Need help Intalling Linux on My comptuer
 

Hi I am going to be formating my computer in the next couple days(have not done it for a while)

I have decided that I will have a dual operating system linux and windows xp. I have choosen to use ubuntu(don't know if it is any good or not but some ppl I know use it and are happy with it)

Before I start installing it I have some questions

At this time I have 2 harddrives one has 35gigs and the other one is 80gigs and my setup has this at right now:

C drive: WINDOWS - 10gigs
D drive: GAMES - 25gigs
G drive: STORAGE - 80gigs

Questions

How should I setup my harddrives?

I was thinking....

C drive: WINDOWS - 10gigs (from 35gigs harddrive)
D drive: GAMES - 15gigs(eventhough at the moment I don't have time to play games)
L drive: LINUX(Ubuntu) - 10gigs (from 35gigs harddrive)
G: drive: Storage(windows) 40gigs??? (from 80gig harddrive)
H: drive: Strogate(Linux) 40gigs? (from 80gig harddrive)

Or do you think it would be better just to keep the 80gigs in one partion(as I have it now) and just have say program files for linxu and program files for windows.

because somethings I will want to be shared between both windows and linux like music so maybe it would be better to just have one area of storage and just have different folders to hold windows installed programs and linux installed programs

How will installing work?

Like usally I just format my C drive with windows on it(in dos with partion magic) then pop in my backup I made and then reinstall it. Then move all my music from my G to D and format my G drive then move back to G and then format D.

Then start installing my programms again.

but I heard that if you don't install windows xp first it gets all mad when you try to install linux and it just gets all screwed up so could someone shed some light on that.

How will boot up work?

I never had dual opertating systems before so do I have to do anything special to make it give me a choice of what OS I want to use or is that all done for me?

Which ubuntu do I install?

They got a whole list of stuff h**p://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/ubuntu/iso/6.06/ so not sure which one too take.

how do i burn onto a cd?

Like I am pretty sure I will be taking the iso one but I jsut don't know which one and when I burn it on to cd I won't have to do anything speical too it right since iso boot up in dos automatically when inserted right(of course you need to have in the bios it checked so it checks for cds right?)

how do I get kde installed?

I think unbuntu installs with gnome but how do I install kde after I got unbuntu installed(I want want both kde and gnome)


How to get to program what work this windows but not for linux to work for linux

like I got trillian and not quite sure but I don't think it works on linux machines. So is there anyway I can get it to work I really don't want to be using a 2 different messanger clients(and I am quite happy with trillian).

Also say if it did work it is not possbile to install it once and make it work on both windows and linux? you would have to install it on windows first then on linux right?

Those are all the questions I have for now if you got anymore tips out to help a linux noob out I would be really happy to hear them.

Please though keep it to helping me get my linux running I like M.S and windows and probably use it as my main system always given a the choice. I however want to have knowlege in linux hence why I want it installed on my computer.

Also I don't mind if you tell me your opinions about unbuntu(I probably will not change to a different one like I said I know ppl who use it and they can help me out) but I don't want to see this thread become a flame war of which linux is better because then it will be alot harder for me to get my system up and running.

thanks

Windows doesnt care for dual booting, install it first. Only the linux drive youll install to should be ext3, the rest could be fat or ntfs. Fat is easier on linux, but recently programs like captive and ntfs-3g are showing that some day, we could have full ntfs support. Captive works exteremely well, and writes 100% of the time. As a downside, installation is decently painful to the n00b. ntfs-3g is a bit easier, and now part of the linux-ntfs project. it works quite well, but it isnt the perfect file writer. 50% of the files actually end up on the harddrive, and the other 50 dont, they are never written(Rejected because attempting to write would courupt the hd.). Its read access is perfect tho. If you need to access your linux drive from windows, google around for an ext3 driver for windows. i used to have one. lost it :)

For the sake of windows, you should probably configure like this:

