I'm trying to install Ubuntu 13.10 on an Alienware M17x,

after bypassing the graphical problems with "nomodeset" (annoying!), I'm facing a rather different problem: I click on "Install Ubuntu", the guided installation progress reach the point where the partition, mount point etc. needs to be selected and...nothing.

In the partition selection menu it sees only dev/sda, but in the window where the actual way the disk is partitioned should appear nothing shows, it's blank.

I've tried to click on "change..." to try to force it to read something, but the installer simply quits. The button "change partition table" etcetera are greyed out (well, obviously, since no partition table has been read). What's that?

The Alienware has Windows 7 and legacy BIOS (so no UEFI here).

Anyone has an idea?

Thanks for your time and help!