How to dual boot and get ubuntu 10.10 on D: drive

[Cyrixx]

So I'm running Win7 Home Premium on my C: and I read somewhere that it is advisable to install on a seperate HD so I a empty D: I'd like to experiment with Ubuntu 10.10. This is my first time with a Linux OS. Got the CD ISO made. Do I need to find a free program so when I boot it asks what OS I want to run....either Win 7 or Ubuntu? How do I get Ubuntu to install on D: because messin' around a bit it looked like it wanted to go to c:..period. Any help would be great.

Cyrixx

PS...my system is a 64bit but I chose the recommended 32bit linux OS. I hope that's correct. Running AMD Phenom II BE 720 X3 o/c to 3.4Ghz w/ 8GB Ram with a Gigabyte mobo and 2 ATi 5770 vid cards bridged.

 

[Ijack]

You chose the wrong OS, IMO. With that setup I'd go for the 64-bit version.

As for booting, Linux will install a boot loader which should recognize the Windows installation and set up a boot menu. There should be no problem in chosing which drive to install on.

BTW, do you have a Windows install disk? It's just possible that you might need it if anything goes wrong. If you are not entirely happy about this sort of installation running in a virtual machine is a safer option.

 

[Cyrixx]

You chose the wrong OS, IMO. With that setup I'd go for the 64-bit version.

As for booting, Linux will install a boot loader which should recognize the Windows installation and set up a boot menu. There should be no problem in chosing which drive to install on.

BTW, do you have a Windows install disk? It's just possible that you might need it if anything goes wrong. If you are not entirely happy about this sort of installation running in a virtual machine is a safer option.

Thank you for taking time to help. I will re- download the 64bit version tomorrow and give it a go. Is it smart to install on a separate HD than Windows? What seems to be the attraction of Ubuntu/Linux besides being free vs. Windows 7/Vista? I'll assume more secure security wise vs Windows?

Cyrixx

 

[Ijack]

I'm not sure there's a lot of difference between installing on a separate hard disk and installing on a separate partition. You do need to be a little bit careful in either case to get the boot loader installation correct. I always like to install the boot loader in the boot sector of the Linux partition, rather than the MBR, when Windows is involved. In any case you should be prepared for the possibility of having to do a repair of the Windows boot setup - hence the advisability of having a Windows install disk to hand.

The absolute safest way to install on two hard disks is to disconnect the Windows hard disk whilst installing and then use the BIOS facility to choose which disk to boot from (F12 at bootup on my m/b - may be different on yours). That way there is no question of either installation messing with the boot files of the other. I boot 3 OSes off two hard disks and have had up to 5 in the past, so it can be done easily enough, but I've lost count of the number of times that I've had to tweak the boot configuration to get everything working.

If you are still at the "investigate" stage of Linux I would strongly suggest that you install VirtualBox and run your Linux in a virtual machine. It's very easy then to try different distributions or configurations with the minimum of trouble. As well as Ubuntu you might like to check out Fedora and Mandriva - both very user friendly for novices. You can get Live CDs of all these distros so you can even check them out without any installation - but a Live CD is always going to be a lot slower than a real installation or a VM one.

What is the attraction of Linux? I can only speak personally but to me it's:

1. It's free (always appeals to the Scot in me).

2. There is a wealth of free software available for it, especially programming languages, databases, etc.

3. It's different (computers are all about learning as far as I am concerned).

4. It's stable and secure (but Windows is pretty good nowadays). Any security holes are very quickly plugged.

5. The source is available (I'm interested in Operating Systems, so that appeals to me). Apart from anything else that means that you can tune the kernel - the core of the OS - to your computer. That's probably not a big deal for most people.

6. There's a huge amount of community support available.

7. But in the end it all comes down to "Because it's there".

(PS There are other free OSes that you could check out - FreeBSD, Solaris Express to name but two. But Linux is the best supported alternative OS.)

 

[Cyrixx]

I'm not sure there's a lot of difference between installing on a separate hard disk and installing on a separate partition. You do need to be a little bit careful in either case to get the boot loader installation correct. I always like to install the boot loader in the boot sector of the Linux partition, rather than the MBR, when Windows is involved. In any case you should be prepared for the possibility of having to do a repair of the Windows boot setup - hence the advisability of having a Windows install disk to hand.

