Hello!

We'll obviously im a newb at computers, especially software, id say my hardwares alright. been doing research for about 4 months on hardware to get a nice setup. i've seen linux beryl on youtube, and it looks just sick.

I have a 10krpm 76gb hard drive (windows vista home premium)
and 7.2krpm 500gb hard drive (just random storage and stuff)

could i get linux beryl on my second hard drive without deleting my files? i gues i would need to learn more about linux as it is. could anyone help me? linux is an operating system right? i hear its very complex and noobs should stay out, but im planning to learn. what should i be careful of? i'm a risk taker, but i have my limits. i dont wanna screw anything up and cause perma damage on anything. could anyone gimme a simple walk through? thanks!

Yes definitely!

Linux is indeed an operating system and a pretty good one.

It has it's flaws and can be a little intimidating at first but it's getting better and easier by the day.

You can shrink your windows partition on your 500GB drive and install Linux on the space you free up.

Before you shrink anything it's a good idea to backup your important files.

Better safe than sorry.


Head over to http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-releases/7.10/ and download

http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-r [...] -amd64.iso

or

http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-r [...] e-i386.iso

depending on your hardware

check the md5sums using an md5 tool http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/using_md5sums.html

if they match the corresponding checksum in this file http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-releases/7.10/MD5SUMS you're good to go!


Use an ISO capable CD recording program to burn the ISO CD image to a CD-R as an ISO image, be careful some CD recording programs may just burn the ISO to CD as a file which is not going to work

reboot your computer, go into the BIOS change the boot order to boot from CD first

when the splash screen comes up use the arrow keys to scroll down to the media check

after the CD passes the media check

boot from the Ubuntu CD

when Ubuntu starts up it will drop you into GNOME, a Linux GUI / desktop

if you're ready to install click on the install link on the graphical desktop and follow the prompts

the installer has 7 steps, 6 are pretty much self explanatory, the only one where you gotta be really careful is the partitioning step


here's some documentation https://help.ubuntu.com/

GL

Hello!

HAHA Holy crap dude, u totally lost me. i appreciate this help so much, but id like to ask you to slow down just a bit. i have a few questions, and then i think i'll be good to go >.<

1)
okay, i went to the first given link,
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-releases/7.10/
but i wasn't sure which one to download. you said it depends on my hardware, but im not 100% clear on which one would be better for my hardware. what kinds of hardware would be good for one, or the other?

2)
"check the md5sums using an md5 tool" i read the following link, im guessing its just a double check process? i just want to make sure that the file i downloaded matches the original incase some sort of corruption occured durring the download right?

3)
ISO, i'm not 100% sure what it is, but im guess once i get the program it should be easier huh? What kind of cd burning program would you recomend? i really dont burn much so i dont even have one to begin with haha. i've gotta crappy cd burner too, maybe theres a way to double-check that too? =S

4)
i think i got the rest of it. you said there are 6 self explanitory steps and 1 that i gotta becareful of. in fact if i do partition one of my harddrives... maybe ill just partition the one with windows on it (76gb 10krpm) i'm a lil worried about this though. vista takes up around 20-25 gigs right now (including the programs ive installed without an option to install it completly on my second harddrive). how much will linux take up? and how much will it take up in the future? also i know vista needs quite a bit of free space to just run freely. does linux need that too? i guess i'm basically asking, how much space do you recomend me to partition?

5)
on a smaller note, i dont wanna change the letter of my 500gb harddrive (d). is there a way to partition, and make that partition the B drive? that would be sick =D

6)
i forgot to add this in the original post, but i also wanted to mention that i have dual monitors. what problems, or enhances might i come across using linux?

I think that's as much as i can ask for now, thanks!!

Hehe

1) I meant amd64 which is 64bit vs. i386 which is 32bit more on this later

2) yup, you're just checking the md5 checksums to make sure your download is not corrupt and is secure

3) ISO means a standard CDROM image file so that you can burn your Ubuntu bootable installation CD

you need CD recording software which knows how to burn an ISO image

basically you can do it with a nice free program from here http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/Vista.htm

that should work just fine


4) as far as the partitions go that depends on what you want to do with your system

you have a lot of options, one option is to backup important files and install both operating systems from scratch which is a good learning experience although it can be painful

another option is to backup important files and then shrink your windows partition either on your 1st drive or your 2nd drive or both to make room for Ubuntu

Ubuntu does not need a lot of space unless you plan to install a lot of applications a minimal install needs under 10GB

if you want to have a basic install you only need about 20GB

if you plan to try out almost every linux application there is you may need more space, 60GB or more

since you have a 500GB drive you could give about 250GB to Vista and about 250GB to linux which would pretty much guarantee you wouldn't run out of space for a while under normal usage

you can always resize them or delete them later if you need to or add another drive


here's an install video http://youtube.com/watch?v=njv1A-bjnzw for your viewing pleasure

this is not a dual boot install but you can see how easy it is to install

on a dual boot install you would use the other options in the partitioner instead of telling it to use the entire disk


I know I haven't explained things too well so let me know what other questions you have

hehe

you were editing as I was typing


5) what all do you have on your D:\ drive? using the ubuntu partitioner you can shrink D:\ and free up 40-60GB for Ubuntu or maybe more but ubuntu doesn't get a drive letter


6) if your VGA card supports them well you should be ok you should probably install the restricted ATI driver

the driver is a work in progress AMD is re-writing their drivers

I think they are planning to release a new driver monthly so if something is broken this month there is a pretty good chance they will fix it by next month

BTW Beryl is old already :]

It merged with Compiz, so check Compiz Fusion out

Sweet!

Thanks so much linux_0. almost everything is basically answered hehe. and thanks curaga, i'll read more into that for sure!

