Install on laptop keeping xp and removing fedora
 

Hi,
I'd like to install Ubuntu removing at the same time the fedora installation I have on my laptop. I already boot xp/fedora from grub.
When the installation process reaches partitioning, I see the following partitions and mount points:

#1 primary 24.5 GB ntfs bolt blacksmiley /media/hda1 as mount point
#2 primary 9.7 GB ext 3 blacksmiley /media/hda3 as mount point
#5 logical 1.1 GB swap aliensmiley swap
#2 primary 4.7 GB blacksmiley fat32 /media/hda2 (this is the ibm restore partition for the laptop)

Now how do I proceed to remove fedora and safely install Ubuntu? Shall I just format #2? Do I need to (re)define mount points? (e.g. /mount/hda3 to /)? Can I keep the swap as it is (I presume it does not need formatting)?

Thanks in advance!

The easiest thing is just to reformat the linux partitions you will be using, that is right. Ubuntu installer will just write a new grub.conf (Ubuntu calls it menue.lst) into the MBR (or wherever you will have it - suggest the same place fedora had it.)

Remember, you need a minimum of root and swap partitions. That means, yes, /dev/hda3 will need / as a mountpoint.

The ncurses interface is a little less reassuring than anaconda isn't it?
After you are done, you'll want to take a look at: http://easylinux.info/wiki/Ubuntu

Definitively! IMHO Anaconda is more intuitive and clearly structured. However, I will switch because I need Sun VM Java and a couple of other things.

Thanks for your tip!

nJ

Really? Sun Java is no different in Ubuntu from Fedora Core.
However - as you see - I run both. Once it is installed, Ubuntu is pretty spectacular. Be warned: the utility you are used to in Fedora is not present. Expect to spend time behind a broadband connection for a while.

OTOH: Apt-get is clearly superior to yum - then main difference seems to be that apt trusts the cached information (so you only need to update once instead of before and after every transaction in yum) and the repositories are much more complete.

Well Simon,

There's j2re-1.4 in the Ubuntu multiverse repository, so installing Java s as easy as enabling multiverse and then use synaptic

http://www.fedorafaq.org/#java
Oh sure - installation is easier. But it works the same. There is no absence of Java in FC4, as implied by: ... and no added functionality running under Ubuntu to Fedora.

Now, the plethora of easy to install packages and general usefullness is a good reason to use Ubuntu.

Hmm, fact is, I can't install (without future troubles) the rpm SDK from SUN in 3 and 4 of fc:
http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/release-notes/fc4/ because of a naming conflict. Moreover, my tty goes blank when I shutdown the machine (blind shutdown :D ), I found the bug report and it seems it is due to a compiler error of the involved procedure.

nJ

P.S.: IBM supports Linux? So why they don't allow APS API to be published? (http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Active_Protection_System)

I was relatively happy with FC4 and used it for months. However, I (stupidly) upgraded to FC5 and lots of things stopped working, even after reinstalls using tried and true methods of FC4. I really miss the FC4 ability to download a package and install straight from FF. I gave up and went to Ubuntu - Breezy. Generally this is pretty stable but the extra command line stuff is a pain. But I'm with Breezy for the time being and will look at FC5 once they fix up the release with an upgrade.

I installed Ubuntu over the FC4 partitions by deleting them first then using the free space option.

Regards
John

... from the same release notes: Also, the fedorafaq has a way that works.These things are usually due to licencing issues - there may be cross licences involved or there may be code that IBM dosn't want released. Or they may just want to hang on to this property as long as it makes them money to do so. IBM supports linux for a given value of "support". I see Microshaft is starting to support linux now: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04..._virtual_free/

Yeah - the upgrade process is a female dog. One should always install afresh... www.mjmwired.net is playing with FC5 right now. If I were you I'd wait until the mjm install notes and the fedorafaq is out before attemting FC5 again.

Ubuntu, OTOH, is very nice. What fedora does poorly (mumble mumble yumex mumble), Ubuntu does nice.What extra commandline stuff? If anything there should be less?!

Indeed! Besides, the updater would frequently go mess...
What about Ubuntu? Will I be able to update from Badger to Drake more smoothly than I did from fc 3 to 4? I saw that Drake's release is imminent.

And, yes, apt-get rocks. I saw it working on someone else's machine and uhm, stopped defending rpm. :jawa:

Apparently so - you have to physically edit /etc/sources.lst so everywhere it says "breezy" it now says "dapper" and apt-get update, your next distro upgrade will be to dapper.

If you put an ubuntu CD into the drive, it is detected and a dialog opens asking if you want to install... without booting from the CD. This bit is really together.

OTOH: you are unlikely to have unsanctioned stuff installed. Everything from the repos and you're fine.

Actually you need to