Ubuntu – Keyboard not detected when trying to install Ubuntu 10.10

After using Greg Suarez's suggestion, tou will need to patch a few things to get this to work. Taken (and corrected) from: http://blog.gnu-designs.com/solved-building-vmware-workstation-modules-on-linux-2-6-32

tar xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar -C /tmp
tar xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmci.tar -C /tmp

cd /tmp

perl -pi -e 's,("vnetInt.h"),\1\n#include "compat_sched.h",' vmnet-only/vnetUserListener.c
perl -pi -e 's,("compat_page.h"),\1\n#include "compat_sched.h",' vmci-only/include/pgtbl.h

tar cvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar vmnet-only
tar cvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmci.tar vmci-only

Now you should be able to continue on with installing vmplayer/workstation

The question is: is it safe to delete this partition?

Define "safe," but yes. If you ever run into serious trouble with your Windows install and need to do a system recovery or operating system install, you'll probably wish you hadn't, but it doesn't contain anything you can't get somewhere else, or do with other tools (most of which can be found on a Windows install DVD).

And to delete it, all you need to do is delete it from the Ubuntu install screen.

Is there a better solution for my problem ?

Yes, there is. Virtualization. Get a client hypervisor like VMware workstation and run Ubunutu inside your Windows OS. For this reason, I kicked dual booting and all its related headaches to the curb many years ago.

Apparently you can only have 4 partitions (worst design decision btw).

Check out this question and its answers for why "there are only 4 partitions." It actually was a very sensible, and good design decision at the time, back when hard disks were very expensive, and by our standards, had very small storage capacities. It doesn't have to be that way anymore, though, and the solution to that particular problem is to use GPT-formatted disks.