Ubuntu Installation Help !

I am pretty well satisfied with SuSE linux, but wanted to give ubuntu a try. While installation i came accross the partition selector. While in SuSE it is easy to understand, here in ubuntu its kinda hard. The first screen of partition is shown below ..



But To start off, see my HDD partition status. Its a 100GB HDD with the partitions as follows:



If i select the 3rd option of doing it manually, it shows me all these detected:



What do i have to do if i want to install ubuntu on my 4th partition (F:), thats the 15GB one. And how does it automatically resize the partition for root etc. SuSE seems to be far more easier if these options cant be found here.

Bottomline is that i need to install ubuntu on the F: partition (15GB), and have a dual boot with windows xp on the C: Is this possible ? And if possible could someone giude me through the steps of acomplishing this.

Regards
Dhanesh.

 

 

 

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Hi Dhanesh, the F: drive should be the line with /dev/sda7 (last one). I see in the previous image that you have a lot of data in there. Did you back up everything in there already? I highly recommend that you backup all your important files for ALL your drives nevertheless because when it comes to some major install like this, you never know what can go wrong.

Select that last one and hit Forward. See if it will create that root and swap partition for you using that 4th partition you have there. If not, don't continue any further. Use a partitioning program to split up that partition into two smaller pieces for the root and swap partitions (whatever sizes you want...use the minimum at least).

Ubuntu should have a boot loader (probably GRUB) once you finish installing it. It will allow you to select whether you want to boot up with Windows or Ubuntu the next time you restart the computer.

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They have a graphical installer now? Since when :S?

Anyways, if you just want to test out operating systems, I would highly recommend you using a virtual machine since it's much easier and the chances of blowing your system wide open would be slim.

xboxrulz

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OK, something must be clarified.
You should not installed Ubuntu (neither any other Linux) on an existing partition like F:
You should install it on a non-partitionned part of your hard drive, and let Ubuntu create it's own partitions and filesystems on the unpartitionned disk.
If you want to use this region which you named f:, you should first destroy this partition (after backup) or reduce the size of this partition, leaving a big part of the disk unpartitionned in order to let Ubuntu create it's paritions.
If you already had another Linux distro installed and you don't want to use it any more, you may also allow Ubunto to install itself on the existing Linux partitions, this works rather well too.
Hope this helps.
Yordan

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Yes, well i assumed that the sda7 would be the F: partition, so a second confirmation is good . There is no data in F:, the 99% you see is the free space. But yes the rest of the drives like D: and E: have stuff in them . I aint that concerned with C: as such. Will back up everything on a DVD tho before i get my hands dirty.


I selected the last option "Manual" and it landed me to the screenshot 3. So as you suggested i will partition the F: drive before hand and then move on. But just to be shure This is how my partition will look like:

F: 15GB Total Partitioned as:
F: 10GB , G: 2.5GB , H: 2.5GB

So G: and H: can be used as swap and root. I dont know how much should a swap or root take, but in my knowledge a swap would take larger amount. Please correct me if i am wrong. Hope this config is rite to install. Then comes the point of setting a swap and root and main install directory manually, which i will again come and ask . I feel that suse has a easier partitioning s/w than ubuntu. Wonder when they'll make one like that for guys like me.


I think it has grub, so i guess i would install windows first and then go for installing ubuntu. What say ?


For guys like me , it kinda gets annoying when they tend to make things easier and then stuff it up, but well i feel its better for ppl like me when it comes to starting off from scratch.


Wont virtual machine just let you install on the existing partition and let u use it there ? because the live cd does the same thing. Just a doubt, does virtual machine let you install on different partitions or resize or recreate partitions, that would be awsome then.

Regards
Dhanesh.

 

 

 

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That helps and makes sense too. I actually created the F: just to show it existed, i could just remove the F: and leave it as an unpartitioned space. Hmm, ok lol now i am thinking. Leme remove the F: partition and change it to "unpartitioned" leme see how ubuntu reads it. Thankx for the Ups !

Regards
Dhanesh.

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I think 1GB or so for the swap partition should be sufficient in most cases. Since you have space to kill, I guess you can leave it at 2.5GB for it...won't hurt as far as I know.

No need to install Windows first and then Ubuntu, unless you want to start from a clean state in Windows. Otherwise, just install Ubuntu and it should detect that you have Windows installed already and will create a boot loader so you can choose which one you want to boot from.

A virtual machine like VMWare or Microsoft's Virtual PC can emulate Ubuntu or other Operating Systems to run in a "virtual state". You basically don't even need to worry about the partitioning or anything that complicated because it will run directly in Windows. Just make sure you have enough space in the Windows partition. Install one of the aforementioned programs and then run that program. It should be simple on how to install Ubuntu or other Linux distros from there. After that, you just need to login to Windows as usual and run that virtual machine program. Choose the operating system you want to run in the virtual state and you're in. The only setback in doing this is that it might be running slower than normal because remember, you are also running Windows there.

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To be honest, the only reason why i am even using windows is because of the project i have this end sem. I had SuSE installed for almost 3 mths and have started to know the workings of linux pretty much. Well not THAT much, but just the basics. So wanted to give ubuntu a try as they say its faster and more friendly. The reason i choose Ubuntu was because of its latest build. The latest build detects all my Hardware, except for one lol.


But all in all, it solved the startup problems i had with previous versions of ubuntu. I want to clean format windows and reinstall it anyways, so before i do that i wanted to test everything here. But just to make shure i dont go wrong anywhere, i am a little freeky about doing things without consulting

Will try what you've told on the weekend or when i have the time and will let you kow how far i've come.

Regards
Dhanesh.

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Virtual machines will create a file that acts as a Virtual Hard Disc for your virtual machine so you won't have to deal with a lot partitioning crap. It's great for testing operating systems and plus, it will not screw up the bootloaders either.

Recommened amount of RAM for your host (primary OS) is 1 GB+. Recommended for Linux in Virtual Machine: 256MB.

Also, don't bother running a virtual machine in Windows Vista if you don't have at least 2 GB of memory!

xboxrulz

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Virtual machines can be fun. I was running a version of Windows 95 on my desktop just so I could play some of my old DOS games that aren't compatible with XP anymore

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