I'm a complete noobie at linux, I used it only once before and now I want to install it. Right now I use windows XP, and I want to instal Ubuntu on a dual boot setup. I don't know how to do that, whenever I read stuff about it I can't understand all of it. I'm starting to lose hope because Linux itself isn't that hard, but apperantly setting up a dual boot is. I plan on downloading Ubuntu onto my computer and then burning that on a CD. So please tell me how I'm supposed to set this up, thanks.

Questions like this are a little broad to be answered here. Try googling for answers:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

then narrow it down to the specific issues that confuse you.
There are some good step-by-step procedures documented out there.

Setting up a dual boot is painless really. Just takes a little time. Are you planning on using a different partition, or a separate hard drive?

Actually, it is almost trivial. Basicly you follow the instructions on the Ubuntu web site about how to burn an iso to a CD (you don't just burn the file to CD). Another good reference for how to do that part is at

http://iso.snoekonline.com/iso.htm

Now put the CD you made in the drive. If you allow windows to autostart stuff, a window will open which you do not need but there may be some interesting stuff to look at. In fact, if it is Ubuntu 8.04 one of the options is to install it within windows without repartitioning your hard disk. Neat stuff but not what you were asking about.

Now reboot the machine and let the CD boot however you do that on your system. A menu should appear with several options and you have 30 seconds to make a choice. You can stop the timer simply by pressing an up/down arrow key. One of the choices to to check the CD for errors. Do that and presuming no errors are found, let it reboot again.

The CD is actually a LiveCD meaning that it will try to boot into Ubuntu using only the CD and RAM. This is slow but also a good way to see if a straight install seems to work (if not there are many options). Once it does, there should be 2 icons on the desktop. One of those is to install Ubuntu to the hard drive. If you choose this option, one of the few questions you have to answer is about partitioning. The default for a machine with windows on it is to resize that partition and install ubuntu in the freed up space. Select that option and when the install is done your machine will be set to dual boot with a menu at boot time where you choose which OS you want to boot into.

Thats really all there is to it. You can expect windows to run a scandisk the first time you go there since it sees that its partition has changed.

So you see, there was only one thing to do to make it a dual boot machine.

Good Luck

Why fool with a dual boot? Consider a virtual machine. It will provide near native to above native speeds. A vm will not normally bork your xp. You can run from ISO images too.

thanks a lot! so I don't need to use GRUBS or anything? If I don't need GRUBS then things just got a lot easier, I can't wait to get back on linux. One more question, what kind of stuff will it ask me during the instal? will it ask for my IP? thanks.

Actually, grub will be installed by the linux install. but you don't have to do anything special for it to happen.

My computer can run XP (barley) so I thought that it could run Ubuntu fine. But when I read the requirements it said I would have to turn all the effects off and it would still run slow. my specs are:

900MHz
128MB RAM
32MB VRAM

So I don't think it will run smoothly. I have been thinking about XUbuntu, whats the difference anyways? Will XUbuntu also install GRUB automaticly?

Thanks

xubuntu and ubuntu don't have any difference. It is only located on window manager. Ubuntu use Gnome, and Xubuntu use Xfce. Xfce use more less RAM than Gnome. And Xubuntu is designed for an old computer. But it runs great! YOu will se "Wow" in your computer and you won't believe it when you just start your computer.

Xubuntu will install it automatically. All distro in Linux will install Grub or Lilo automatically.

Hope this will help you

Are my specs good enough to install Xubuntu useing the graphics instalation or will I have to use the alternate?

Having installed linux on several computers, I would suggest first running defragment on your xp several times prior to repartitioning. BACK UP all needed files in xp. Shrink your ntfs (xp) partition using an easy partitioning program such as gparted. Re-boot xp one more time before installing linux to make sure everything is working properly.

The reason behind it: It is much easier to have windows installed first then linux second. Then the other way around. If you messed up xp, reinstall it. Then install linux.

If you do not follow the advice above and use ubuntu cd to repartition and install, you may find out that xp will not work anymore. You will then have to install windows again. A new install of XP will overwrite grub with its own bootloader. Then you will not be able to run ubuntu at boot. You will lastly have to reinstall grub to get both operating systems to boot.

Having said that,here is dual boot in a nutshell:
1. Defrag xp three times to get everything well cleaned up.
2. Use a partition cd such as gparted or I think windows has partition magic to shrink the ntfs partition.
3. After partitioning is done, run xp again to make sure you have no problems booting or running xp.
4. Use Ubuntu cd to format the rest of the disk in either reiser fs or ext3 format, install grub, and install ubuntu.

Once installed, you should have dual boot.

Your specs is good enough to install xubuntu
You just need to follow graphic instalation

Hope this will help you

So GRUB wont resize the windows partition for me? I'm new to partitioning and stuff so where can I read up on it a little?

GRUB is a bootloader--it does not resize partitions.

The steps are:
<<If necessary>> Resize the Windows partition to make room. (de-fragment first)
Install Linux (Most installers will configure the dual-boot automatically)

The links below might be useful.

To install ubuntu and its derivatives (xubuntu, for you), you can use unetbootin to do a net installation for a dual boot if you already have windows installed:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/