Jamie's Random Musings
Various thoughts and adventures, including but not limited to Linux, Windows XP and Widows Vista, and assorted bits of hardware new and old.
Thursday 30 October 2008, 10:38 AM
Go! Ubuntu Linux 8.10, Intrepid Ibex - Installation Tips
- The download is about 700 Mb. With today's broadband internet speeds, that's not gigantic, but it's still non-trivial. There is likely to be a huge demand for it initially, so it would be nice to avoid the kind of problem that OpenOffice.org suffered last week when their new release came out. The simplest and most obvious way to get it is to go to the Ubuntu download page and select the version you need. Be sure to select a location near you to download from! However, if you are able to download via BitTorrent, you could go directly to the Ubuntu BitTorrent download page and pick it up from there.
- Once you have the .ISO file downloaded, you need to burn it to a CD in ISO format. If you have one of the popular CD-burning packages installed - Nero, EasyCD, etc. - you should be able to use that, just make sure that you burn it in ISO format; if not, you can go to the Ubuntu Community Documentation Burning ISO HowTo page for instructions on Windows, MacOS and Ubuntu, including links to free/open source ISO burning software.
- Once you have the ISO CD, there are several ways you can proceed. You can simply boot the CD, and let Ubuntu come all the way up without actually installing it or changing anything on your computer, so that you can see how it looks and works, and then decide to do the full installation from there if you want. If you already know that you want to install it, you can run the installation procedure directly from the CD.
- If you run the installation procedure on a computer which has Windows already installed, you will have the choice of either reducing the Windows disk partition to make room to install Ubuntu, or overwriting the entire disk with the Ubuntu installation. If you're installing Ubuntu for the first time, you would be well advised to keep your Windows installation. However, the Ubuntu installation script offers to reduce the Windows partition to just about the absolute minimum that is actually in use, and that doesn't leave you much room to work if you want to keep using Windows after the Ubuntu installation. In my experience, choosing the "Guided" option and specifying a Windows partition size that is about 20% larger than the currently used space is a better choice.
- The Ubuntu installation will take about 20-30 minutes. When it is complete, it will tell you to shut down, remove the CD and reboot. If you chose to keep your Windows partition, it will actually boot to a Grub bootloader menu that will give you a choice between booting Ubuntu or Windows, but the default will be Ubuntu and there is a 10-second timeout, so if you don't respond within that time, it will boot Ubuntu automatically. You can select Windows (and stop the timeout from running) by pressing the up/down arrow keys.
There you have it! Now you can run Ubuntu, and Windows if you chose to keep that intact. I'll post again later, when the distribution is actually available, and I'll include some tips on setup and configuration that I hope will help make it more comfortable for new Ubuntu users.
jw 30/10/2008
Update: The 8.10 distribution is now available, at 15:00 CET. You can go to Ubuntu Download to get it via http/ftp, or the Complete mirror list to get it by BitTorrent.
PreviousComments on this post
James, you forgot to mention the 'Wubi' option for installing Ubuntu on a Windows PC. Wubi creates a folder on any Windows disk or partition, including an external disk and installs into that folder. Consequently the Windows installation is untouched except for an additionalal entry in the boot configuration file on drive C.
Far the easiest way for the less experienced, so long as there is room on the disk. I believe the only restrictions are printing and possibly scanning. My printer is just a paper weight on Linux anyway.
Windows is still the default choice at boot up. The Ubuntu and Windows files systems are mutually accessible.
Great way to transition from Windows to Linux.
Thanks Moley, you are absolutely right, as usual. I didn't think about Wubi because I don't deal with it very much, but it certainly is the easiest and least disruptive way for a new user to try out Ubuntu, in a larger way than just booting the Live CD, and see if they really want to install it. The Wubi download page has the link and a bit more information.
jw
Following your blog update, I downloaded Ubuntu 8.10 and then realised that I didn't know how to upgrade. In Ubuntu 7.10 the upgrade was offered during the update process.
Not so in Ubuntu 8.04 as it is a long term support release. However by going into 'Software Sources' from the System => Administration menu, I found that I could change from from 'Long term support releases only' to 'Normal releases' in the dropdown menu in the 'Release Upgrade' section of the 'Udate page'. Thereafter, I was offered the choice to upgrade during the update process.
Needless to say, the upgrade proceeded flawlessly. It did take rather longer than a clean install but, then again, it maintained all my data, additional programmes, customisations etc., with the sole exception of streaming video which I had set up differently fom Ubuntu's preferred option in 8.10. Ubuntu immediately offered the solution when I first attempted to stream.
Oops, I just discovered that Crossover Chrome, free from CodeWeavers, was disabled in the process but has now reinstalled without any difficulty. Crossover Chrome is an interim solution offered by Codeweavers to facilitate Google Chrome in Linux and OS X pending the formal releases from Google. The only downside appears to be poor fonts in certain circumstances.
Good information, Moley, thanks. About how long did the upgrade installation take?
I have been working with the various Alpha/Beta/RC releases for so long that I have become accustomed to reinstalling from scratch. On this S6510 laptop, installing the 8.10 final release from the Live CD took just under 15 minutes, another 5 minutes to download and install the additional packages that I use, and perhaps 10 minutes to set up the configuration that I prefer. So a total of about half an hour for a complete installation from scratch.
jw 31/10/2008
James, I guess that it must have taken at least 45 minutes to do the actual upgrade, including downloads, plus a further few minutes to sort out streaming video and Crossover Chrome. Computer specification Core Duo 2.0GHz with 2 Gig of ram.
The main causes of the additional installation time were, firstly, the time taken to inspect the existing installation and decide upon the upgrade actions, and secondly, the time taken to reconfigure the computer after the upgrades were installed.
