I am trying to install Ubuntu 11.10 with Windows 7 from a CD. I am using an HP Pavilion dm4. I've never used Ubuntu (or any Linux) before.

Everything goes alright until I get to the "Installation Type" screen. Instead of giving me options, it just has a blank menu, and all the buttons are disabled. When I click "Continue", it gives me an error saying that it can't find the root or something like that.

The trial version works fine, but I can't actually install it. Everything on the trial version is really slow, presumably because everything is on the CD or the Windows partition.

I did some research, but the only post I could find was http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1870478 Where the only advice is to format the entire drive, which I'm not willing to do.

Any suggestions? I'm downloading 10.04 right now and I'm going to try with that instead.

EDIT: 10.04 didn't work either. I got to the partitioning screen and got the same problem.

I read some more forums, loaded up 11.10 trial from the disk, opened the Terminal and typed sudo apt-get remove dmraid and then y. Then I was actually able to see something on the "Installation type" page: "Erase disk and install Ubuntu" or "Something else". Which is weird, since Windows 7 should be installed. When I click Something Else, I get:

/dev/sda

/dev/sdb

/dev/sdb1 (ntfs) (208 MB) (69 MB used)

/dev/sdb2 (ntfs) (477542 MB) (unknown used)

/dev/sdb3 (ntfs) (18085 MB) (16094 MB used)

/dev/sdb4 (fat32) (4265 MB) (3084 MB used)

I have no idea what any of this means.

Also, my device for boot loader installation changed from /dev/sda to /dev/sda ATA SAMSUNG MZMPA032 (32.0 GB)