try
sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

Ya, thats a major problem for ubuntu 7.04, it doesn't appear to use swap at all

The problem of Ubuntu is it tries too hard not to use root login to the extent that a root account isn't set up in a normal installation. However the terminal command "sudo su" can get turn a normal user into a root user at the terminal and I am quite sure it works and it is the general method to get root privilege with many Live CD too.

I always set up a root account, even in Ubuntu family, and alter the system configuration to enable me to log in as root to the GUI although as a token respect I rarely use it and persevere like everybody as a normal user to enjoy the security Ubuntu trying so hard to arrange. Thus if I issue "sudo gedit /dev/sda" Ubuntu will demand my root password, on receipt it turns me into a proper root user.

To create a root user account after installing Ubuntu just click terminal and type
and enter the password twice.

This is possibly the strangest thing in Ubuntu that allows an ordinary user to have right to "change" the root password when he/she has no root account! I understand this arrangement works only once.

The "sudo su" command appears to get me into the root in terminal. Unfortunately, none of the commands, once again work (Command: sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu/lst, or sudo kwrite /boot/grub/menu/lst,
or even sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst, or sudo kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst, nor sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst) When I says that they do not work, it is because right away in terminal, I get an error message:"no such command", etc.

I have had no success with Kubuntu in getting graphical tools (editors) to work using either su or sudo. However, I must confess that I have not made much of an attempt to make them work; I play with Kubuntu on my laptop, but I don't use it seriously, so a lot of these things have annoyed me, but I haven't troubled myself to sort it out.

On those occasions when I must edit something as the super user, usually what I do is chmod it so that I can edit it as an ordinary user, then chmod it back to how it was when I am done editing.

man chmod will tell you what you are doing. Basically chmod changes the access privileges to a file. Commonly something that you must edit as root will have write permissions available to root. I just provide write permissions for everyone.

Thank you again. Considering the inability of (at least) the Kubuntu desktop to set and/or modify the swap file, the seeming impossibility of changing the boot order in grub and, also my so far futile efforts to set up Google Talk, I will most likely opt for an uninstall.

Would maybe keep Linux for a while to play with, if I could change the boot order. As it stands, having Ubuntu server as default, rather than Win XP is simply too much of a hassle.

Could someone please provide me with safe uninstall instructions, ones that would preserve the normal Windows booting?

This might be considered as whining, but I really wanted to give Linux a go, after hearing so many good things about it. Unfortunately, as of this point I haven't been able to see ANY advantages over XP. I am probably missing something, but, really I have not been able to see any...

Thanks again to everyone for their help.

Uh, changing Kubuntu to be the "default" is easy.

I just realized you actually installed Ubuntu server, then installed KDE on top of that, why did you do that? You could have just downloaded Kubuntu, and then added any server apps you wanted to use.

Prolly would have been less hassle.

IGF

To uninstall, you'll need to reinstall the Windows boot loader. To do this, I think you boot from your XP CD and enter the recovery console, then use the command /FIXMBR. I advise verifying these instructions through a web search first, since it's been a long time since I tried to do something like this.

Once that's done, your system should boot in Windows automatically. If it does, then you can format the Linux partitions from within XP easily, and Linux is uninstalled from your system.

If the only thing stopping you trying Linux more is changing the boot order, then I advise you to stick with it (of course I am biased, but after trying out Linux a few years back I gradually switched over, and for a year or so I don't use Windows at all). The problem you're having with being unable to change the boot order seems very strange though. I haven't read this thread in detail, but have you tried using kdesu to run programs, instead of sudo? sudo is only intended to launch command line programs, if you want to launch graphical programs you'll be better off using kdesu. Try pressing Alt+F2 (similar to pressing Win+R in Windows), which will bring up a program launcher. In the launcher, try typing 'kdesu kedit /boot/grub/menu.lst' (without quotes). This *should* launch kedit, a basic graphical text editor, which will allow you to change the boot order. If it doesn't, something is wrong, obviously.

If you have installed ubuntu server and installed KDE on top of that, this will have made things much more complicated, as IndyGunFreak has pointed out. It really would be worth doing a reinstall directly from a Kubuntu CD, as it's pretty much guaranteed that things will be working properly and the programs people have been telling you to use will be installed.

Sorry, but I do NOT want Kubuntu to be default. I want Win XP as default. There's no doubt that many things are simply incompatible with Linux and I do need Windows for work.

It was suggested by a friend to install Ubuntu Server and then with the help of the usual arcane command, to install the Kubuntu desktop. If I knew that this was going to be such a hassle, I would have never even tried this failed "experiment". To tell you the truth, I was hoping that at this stage of development, one of the top Linux desktops would not require using arcane Unix/Linux commands any longer and that it would be a true GUI...