C drive: WINDOWS ntfs
D drive: GAMES fat32
L drive: LINUX ext3
G: drive: Storage(windows) fat32
H: drive: Strogate(Linux) fat32 (if you plan to get an ext3 driver for windows, use ext3 here)

I recommend openSuSE linux HEAVILY. Getting the latest beta isnt the best idea, because there are sp,e few known annoyances... but if you can take them, then you can expeirence the coolest linux eye candy with Xgl (but it does take a little bit of setup for xgl, you could mess with it later)

So, why am i worried about being able to access the harddrives from each os? its not my computer.. its yours. But the odds are some day, youll either need, or want to access each hd from eachother. You may laugh now about this, similar to how i did, but you never know :)

So heres the deal:

Choose your distro of linux, i recommend suse but i always here about people liking ubunto. your choice man :)
Burn your distro to CD
Partition away.
Install windows. Now would be a good time to install drivers too(excluding ext3.. its setup will search for hds with ext3 and set them up for you)
Install your linux. If this is the first time using linux for you, note that everything on any harddrive on your computer will be somewhere under /. / is like C:\ except for the fact that it is the linux drive, and other harddrives will be in a folder under /. In SuSE linux, it will reconize windows drives and set a Mount point during setup to where you can access them :) thats one more reason why i recommend it.

Note that ntfs drives can be mounted readonly in linux with no tools, but you can only read files and not write them. Blame microsoft.

IF YOU HAVE NEVER USED LINUX BEFORE:
When installing your distro, youll probably be confronted with a choice between Window Managers to use. Gnome KDE, and maybe some small ones. I'll go over them. KDE is nice for beginners, and gnome is for almost anyone... Gnome is just as configurable as KDE, but KDE is much easier to configure at various points like menu items.

Good luck. hope i told you everything.


How will installing work?
Quite nicely! Most installers are intensly friendly for beginners but leave options for those who know what there doing too. PLEASE NOTE: SuSE installers and possibly others will attempt to automatically set up partitioning by itself. During suse install, Youll be on a screen with a few items in a box and one will be partitioning. Youll click it, and try to make it to expert partitioner. I believe you need to click partitioning, and select create partition settings from scratch and select expert partitioner. Now, select you linux partition in the list. Select edit at the bottom of the screen, and in the mount point box set "/" from the combo box list. You can set the mount points for the rest of them manually. PLEASE NOTE: remember/write down these mountpoints! all of them except for / need to be created if they dont exist. They will not automatically be created. now go threw with the installation. Now when you go back to the screen with the box with items in it, click Software. Now, it will have a list with checkboxes. Ensure that gnome and kde are both check. then, ensure that you have C++ compiler checked(Notice that it is listed slightly differently.) Now, you will have a KDE/Gnome installation with all harddrives enabled :) follow threw with installation. NEVER ABORT EVER DURING FILE INSTALLATION. if it freezes up, wait atleast 5 minutes and if an error pops up, ignore it. Its ok, there should not be any of these. it notes usually a disk error occuring. After installation, you will be booted into kde or gnome. If you log out, you can select Session Type as KDE or gnome, and just select your user and enter your password. There. Hope ubunto is easier, i dont know how well it installs.

How will booting up work?
If you do windows first then linux, linux will take over and you will see GRUB. Grub shows a menu with all operating systems listed. At this point, you can select windows and windows will boot up normally. Selecting linux will do exactly what you think :) both Ubuntoo and SuSE are graphical in there boot processes i believe.

how do i burn onto a cd?
Get an iso burning program. Case closed. Of course, some are confusing; IsoBuster can do the job and its free. You could use its help feature to find out more quickly how to burn, but its pretty simple. Just open the iso, and hit the burn button. If your drive is known to create generally bad cds, getting an internet installation cd is much better for you :)

how do I get kde installed?
Unfortantally for ubuntoo, i dont know. Apoligies. However, i mentioned how to do this on the suse installer above. Your pretty solid with ubuntoo, so im not going to say anything bad (Infact, alot of people recommend it, i will try it as soon as i get some cds some day)


How to get to program what work this windows but not for linux to work for linux
One word describes it: Wine.

