RisingMoon
Member
I'm thinking of going down the UBUNTU road for my laptop. I'm avoiding it for my desktop as I play demanding games. Is dual boot necessary?
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Ubuntu!!!!
- Thread starter Bramsy
- Start date
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
You may as well dualboot if you have a decent amount of free space on your hard drive.
When you are in the Ubuntu CD you can use the GParted App to make room for an EXT3/4 partition for Ubuntu
When you are in the Ubuntu CD you can use the GParted App to make room for an EXT3/4 partition for Ubuntu
RisingMoon
Member
My laptop hard drive has 217GB total space, not free space (not including the windows recovery partition installed by Samsung). Since I have so much music and video files on there, would I be right in assuming I could still access them from the windows partition when I run UBUNTU? Or would I need to have them on both partitions. Also I've heard video playback in UBUNTU is poor, and this is one of the main things I use my laptop for besides browsing the interweb.
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
I have watched four movies on my NTFS (windows) Partiton using the deafult video player on Ubuntu.
Fine for me
Fine for me
RisingMoon
Member
Oh good Sounds promising. So I can keep all of my files on my windows partition. Did you split your drive half and half? Does Ubuntu need massive amounts of storage or would it be ok to give it, say, 50Gb?
Sounds promising. So I can keep all of my files on my windows partition. Did you split your drive half and half? Does Ubuntu need massive amounts of storage or would it be ok to give it, say, 50Gb?
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
You can give it as little as 10GB, tbh
The OS uses much less space than Windows7/Vista
The OS uses much less space than Windows7/Vista
andruoid
Android Expert
I agree, 10GB is fine for linux.Just for some further comparison;
Fully patched Win7 Pro 64bit uses 30GB, that is only with drivers installed; no apps, nothing. Takes about 2.5 hours and many reboots on a i3-2100 with 8GB RAM to go through that process.
Same machine, Mint Linux 11 fully patched with 80% of the apps I need already installed with the OS uses just under 5GB of space. Takes about 30mins to install and 5-10min to lock it down using various config files.
Back on topic... dual booting is fine but why not try a live CD to try it out. Better yet, install VirtualBox and install via a linux ISO instead of wasting a CD/DVD to see if you like linux or not.
RisingMoon
Member
Right so, I'm going to follow a tutorial to have dual boot Ubuntu and Win7, with a storage space shared between both. I'm an all or nothing kinda guy so for the last 3 hours or so I've been transferring my 200Gb of music, video and all documents to my desktop via LAN. Yea, 3 hours. SLOW!!!
I'm going to install from a USB stick. I'll let you know how it goes (if I'm still alive) in a few hours.
I'm going to install from a USB stick. I'll let you know how it goes (if I'm still alive) in a few hours.
RisingMoon
Member
I'm still alive, at 4am, still installing ubuntu. If i'd known it was going to take this long, i'd have paid someone else to do it. To be fair it took hours to transfer the data from my laptop to my desktop. Damn LAN is so slow at 4.01MB per second 
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
Paid? Whats going wrong? Should take less then an hour 
Its a joy to install after I had to reinstall Windows7
Its a joy to install after I had to reinstall Windows7
RisingMoon
Member
Paid? Whats going wrong? Should take less then an hour
Its a joy to install after I had to reinstall Windows7
I have a system partition on my hard disk as well as my samsung recovery partition and windows os. I need 2 partitions for ubuntu. These partitions are all primary...
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
Why do you need two?
RisingMoon
Member
One for sharing my media and documents between my windows OS and UBUNTU OS and one for the UBUNTU OS itself. I'm following the tutorial Bramsy linked at the top of this thread.
The main thing that is annoying me is that the 100MB system partition that windows has created, shouldn't have been created. It's used for bitlocker and as I'm using Windows home premium I have no use of bitlocker...
I'm going to try and install UBUNTU and set that partition as an extended partition, so I can create another partition for my files.
The main thing that is annoying me is that the 100MB system partition that windows has created, shouldn't have been created. It's used for bitlocker and as I'm using Windows home premium I have no use of bitlocker...
I'm going to try and install UBUNTU and set that partition as an extended partition, so I can create another partition for my files.
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
What guide?
The 100MB partition is for the windows bootloader to keep it separate from the OS
I cant find the tutorial, but Ubuntu will be able to read AND write you Windows partition, so you only need one.
