Noob Linux DualBoot

chiskop said:
I thought you had a PC Format disc? If you have a relatively recent version of ubuntu, say anything > 6.06, there's no reason to splurge bandwidth on another slightly-newer version.
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The PCF one is only v5.something.

It's not the bandwidth, it's the time it takes to download.
 
the thing with using an alpha is that it is the earliest stage of testing. if you are not familiar with linux i would strongly urge you download a stable version.
 
SlinkyMike said:
err erm: http://apcmag.com/dualboot
Click to expand...

Linux noob here still trying to get started with DualBooting Linux once Vista is already installed.

I have followed the instructions above. When i shrink my C drive it barely frees up 4GB. The partition has Vista on it and is 50GB in size. Vista is currently taking up about 20GB of this...Will this 4GB be enough to run Linux decently?

Also, I have a 20GB hdd with nothing at all on it in the same machine. Is it easier to install Linux on there and then dual boot?
 
I've just managed to get Compiz to work with Kubuntu.:cool: Screenshot Great fun. Can't wait to try it on my new PC when it arrives.:)

hj2k_x: 4gb should be enough I think. When I installed kubuntu yesterday, it was 2.2gb after a clean install. The 20gb harddrive would however be easier than this shrinking business. If your paranoid you can then even remove the vista drive while installing.

You guys use Linux?
Click to expand...
Since yesterday yesterday. I'm a total noob too.:o
 
HavocXphere said:
I've just managed to get Compiz to work with Kubuntu.:cool: Screenshot Great fun. Can't wait to try it on my new PC when it arrives.:)

hj2k_x: 4gb should be enough I think. When I installed kubuntu yesterday, it was 2.2gb after a clean install. The 20gb harddrive would however be easier than this shrinking business. If your paranoid you can then even remove the vista drive while installing.


Since yesterday yesterday. I'm a total noob too.:o
Click to expand...

thanks for the feedback...That compiz thing looks cool as well :)

If I install ubuntu on the 20GB drive(empty now) will it still dual boot without me having to do anything further? I am not too happy with this whole shrinking business. I don't think Vista will like it :p
 
It should dual boot without issue if the vista drive was present at install time. I'm not sure whether it will add Vista to the list if the vista drive is only reinserted later...you'll have to wait for one of the experts to come along.
 
HavocXphere said:
It should dual boot without issue if the vista drive was present at install time. I'm not sure whether it will add Vista to the list if the vista drive is only reinserted later...you'll have to wait for one of the experts to come along.
Click to expand...

Grrr...Decided to try to install it on the 20GB drive. After 56% of copying files I get this :

The installer encountered an error copying files to the hard disk:

[Errno 5] Input/output error

This particular error is often due to a faulty CD/DVD disk or drive, or a faulty hard disk. It may help to clean the CD/DVD, to burn the CD/DVD at a lower speed, to clean the CD/DVD drive lens (cleaning kits are often available from electronics suppliers), to check whether the hard disk is old and in need of replacement, or to move the system to a cooler environment.
Click to expand...

I have already burnt the disk at the slowest speed I could (8x) and I have checked the md5Sums to see that the download was not corrupt. Any ideas?
 
This particular error is often due to a faulty CD/DVD disk or drive, or a faulty hard disk.
Click to expand...

If the CD's MD5 checks out, then I would assume that the hard disk has a problem. Maybe run a disk check just to make sure.
 
hj2k_x said:
Linux noob here still trying to get started with DualBooting Linux once Vista is already installed.

I have followed the instructions above. When i shrink my C drive it barely frees up 4GB. The partition has Vista on it and is 50GB in size. Vista is currently taking up about 20GB of this...Will this 4GB be enough to run Linux decently?

