Installing over Fedora
 

After checking out the Ubuntu Live CD, I'v decided to install Ubuntu. Right now, I am dual booting between Fedora and WinXP (using GRUB as the boot manager).

Will I be able to use the Ubuntu installer to install over the Fedora partitions and have it modify/replace GRUB to boot between XP and Ubuntu?

In a word...yes

Yes. But be carefull that when you install GRUB you don't erase the XP section of your boot.conf. Or you'll lose the option to boot into XP and then you'll have to edit your grub.conf file.

After consideration, you should let grub overright it and delete XP, not only is XP bad, but I get excited by editing files in the Terminal :D

I was actually about to ask a similar question about overwriting a Mandrake partition.. I have an informal server running at home, and I'd like to change distros from Mandrake to Ubuntu. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I lost data, but I'd really like to keep the /home partition, and certain directories (like /var/mail/* ) intact. Is this possible?

Only if they are on separate partitions. If not you'll have to backup your data before proceeding further. If they are on separate partitions then during the install make sure that you DO NOT format those particular partitions that /home and /var are on.

/home is, /var is not.

I'll back it up and see how it goes. Thanks for your help!

Yeah, when you istall Ubuntu it gives you the option, if you setup your partitions manually, whether or not you want to format them. Its a really sweet feature.

I just installed 5.10 and am disappointed. Here are my reasons.

a) I asked for Canadian Multilingual keyboard support. It accepted it in the install guide, but non was provided. I could not find help on the net for UBUNTU and Canadian french keyboard (with Fedora Core3,4, I had it as standard option.
b) I tested a game, (freecell), and the actions were so choppy, I became frustrated with performance.
c) During the install, I do not recall being prompted to set a root password. What is the default root password, as I would like to set up some sudo commands and add users, etc.

Leslie
:PS priority is keyboard support. I need the accented characters.
I have not tried setxkbdmap "ca(fr)" as a bash command, but that worked with another distribution.

your user password in Ubuntu doubles as your root password. if you need root privilage as Ubuntu by default dosen't allow you to log in as root. use the sudo method. when it prompts you for a password type your user password. most people don't seem to like this at first, but it grows on you quickly, trust me.

Your performance is choppy on solitare? Is it like "my computer is to old for this choppy" or "these are just lame animations choppy"? If its the first one, make sure you have all your drivers installed. I always have a habit of forgetting to install the drivers for my nvidia card. Look at your setup too. If you got alot of useless programs running, kill them, and don't let them start upon boot next time. Ubuntu shouldn't be overly slow unless your computer is on the older side. If it is one of the best things you can do is to turn down the amount of "eye candy" i.e. shadows behind windows, any tranlucency, any animated window movement. All of that can potentionaly drain an olders system. If all else fails your not stuck with Gnome, you can use fluxbox or KDE on an Ubuntu setup. They are both provided for you in the apt-get repositories, or through synaptic package manager. Which is just a gui version of apt-get. Finally Ubuntu wasn't built to be a speed demon, it was created for ease of use, hence the motto "linux for humans." If its all out speed you seek, try Gentoo or Arch.


Oh, and yeah, i don't know what to do about the keyboard, sorry.

Choppy Performance and missing keyboard definition
 

Well,

To answer the question about being too old. NO. The music and the game work just fine in Fedora Core4 and in Core5 test2.

And keyboard support is there in both distributions.
So, if I cannot find a parameter to tweek, I will be saying bye bye to UBUNTU, even though it looks pretty.

Looking pretty and performing well are two issues.

Leslie

Fedora comes with KDE by default, is that what you were using, or did you use Gnome with Fedora? If you used KDE with Fedora, use apt-get to install KDE and use that instead of Gnome with your Ubuntu install. If KDE is slow with Ubuntu just like Gnome was, then is something else in Ubuntu slowing you down. If KDE is quicker for you ie the same speed as it was in Fedora, then just stick with KDE. You can always download themes for either.

With the sound card, are you sure you have the right drivers? Try switching from ALSA to OSS or Arts and see if that makes a difference.

UNBUNTU problems
 

The keyboard problem is still an issue. Changing to a supported keyboard type causes xwindows to fail, because the keyboard is not listed.

I wanted to download updates, and went through the selection list. The base items as well as abiword failed to start for download.

While sound works, it is reasonable as we can set a larger buffer to overcome buffer outs from occurring.

I want to get into root. With sudo, I can not do it. (I want to improve priority for GNOME). Right now, when I take the card game, moving the card from one pile to another is very choppy. That is my motivation for root. Also, if I cannot get into root, then ubuntu is not open, and does not meet my definition of free and open.

I was told that the root password is the same as the password chosen for the user. This is not so.
As a consequence, I cannot log to root.

Have a nice day.
Leslie

In my earlier post I wrote that the keyboard is not listed. Actually the keyboard is listed, but the necessary files to use it are missing. I should be able to get the keyboard to work with the command setxkbdmap "ca(fr)", but this option is not recognized.

Have a nice day, just the same.

First you should never log in as root anyway. Thats the first rule of Linux. To do so compromises the whole idea behind security in Linux, remember we're not playing in Windows anymore. You don't have to log out and then log back in as Admin to change settings. Sudo will let you do what you want to do if you know the proper commands from the terminal, but you'll have to google for that, i don't know what they are. You can force Ubuntu to let you log in as root, again I strongly recomend you don't do this. And unless you've done an "Expert Install," then yes your user password = root password. Try this code in the terminal
it will then ask you for your password, because a normal user isn't allow to copy files to that folder.
Type your user password. And BAM! you the pic is copied. Try it again without the sudo command and you'll get a "You don't have the proper privilages" error. Sudo does after all stand for "Super User Do." Trust me on this one buddy, I have no reason to lie to you.

For your keyboard problem, did you try:

1.) Assuming your in Gnome, at the top under System -> Preferences -> Keyboard. From there under the second tab labeled "Layout," make sure your default is set to Candian-French or whatever you want. If its not simply click "add" and select whether or not you want it to be default?

2.) Use nano or vim to edit your xorg.conf file. Under the input device "Keyboard" make sure that your layout is listed as the proper one.

3.) When in the terminal, if you want to use the setxkbmap command use this code
Here's a nifty webpage on that command

Setxbkmap Command Webpage


Did any of those three options help? Please let us know. Thank you.