If I were you I'd manually select partitions in the installer, select the Recovery partition and set it as EXT3/4 and have it mount as "/"
The 100MB partition is for the windows bootloader to keep it separate from the OS
I cant find the tutorial, but Ubuntu will be able to read AND write you Windows partition, so you only need one.
If I were you I'd manually select partitions in the installer, select the Recovery partition and set it as EXT3/4 and have it mount as "/"
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
I use the terminal a lot, but GUI is what i usually use.
RisingMoon
Member
Thanks, that's the route I've took. I've got a massive partition for my windows OS which will store all of my media and then a 15GB partition for UBUNTU. Set it to mount at /... There is something in this tutorial about a swap file or something, haven't got that far yet but UBUNTU is installing fine... The tutorial I read said to install 9.10, can I upgrade this to 11.04 within UBUNTU???
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
You can upgrade it to 11.4 no problem
You only really need swap if you have little RAM
You only really need swap if you have little RAM
andruoid
Android Expert
I run terminals within a window manager, such a fluxbox. However, most desktops need a GUI to be able to do anything visual, eg: to surf, edit photos, etc. If I was running a server, then yes, no GUI would be installed.
RisingMoon
Member
I've 2GB ram in my laptop. Ubuntu seems a little groggy at the moment, takes a while to boot etc... I'm about to upgrade to 11.04 and see if that cures the problem.
Next step is actually learning how to use ubuntu productively. Thanks for being supportive whilst I've been making the move
Next step is actually learning how to use ubuntu productively. Thanks for being supportive whilst I've been making the move
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
It shouldnt take that long to boot, altho the first few boots may be an exception.
11.04 is quite nice, although the desktop system is unfinished
If you need help just ask!
11.04 is quite nice, although the desktop system is unfinished
If you need help just ask!
RisingMoon
Member
I'm loving it! Functionality and style, all in one light weight (almost fuss free) package. Why do you use a GUI? Is it a better version of the terminal? I used that to set up my swap file, which was painless, and I've seen a good improvement in the speed.
Any tips to make my new OS better? What is Mint?
Any tips to make my new OS better? What is Mint?
ElasticNinja
Android Expert
GUI = Graphical User Interface
Basically all the menus, icons etc!
You sound like you are taking things in your stride.
Its worth having a look at Ubuntu Software Center app too, also when you install apps from the outside they get added to your one! Very neat compared to Windows
Mint is a Debian (what Ubuntu is built from) OS based off Ubuntu.
Its very pretty!
Firefox is lovely on Linux (compared to Windows), There is also Chromium (Chrome built for Linux), And I myself use Opera.
GIMP is a Photoshop alternative, and so far most things i use in the OS are the built on apps.
You can get WINE from the SW Center to run some Windows apps (eg Picasa)
Basically all the menus, icons etc!
You sound like you are taking things in your stride.
Its worth having a look at Ubuntu Software Center app too, also when you install apps from the outside they get added to your one! Very neat compared to Windows
Mint is a Debian (what Ubuntu is built from) OS based off Ubuntu.
Its very pretty!
Firefox is lovely on Linux (compared to Windows), There is also Chromium (Chrome built for Linux), And I myself use Opera.
GIMP is a Photoshop alternative, and so far most things i use in the OS are the built on apps.
You can get WINE from the SW Center to run some Windows apps (eg Picasa)
I've been using Ubuntu for several years, and prefer 10.04 to 11.04, partly because it doesn't have unity, and because it has the bugs worked out and is long term support. Instead of sudo apt-get, try the synaptic link, it brings up the repository and lets you click on the programs you want, then hit install. Synaptic then takes care of everything and notifies you when it is complete.
As to programs, Gimp for photo editing, vlc for video editing, OpenOffice or LibreOffice for word processing/spread sheets/presentations, Firefox for browser, and load the restricted extras (non-free proprietary drivers, no cost, just not under the public license). Other than that, browse the repositories and see what catches your eye. Open Source and Linux Forums is a good place to seek help if you need it.
As to programs, Gimp for photo editing, vlc for video editing, OpenOffice or LibreOffice for word processing/spread sheets/presentations, Firefox for browser, and load the restricted extras (non-free proprietary drivers, no cost, just not under the public license). Other than that, browse the repositories and see what catches your eye. Open Source and Linux Forums is a good place to seek help if you need it.