Also, I have a 20GB hdd with nothing at all on it in the same machine. Is it easier to install Linux on there and then dual boot?
Click to expand...
IMO always best to install Linux on its own HDD, make it HDD0 so the PC boots GRUB when it starts, and you can then configure GRUB to hot-swap the order in which Windoze sees the HDDs iterated from BIOS.

http://www.google.co.za/search?q=%2Bsite%3Aubuntuforums.org+%2BGRUB+%2B%22dual+boot%22
hj2k_x said:
Grrr...Decided to try to install it on the 20GB drive. After 56% of copying files I get this :



I have already burnt the disk at the slowest speed I could (8x) and I have checked the md5Sums to see that the download was not corrupt. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
I doubt it is the CD|DVD, more likely to be some problem with the 20GB HDD.
 
ic said:
IMO always best to install Linux on its own HDD, make it HDD0 so the PC boots GRUB when it starts, and you can then configure GRUB to hot-swap the order in which Windoze sees the HDDs iterated from BIOS.

http://www.google.co.za/search?q=%2Bsite%3Aubuntuforums.org+%2BGRUB+%2B%22dual+boot%22I doubt it is the CD|DVD, more likely to be some problem with the 20GB HDD.
Click to expand...

Ok, I think it must be the drive then. Next issue: I am running Ubuntu off the CD and am not sure how to scan the drive for errors on Linux :o Google tells me things about 'fsck' Where do i type this in??

Would it be easier if I went back to Vista, shrank the partition that it is on the 3.5GB it will allow me to shrink it and install Ubuntu on there?
 
You would type that into the command line. Depending on which distro you're running, it might be called something different.

Finding a terminal program

To access the command line you will need to open a terminal which will allow you to talk directly to the computer. Look for a program called Xterm, terminal, Konsole, console or something similar. Since different versions of GNU/Linux have different menus, this may take a bit of searching.

The icon for a terminal is usually a computer screen, and different windowing systems will have their preferred terminals. Gnome has a gnome-terminal and KDE has Konsole. On my Debian Linux system, I found a terminal called Xterm under Debian —>Xshells.
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qinglung said:
You would type that into the command line. Depending on which distro you're running, it might be called something different.
Click to expand...

Erm...I have found the command line and even read the fsck manual...i can't seem to find the name of the drive that I want to check...Like what do I have to type? fsck and then what??
 
hj2k_x said:
Ok, I think it must be the drive then. Next issue: I am running Ubuntu off the CD and am not sure how to scan the drive for errors on Linux :o Google tells me things about 'fsck' Where do i type this in??

Would it be easier if I went back to Vista, shrank the partition that it is on the 3.5GB it will allow me to shrink it and install Ubuntu on there?
Click to expand...

Check the drive with an OEM tool, e.g. if the make is Seagate, use SeaTools:
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/SeaToolsDOS.iso

fsck.xxxx will only check on file system errors where xxxx is the file system.

You can also resize the Windows partition with the Ubuntu install CD/DVD using QtParted.
 
fskmh said:
Check the drive with an OEM tool, e.g. if the make is Seagate, use SeaTools:
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/SeaToolsDOS.iso

fsck.xxxx will only check on file system errors where xxxx is the file system.

You can also resize the Windows partition with the Ubuntu install CD/DVD using QtParted.
Click to expand...

Ok, I will try that now now as well.

For now, I am trying a tip that Google found me, namely manually creating the partitions on the hdd to see if that helps.

I made one 10GB for /
one 9.5GB for /home
and one with the rest of the space as 'swap'

If it bombs out again I think I might try to resize the Vista partition and then stick Ubuntu on there...even though it only gave me 3.5GB space when i tried to resize it in Vista...
 
Nope, same issue. Reaches 59% and crashes with the same input/output error.

Think I'll try GParted to shrink that Vista partition and install it on there...
 
hj2k_x said:
I made one 10GB for /
one 9.5GB for /home
and one with the rest of the space as 'swap'
Click to expand...

10GB will probably be too much for /, unless you plan to install some big 3rd party apps like IDL, Matlab etc. If you aren't ever going to compile big things that need a few 100MBs in /tmp or mess around with different kernels then you could get by with less. You want the bulk of the space available for /home. (I am assuming this is a desktop test installation and not an ftp server.)

How much is "the rest of the space"?
The old rule of 2 x the physical RAM for the swap partition doesn't really apply anymore. On a modern machine with >=512MB of RAM you'll probably be fine by making swap the same size as the physical RAM, unless you have some specific reason for making it larger.
 
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