Heres what you need to know.

First off, alot of people complain about linux not having alot of programs. Thats when google is your friend... and thats when you have to relize that most linux programs are free and you don't usually by them at a sofrware store. But its not impossible to run some of your current windows programs.

Every platform has an instruction set. An executable format is a way to contain an executable and all of its instructions. Windows uses its very own format, PE. Thats portable executable format. Linux uses ELF. thats Executable and linkable format. So great, all we have to do is write a program that loads PE executables? well no.. Windows has DLLs were Linux has .SO files. There both libraries, but for different OS'es. And to make it worse, windows is completely different with these files. They have alot of these that come with windows to make it easier to program on. So does linux, but linux and windows both have completely different ones.

So heres what wine does: not only loads a pe executable, but contains it with its windows dll replacements (Better called .dll.so, because there linux code designed for wine to read and let windows programs use them under wine). Of course, thats alot of code.

Ok, so wine emulates windows on all of the aspects required. since of course windows is very undocumented, and wine is still in development alot of programs dont run. Wine used to be BSD licensed, so there were no restrictions on distributing the code and binaries. 2 Companies took advantage of this. Codeweavers and transgaming.they made enhanced copies of wine and sold binaries. transgamings "cedega"(formerly winex) was a free game geared wine enhancement that became pay but there cvs has most of the source code (Copy protection and some microsoft installer components arnt included due to legal issues) but you could always modify wines current kernel code to compile with winex for some level of copy protection. Codeweavers Crossover supports a large amount of apps but they only list some. They also give source code but cost money(they give fullsource.). Both give internal wine source code, but neither source packages include the gui where programs are installed with. You must do it by hand with the source, If you plan on playing games, subscribe to cedega. If you plan on running programs, get crossover. Both are well worth it, and cheap. 5 dollars a month for an updated cedega copy (according to somebody recommending it) and crossover is 30 bucks for a personal edition (Great value.)

Wow! Lots of questions here. Let me see if I can help you a bit. First, there will be many opinions on how to set up your drives, so I'll just tell you how I would do it if it were my system.

Assuming your drives are both on the primary IDE as master and slave, I'd set it up this way:

Set the 80Gig drive up as master and the 35Gig as slave. Partition them as follows (details on this later):

80Gig:

Primary partition 1 (hda1) - 40Gig --> for Windows

Primary partition 2 (hda2):

Extended partition 1 (hda3) - 25Gig --> for Ubuntu /(root)
Extended partition 2 (hda4) - 10Gig --> for Ubuntu /home
Extended partition 3 (hda5) - 5Gig --> Linux swap

You can only have 4 primary partitions on a drive. For this reason, I've broken the number 2 primary partition into 3 extended partitions.

35Gig:

Primary partition 1 - (hdb1) - 35Gig --> for common storage (formatted as FAT)

That's correct. Windows has this Darwinian need to wipe out all competing OS's on a system. ;) Using your Ubuntu CD, boot up your system. When the live CD loads up, choose Install Ubuntu from the desktop icon. Go through the initial baloney until you get to the partitioning stage.

You'll have the option to manually partition the drives. Choose that one and continue. The gparted partitioner will start up showing both your drives. Click "Forward" on the bottom right. This next screen is the actual partitioner. It should show both drives and whatever's on them currently.

Right click on the partitions one at a time and choose delete. Yes, you'll lose all the data on the drives. I'm sure you're prepared for that already though, right? When you're finished doing this you'll see both drives with their total capacity unallocated.

Right click on the unallocated part of the 80Gig drive and choose "create". Set this partition up as 40Gig don't worry about the formatting type yet. Click on the unallocated area again and create an extended partition of 25Gig, format as ext3, as shown above. Continue to create the other two partitions also. Format the 10Gig /home partition as ext3. Format the 5Gig Swap partition as Linux Swap.

