Ubuntu Linux 5.10 questions

I've downloaded Ubuntu linux and want to install it on a free partiition i have on a second HD. This HD is partitioned in two, each 40 Gb.
Is it possible to do this without compromising the other partition?, or do i have to move the data to a other location, just to be safe?
I know it is possible to manually make the partition for linux during install but is it safe to do so?
Another thing i am wondering about is, how big do i have to make this Ubuntu partition for a total install?

Regards
Lamehand

 

i think your best bet would be to ask on the Ubuntu forums, or do a search there. it's a little bit more tricky installing on a 2nd HDD because the boot loader will be on the first, but yes lots of people have done it.

if it was me i'd look into how people have done it, plus how to backup grub to a floppy. grub is the boot loader which is the first thing on the HDD, it pops up at boot and asks which OS you want to use. if something goes wrong with grub you wont be able to boot!

also, i'd print out instructions for fixing the MBR using the recovery console. it's something like - tap F8 during boot, select Recovery Console, then type fixmbr.

nothing should go wrong, it's just better to be safe.

Ubuntu needs much less space then windows! i have mine on a 7GB partition.

 

I've installed it on the free partition without any hinges, it went very smooth.
After a reboot of the system grub presented the two OS' to choose from so no worries in that appartment.
My partition is 12 Gb.

I'm of to read some wiki's, there is a lot of stuff to learn.
Thanks for your advice inceni, those items are noted.

regards
Lamehand

 

lamehand, this was on a harddrive that already contained xp?

Very good news. I am going to be doing the same. Saved me a lot of worry this post did.

Just curious, do you have a swap partition?

 

To answer your question, yes i have.
I just formatted the empty first partition on the second harddrive with XP and then i installed ubuntu.
I had the files that where on the second partition of that drive moved to a other location to be sure they weren't compromised.So basically the drive was empty before i started.
And now everything works. (I don't know how but it does)

greetings
Lamehand

 

that's great news

the first thing i'd do after an install is update the OS, this is how to do it. it also shows how to enable more places for your package manager (Synaptic) to use. Synaptic is used for installing software, it has about 18,000 programs to choose from, then installs it all for you right from your desktop

NOTE - there's more information if you click Help>Contents and Help>Quick Introduction, inside Synaptic.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AddingRepositoriesHowto

there are afew other things too which will get all your media working (some media things don't come installed because Ubuntu is free, so you have to add them yourself, otherwise you would have to pay for the OS.)

you can do it all manually, or you can run this script (small program) instead which will give you the option to install the media things, plus lots, lots more automatically - just checkmark the box if you want it. Streamtuner is great, streamripper is just the bit which works with the record option in streamtuner -
http://shinobufan.free.fr/dotclear/images/streamtuner.jpg

http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/781/automatix4wp.th.png

read the post at the link carefully before you run it.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=138405

 

I've added repositories with synaptic and updated the system, it went oke.
There is only one thing that i can't seem to find in the wiki's; how do you install a new version of firefox, the current version i have is 1.0.8. I've downloaded 1.5.0.2 to the desktop and need to do a clean install because it is better not to use a 1.0 profile in 1.5. Can i do this all with synaptic?

regards
Lamehand

 

i don't use firefox so i haven't installed a newer version. but, generally to install something which isn't a .deb file (debian package) you would unpack it (right-click, extract) then open terminal and cd to the extracted directory. if it's on your desktop, you'd do this -

cd Desktop/ Note the capital letter in desktop
cd firefox_directory_name
./configure
make
sudo make install

but, i think in the case of Firefox 1.5.xx you can just extract it then double-click the firefox executable, and select run.

 

Oke, inceni i will try that and see what happens, thanks for the info.

Greetings
Lamehand

 

There is more to it than meets the eye, I found a separate page in the ubuntu wiki about installing firefox 1.5 and it is quite an exercise, you will become a commandline-expert (almost) in just a couple of hours.

But it's working now and you learn a lot from doing these things.

Greetings
Lamehand

 

i forgot there's this script which will install firefox for you.
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/firefox.php

there's lots of other useful things on the site too.

just remember - setting up Linux will probably be the hardest thing you'll need to do for awhile. once you know how to install everything and make some changes to the system you shouldn't have any other problems. Linux can be modified far more then windows

 

It doesn't matter inceni, i know now how to move around a bit in the system.
I need a contentfilter, i saw a couple i like, wich one is better; junkbuster or privoxy?
I've always used the proxomitron but that's impossible on linux.

regards
Lamehand

 

Alternatively there is http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/firefox.php for Firefox, and Ubuntu runs on very little diskspace, I am running it on a 5GB drive.

 

I've been doing the same thing as described in the script but in the commandline.
So the script is oke!

regards
Lamehand

 

good. there's so many cool things you can do. but, i won't go on about it you can make terminal transparent; if you open terminal>edit>Current Profile>Effects>Transparent Background.

also, instead of typing out all the commands you can just do the first 2/3 letters then press then Tab Key (the one with two arrows) and it will auto complete the command, if there's more then one option you can press the Tab Key twice and it will show those options so you can pick one. e.g. you can open a terminal, then type
cd D (then press the tab key and it should fill in ecktop/ for you

 

i use Privoxy, but there is proximodo too, i haven't tried it though. if you are going to run some windows programs using Wine then you can use Proxo with Wine.

here's a good link which is worth reading.
http://freeengineer.org/learnUNIXin10minutes.html

 

I have installed privoxy too at the moment, will see how it behaves. The latest version was allready in the repository.

Thanks
Lamehand

 

I want to ask one question, since I saw Ubuntu can be loaded from a second HD, can u load it from an external USB HD. I mean if some way u install Grub on ur primary drive and install the rest of OS in external USM/ firewire HD.
May be a crazy question but I just could not stop myself to aks.

 

I think it must be possible, it is just another drive, mine is build in but i see no reason why you shouldn't be able to boot from a external drive.The location where to boot from is placed in the MBR and you are then able to choose, when you start-up the system, wich OS you want to boot.

regards
Lamehand

 

you can have your OS where ever you want, as long as your boot loader knows where it is. if you are planning to move to a new drive just make sure you use the correct command (it's not cp) and edit /boot/grub/menu.lst