Maybe reinstalling it would be the easiest solution, but popping that Ubuntu CD into my drive will just re-install Ubuntu. I didn't even realize that Kubuntu could be installed first...

I will try the fixmbr command, if I can find my Win XP recovery disk. If I can normally boot into Windows, formatting the second HD, where Linux resides could probably even be done from within Windows, by using the Seagate utility that came with the drive.

I wasn't suggesting Kubuntu should be the default, sorry for the misunderstanding. What I was saying was that if you did a fresh install, it would be much easier to do things such as setting Windows to be the default boot choice. In my opinion, your friend gave you bad advice. A standard Ubuntu/Kubuntu install (not based on server install) is straightforward, and often does not require any command line work. The right click->edit as root method works for editing system files, which would make your problem with the boot order much easier to sort out. I am sorry that you have had a bad experience, if your friend uses Linux then it might have been helpful if he/she was on hand to help you set up in the first place. I certainly wouldn't have got very far when I started with Linux when I started out without hands-on assistance, but I am glad to have stuck with it.

Edit: by the way, you don't need a Seagate utility or anything to format your hard drives. If you find a "My Computer" icon and right-click on it, you will see an option called "Manage". Select this and an admin program will come up. On the left is a label that says something like "Disk Management". Simply select this and you will be able to see all the partitions on your system, and format them by right clicking. Linux partitions will show up as unknown in Windows, as Windows doesn't support any Linux file systems.

So, basically you advice is to download Kubuntu and install it in the same place I now have Ubuntu and Kubuntu, meaning where DOS and Windows would call it, drive D?

By the way, after my first Ubuntu install (which I removed and only restored in order to have the boot options back) I did try to format the disk within My Computer, but couldn't. The only way was to actually use the Seagate utility, which DID see the HD.

I guess I wasn't clear about what you had done either. Installing a server distro, then adding packages to make it a desktop distro certainly is going the long way 'round.

Yes, you are right; at this stage in its development, the leading Linux distros should just install themselves painlessly, and Kubuntu will in fact do that.

The thing about (K)Ubuntu that I don't like is that they are taking pages from the Windows world and trying too hard to hide some things that ought to be visible and easy, such as editing configuration files as root.

The motive is to try to stop migrating Windows users from proceeding with the really bad practice of routinely logging in and functioning as root (or Administrator in Windows), which is a practice that Windows routinely encourages. However, they take it too far and the result is that when you want to do something like you want to do (change the default OS at boot) it isn't easy.

If you reload Kubuntu as a fresh install, without first starting with the server, you'll wind up with a clean system which may function better than what you have now (I don't know how well what you have is functioning). You will still have the issues associated with becoming root and changing things, however, because that is how Kubuntu is.

You have been told how to uninstall; use your Windows repair console and specify fixmbr.

If you wish to continue with your Linux installation, then here is how to change your default OS at boot.

To actually be able to edit your boot default, from a command line window browse to the directory /boot/ with the command cd /boot

Now enter this command:

sudo chmod 666 grub

This will give all users write permission in the grub directory. Now browse into grub with the command cd grub.

There is a file there called menu.lst. Enter this command:

sudo chmod 666 menu.lst

This will change menu.lst so that anyone can write to it. Now call menu.lst up in your choice of text editor and change the default OS. Save the file.

Now enter this command:

sudo chmod 664 menu.lst

This will allow root and members of root group to write, while stopping all others from writing.

Now back up to the /boot directory with this command: cd ../

Now enter this command:

sudo chmod 664 grub

and you have done the job.

I find this to be roundabout; would be far better to edit permissions on the editors to allow them to run from root, but I haven't played with that. The route I showed will work.

Thank you for the exhaustive instructions. They do make a lot of sense, but...where do I actually enter those commands and at what stage? After I install Kubuntu, in Kwrite, or in Kubuntu's terminal window, or...?

And to answer your question about how my present system is running. Not that well, the swap file is not enabled and despite having 1GB of RAM it feels not slow, but mushy and jerky. Maybe that's the nature of the beast...Win XP in turn, runs quite well on the same machine.

to be fair you can't compare linux to windows xp after only trying one distro

you enter those commands in the new kubuntu install and in the terminal window in which he already said

Maybe not, but the fact does remain that, as I said before: "I was hoping that at this stage of development, one of the top Linux desktops would not require using arcane Unix/Linux commands any longer and that it would be a true GUI..." Is there another Linux desktop/distro that works as a true GUI?

Thank you once again for all the help. I will take another stab at it and hopefully this installation plus the necessary configurations will work out better.