is an animated circular 'thinking type' cursor. The screen stays here indefinitely.
This is what I have done:
- created fresh copy of usb drive
- created fresh copy of cd
- downloaded fresh copy of amd64 .iso
- checked .iso with md5sum (correct hash)
- checked hard disk (healthy and running windows)
- tried the install as an initial option as well as clicking "Try Ubuntu" then using the desktop install icon
- tried to create usb with Unetbootin but no luck because Unetbootin does not recognize my 16gb flash drive for unknown reason
Sony Vaio Z Series VPCZ2190x: series 8 GB RAM, Intel i7 2.70GHz x 4 processor