When you have them set up the way you want them, click "Forward". This next page will ask you where you want to install the actual components of Ubuntu. At this point, you want to exit the install. Just cancel it and then reboot your system using your Windows CD.

When the Windows install begins, choose the 40Gig partition on the 80Gig drive to install Windows. Format it as NTFS and continue on till Windows is installed completely.

Once Windows is installed, Use the disk management (right click on My Computer --> Manage) to format the 35Gig drive using FAT32. It's important that you remember to use FAT32 for this drive because Linux does not function in a stable manner with NTFS. With this drive formatted as FAT32, you'll be able to use it as common storage for Windows and Linux.

Now that that's done, reboot using the Ubuntu CD. Fill in all the initial information till you get to the partitioning page again. Choose manual once again and move forward. You'll see all the partitions that you already made previously. Move forward again. At the page where you're actually required to set up the mount points for the Ubuntu data, set them as follows:

/ (root) --> 80Gig drive on the 25Gig ext3 partition

/home --> 80Gig drive on the 10Gig ext3 partition

swap --> 80Gig drive on the 5Gig linux swap partition

Clear all the other drive and mount entries below these first three. You shouldn't have to reformat, but if they're pre-checked, just allow it. Click Forward and Ubuntu will begin installing.

Ubuntu's GRUB loader will control bootup. It will set Ubuntu as the default and give you the option of arrowing down to start Windows instead.

If you have an Intel or AMD micro, just download the i386 version. It will probably be Ubuntu 6.06.1, the latest update. Get it from Ubuntu's website.

Yes, you want the iso download. Get THIS little app for Windows. After you've installed it, just right click on your downloaded iso file and choose "Burn Image to CD" from the context menu.

Yes, Ubuntu installs with Gnome. However, you can install all the KDE apps afterward, if you want. Or you can just download Kubuntu, which installs with the KDE desktop.


Most of your Windows software will not work in Linux, unless you're using some sort of emulation software in Linux like WINE. However, for any Windows app you're using, there is almost always a Linux app that is most likely even better. For instance, you can use GAIM messenger application in Linux instead of Trillian. GAIM does the same thing, only better, in my opinion.

A lot of folks here will be more than happy to jump in and help you when you have problems. I strongly suggest that you stock up on some Linux and Ubuntu literature, also start searching online for Linux and Ubuntu resources. There are loads of it out there. It'll all be helpful to your learning.

It'll all seem complex and incomprehensible to you at first, but you'll catch on. Be prepared to trash your installs of Linux a few times, everyone does it. :)

Stand by for other opinions on how to set up your system. My way was just one of many possible ways to do it. Others here may have better ideas on how to do it. Weigh all the advice you get. Also, check the Ubuntu forums for HOW-TOs on dual boot installing of Ubuntu and Windows. There is some great info there too.

By the way, I've used Debian, SuSE, Fedora Core, and Ubuntu. Ubuntu is by FAR the easiest of them all for an x-Windows/Linux newbie to learn on. You can jump to other distributions after you get your feet wet with Ubuntu. Or you may choose to stay with it. Either way...

ENJOY!

Luck!

~Eric

Well I would like to make my 80gig harddrive the slave since my 35gig.

so how about this?

C:windows 10gbs(from 35gb one) -NTFS
L:Linux 10gbs(from 35gb one) -ext3
D:Games 15(from 35gb one) - NTFS
G: Storage(Windows)45gbs - NTFS(need ntfs sometimes opening files bigger then fat allows)
M: Music 15gbs(from 80gb) - fat32
S: storgate(Linux) 20gbs -fat32

I figured 10gbs for windows and 10 gigs for linux should be good enough since thats what I always had it as and never hard a problem with it.