The absolute safest way to install on two hard disks is to disconnect the Windows hard disk whilst installing and then use the BIOS facility to choose which disk to boot from (F12 at bootup on my m/b - may be different on yours). That way there is no question of either installation messing with the boot files of the other. I boot 3 OSes off two hard disks and have had up to 5 in the past, so it can be done easily enough, but I've lost count of the number of times that I've had to tweak the boot configuration to get everything working.

If you are still at the "investigate" stage of Linux I would strongly suggest that you install VirtualBox and run your Linux in a virtual machine. It's very easy then to try different distributions or configurations with the minimum of trouble. As well as Ubuntu you might like to check out Fedora and Mandriva - both very user friendly for novices. You can get Live CDs of all these distros so you can even check them out without any installation - but a Live CD is always going to be a lot slower than a real installation or a VM one.

What is the attraction of Linux? I can only speak personally but to me it's:

1. It's free (always appeals to the Scot in me).

2. There is a wealth of free software available for it, especially programming languages, databases, etc.

3. It's different (computers are all about learning as far as I am concerned).

4. It's stable and secure (but Windows is pretty good nowadays). Any security holes are very quickly plugged.

5. The source is available (I'm interested in Operating Systems, so that appeals to me). Apart from anything else that means that you can tune the kernel - the core of the OS - to your computer. That's probably not a big deal for most people.

6. There's a huge amount of community support available.

7. But in the end it all comes down to "Because it's there".

(PS There are other free OSes that you could check out - FreeBSD, Solaris Express to name but two. But Linux is the best supported alternative OS.)

Great info, thank you! So I get around to re-downloading the 64bit version of 10.10, burn the ISO on a CD, point to my D: drive and I get this message: No root file system is defined. Please correct this from the partioning menu. So I get to a edit partition section but I don't know what option to choose. I have the following.......Ext4 Journaling, Ext3 Journaling, Ext2 File System, ReiserFS Journaling, BTRFS, JFS, XFS, then windows stuff like Fat16, Fat32, NFTS and something called swap area. What to do, what to do..........

Cyrixx

 

[Ijack]

You'll want your root partition to be a Linux native one, I'd go for Ext3 (Ext4 is better but still a bit new so maybe not the best choice for a first-timer). You'll also need to create a swap partition - depends how much space you have on the hard disk, but I'd make it 4GB with 8GB RAM as long as that doesn't take up too great a percentage of your disk space (allow about 32GB or more for the root partition - that's far more than you'll need, but you can never have too much disk space). Basically I would make a 4GB swap and the rest for an ext3 root partition.

 

[Cyrixx]

Yep, I actually followed a guide here and a article on tomshardware.com. For my first time I went with three partitions on my blank 500GB HD. 245GB for / or root, 245GB for /home and 8GB for swap file. I ended up going with Ext4. Articles are like '09 and talking Ext3 so I thought Ext4 would be the norm by now. I'm pleased everything went well, boot loader lets me choose which OS I want at power up, etc. Now to work out the bugs like my internet isn't working. I believe I need realtek linux drivers but not sure how to install. Downloaded something but ended up being code for a terminal or something.

Cyrixx

 

[Ijack]

You made a better choice than my suggestion (I was thinking about absolute beginners who might not want to bother with multiple partitions). And I've never had any problems with ext4, so that's fine.

If you need to install additional drivers they normally come in the form of a shell script. To install them you need to open a terminal windows and then type "sudo sh realtek" (that assumes the downloaded file was called "realtek"). This will compile and install the drivers for your system. It's possible that this might throw up some error such as "Linux header files not found" or even "gcc compiler not found". If so, post back and someone will advise you.

Actually, I'm a bit surprised that your network interface isn't supported as standard - do you know what chipset it is? I've had problems in the past with some Realtek chips, but I'd have thought they were standard modules by now. Googling "Ubuntu Realtek" might find users with similar problems and (hopefully) solutions.

Whateve, have fun! That's what computers are for.