I've checked out the md5 tool but it seems that it it doesn't work. i looked more into it, and the original maker is too busy to work on it or something. i've looked around but i'm not 100% confident on what to download, or plug-in. could you help me out with that one too? hehe.

another thing is partitioning haha. i'm not sure if you're aware of this, but the 500gb hard drive isnt my main. i have a main drive thats only 70gb's but runs at 10krpm. i have my windows vista installed on that one. i guess it's not that big of a deal, since i think ive now decided to partition my secondary drive to run linux. if i truly grow to love linux (which i probably will ^^) then ill switch linux to the faster hard drive, then put vista on the 500gig drive. i still love vista, im probably gonna do a double boot thing. i have a few questions about that, but im sure i can just google it and find a quick answer =D

besides these, i guess im almost set to get linux running on my computer =D

Thanks again!

EDIT: Do i need to partition my 500gb drive? and sorry about the editing-while-you-were-typing haha.

You can use the command line version of md5sum which runs in a DOS windows instead

the openoffice page has the instructions just scroll down to "The Less Easy Way (md5sum on the command line)"

http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/using_md5sums.html


If your 500GB drive ( D:\ ) has nothing on it and you want to use the entire 500GB drive for Ubuntu that would definitely make the process easier since you can just select the 500GB drive and click on use the entire drive option in the Ubuntu partitioner. After you do that the partitioner will automatically partition the drive for you, so you won't have to do anything manually.

If you already have stuff you want to keep on D:\ you can copy it to C:\ if it'll fit. If you don't care about the data on D:\ you can let Ubuntu wipe the drive clean which is what will happen if you select use the entire drive.

Don't be afraid to play around with the OS, you'll learn by messing with it and potentially breaking it

Since an Ubuntu install only takes about 10min it won't take very long to reinstall if you need to.

Keep the questions coming

Hey,

Thanks for the DOS way of md5sum. i'm sure i can figure that out.

as for my D drive, can i just partition it? hehe. what would be considered more than enough? 100gb? 120, 150? i guess i'm also thinking about leaving some free space for it to run well at all times? i dunno if it's the same as windows. i think im gona actually start working on this project tonight =D. ill get back to you when i run into more problems haha.

EDIT:
i finally figured out how to do the "less easy way". i got the code, but i dont know where to find the original code (online or w/e). the code i got is 61c87943a92bc7bf519da4e2555d6e86 *ubuntu-7.10-desktop-amd64.iso
where do i go to check if this is the right one or not? (or how)

EDIT2: haha, im too lazy to make new posts, anyway, i watched the youtube clip on how to install ubuntu. thanks for that link, i just gotta question about partitioning. so my 500gb drive, im gona select that one to run ubuntu on. it's a slave drive though, should i keep it that way? also, when i partition, i noticed that theres a sliding bar to select how much to partition... do my files that i already have on the drive show up on that bar? can i partition away from that and leave those files untouched?

Ubuntu will fit in 5GB, but give it 20-30 to be sure

If I remember right, the partitioner slider does show you files and not touch them.

Don't worry about not giving it enough room, it can access fat32 just fine. So create a fat32 partition of ~30GB too, for moving files around Vista and Ubuntu..

you can find the md5sums in this file

http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-releases/7.10/MD5SUMS

and it looks like they match so your download should be good

make sure you run the media check when you boot the Ubuntu CD just to be sure


on linux drives are usually identified by their device name

/dev/sda is the 1st SCSI / SATA / USB drive in the system
/dev/sdb is the 2nd drive
/dev/sdc is the 3rd drive
/dev/sdd is the 4th drive
/dev/sde is the 5th drive
/dev/sdf is the 6th drive and so on


the device name on SATA drives will usually change depending on the connector you used on the motherboard

SATA0 is normally /dev/sda
SATA1 /dev/sdb
SATA2 /dev/sdc
SATA3 /dev/sdd

and so on

partitions are identified by adding a number to the drive's device name

for example /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2 etc



it doesn't matter that it's the 2nd drive ( /dev/sdb ) you can install on it no prob but should install the boot loader ( GRUB ) on your 1st drive ( /dev/sda )

you could give it 100-150GB and that should be plenty

to resize the partition on your 500GB drive ( /dev/sdb drive D:\ in win )

in Step 4 of 7 "Prepare disk spare"

select

"Guided - resize SCSIx (x,x,x) partition #1 (sdb) and use freed space"

there will be a slider underneath which you use to set the size


resizing should work fine but if you have any data on your D:\ drive /dev/sdb1 that you do not want to lose both the Ubuntu team and I would urge you to backup your data to your C:\ drive /dev/sda1, to DVD or to an external HDD or whatever you have availabe

if you do not care about the data it is fairly trivial to recreate Drive D:\ /dev/sdb1 in vista or Ubuntu if it breaks

if your partition on drive D:\ /dev/sdb1 is encrypted then Ubuntu may have issues and you may have to delete the partition and recreate it as non-encrypted


Ubuntu can read / write and resize unencrypted win NTFS partitions

it can also resize encrypted NTFS partitions but I do not know if 7.10 has the required version of the ntfsresize program that is needed to do that and I have no way of testing it

GL

BTW your md5 is correct, go ahead and burn

You could have checked it with the file MD5SUMS in that same directory

wow thanks a lot guys =D

theres just 1 question i got right now =S

for some reason my burner just cant detect normal cds in the burner. would it be possible to use a dvd to boot? im sure the answer is yes, but the question i actually want answered is, am i able to store stuff as backup on the dvd AND have the ISO of ubuntu on it so that it will run normally? i just feel that it's sucha waste to use a dvd for this operation, but i dont see myself buying a better burner anytime soon. i know its the burner >< i read reviews, got lota bad ones, but i got it for free so its all good.