If I need more I always can take it from the games one I don't have time to play too many more games at the moment.

I was thinking about it and really the only thing what both will share most likely is music so I will keep that in its on partion.

If I have a document or something on my G drive I am sure I can just drag it over to the linux storgate drive and nothing that should be no problem.

Also if I am using bittorrent on linux there should be no problem of saving it directly to my G drive right? since sometimes I have files what are 4gigs big(all .rar files) and fat32 would not be able to handle them.

The reason why I made my G drive 45gigs is because I do video burning sometimes and need the room and I know how to do it well on windows so I really don't have the time to start relearning/finding all the software what I could use for linux(right now on windows I use like 6 different programs to help me do it)

And my linux drive is set at 20gbs what is probably too much already I just can't see myself finding so many programs I want to download in linux that it will use more then that up.

Now comes to my question parts why suggest these:


/ (root) --> 80Gig drive on the 25Gig ext3 partition

/home --> 80Gig drive on the 10Gig ext3 partition

swap --> 80Gig drive on the 5Gig linux swap partition

do you really need these? and what they do?

Thanks

Well, you can set up your drives how you like, of course. The way I posted here was just my opinion on how I would do it if I had your system. You might find that 10Gig is a little small for Windows though. My fresh install of Windows XP Pro with all updates and installed software runs around 6.5Gig, and we all know that Windows bloats up over time. My year old install of Win XP was up to 11.5Gig before I wiped it clean. The linux root would probably be fine on 10Gig. However, it can swell a bit too.

Be careful of any NTFS formatting with Linux. You won't be able to write onto any NTFS partitions with Linux... ONLY read.

The reason I have the install broken up like that is because it's a good idea to have the / (root) and the /home directories on separate partitions. Also Linux will need a swap partition. Your /home directory will be the one that bloats up pretty fast as you add documents and music and stuff. The / (root) directory should stabilize at about 6Gig, unless you add a bunch of different kernel upgrades without removing the older kernels.

Luck!

~Eric

By the way, here's how my current system is set up:

80Gig drive:

Primary partition 1 --> 40Gig --> Windows XP Pro (NTFS)

Primary partition 2 --> 10Gig --> Annex (Windows programs and backups) (NTFS)

Extended partition 3 --> 20Gig --> /root (Ubuntu) (ext3)

Extended partition 4 --> 7Gig --> /home (Ubuntu) (ext3)

Extended partition 5 --> 2Gig --> Linux swap

I am having trouble installing ubuntu right now. I am doing a manual and installing it too my 80gig hard-drive.

I am not sure if how I am setting it up is right


h**p://img403.imageshack.us/img403/5483/screenshotld2.png

I am trying to set it up like this.

/home - 10gigs
/root - 20gigs
/swap - 6gigs

also could you guys explain why it is good to split up each of these and what each one really does?

Firstly, you don't need to make an extended partiton - you can just make primary partitions. Secondly, 6 GB is way too big for swap, you won't need that much swap space. How much RAM do you have? Maybe 1 GB at most for your swap partition.

Presumably, you mean "/" here. / is, well, the root of the filesystem tree so to speak. /home refers to a directory, called home under / and stores directories for users on your system (except root, which has its home directory /root). It's good to put /home on a separate partition because, well, if you decide to reinstall, it means you can leave /home intact and just wipe your root partition.

The swap partition is used for virtual memory when your system runs out of RAM. Edit: and said partition is not mounted on /swap.

The way you partition your drive is up to you, some people have more partitions (like for /var and stuff), but again, it's your choice.

Ok how about this?

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1...titionsmt1.png

When I hit the next one it gives me a list of stuff what to do like choose /swap or /home but it does not give me one for /root. And when I type it in it does not recognize.

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/5638/shot2ox9.png


edit I figured out the root problem one so this is what I choose now


/ - for root 20gigs
/home -10gigs
/swap - 1gigs

same as my orignal picture above.

But now my installer crashes