Moving over to linux- advice please

My laptop runs on geniuine copy of windows and I don't want to have pirated windows softwares on my other system. I want to migrate to linux OS. I have absolutely no idea at all about linux. Is there a free linux based OS that has only GUI (and no command line interface) that I can install myself without any third party help. Any suggestion on this fron would be useful. Please point me some other forum or links that can enlighten me before I take this decision. I don't know if I have to format my hard drive for that or will I have to install the drivers for various devices separately. I have plenty of doubts such as, will there be softwares to detect flash drives, can I burn CD/DVDs, can I connect to net, can I play media files etc.Please guide considering me a linux dummy.

A

*thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91680

^+1

Well dear friend; its a very novel idea to migrate to linux for purposes like internet, playing around with media files, burning DVDs, using it for email-office use with free office suites available.

But bear in mind that as it is Linux, so it is NOT Windows. It WILL be different and you will have to anticipate the differences. It may not be able to do some things windows can BUT it might do some other things better than windows. So take care and bon voyage.

H

<Moved to Open Source>

V

This is a good place for Ubuntu Linux

*ubuntuforums.org/

Search on the internet the other best option.

And a must read...

Linux is NOT Windows

What a disappointment! I went ahead with installation of suse 11 (bootable CD) that was provided by Digit last month. The installation was a failure, since some components were missing. I don't understand what kind of favour is Digit doing us by providing us installation disk "for free" with some missing components. Upon restart, XP is loading.
Since I am totally new to Linux, can anyone help me troubleshoot the issue.

DOnt use Distros given by Digit!! They always botch it

Better to download the CD and

Upon restart, XP is loading

Is your XP not booting?

Yes, I have mentioned that in my reply. Although some portion of the hard drive were partitioned and formatted, MBR appears to be fine. XP boots normally.

Fedora was provided by Digit in feb 08, should I give it a try or simply leave it because Digit provided it and there is no guarantee that it will work.

Since a lot of space has been already taken up by linux during partitioning, I am left with very little space in windows (40 GB HDD). What do you suggest I do now?

Which one would be better, Fedora, Suse, or Ubuntu? Suggest please

Ubuntu for sure !

Well thank you, but I am curious to know how does Ubuntu score over openSuse?

I am planning to download the suse ISO from *ftp-1.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-OSS-factory/inst-source/boot/boot.iso Any idea, how big this file is?

And, where can I get Ubuntu distro, Has it been provided by Digit on any CD/DVD, if so, does it install properly or botches it up just like Suse 11?

Just leave the distros provided by Digit. Its of no use

Download a 700 MB iso from opensuse.org and Ubuntu and openSUSE are equally user freindly.

Ubuntu is simple and awesome for beginners.

Great support is the first plus point.

[Off-Topic] I am off to install Zenwalk 5.2

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96132

Ok, but I am still usure which one to download, Ubuntu8 or Suse11. By the way, will the installation also contain other applications (internet, media, office etc) or should they be downloaded separately?

Any important installation guidelines that you might want to give me? By the way, now that Suse has already partitioned the hard disk, will that come in way of subsequent installation? I am not too keen on retaining windows partition. Help!

Ubuntu will be good for you... as you are a newbie n Ubuntu have a very large community support.

T

The apps required for everyday use are already there in the default installation( If you get the DVD, it will be even better)
OpenOffice/Koffice will be there for wordprocessing etc
Firefox/Konqueror for browsing
Kmail/thunderbird for mail
Amaork/Kaffiene for music
Using Opensuse, and only thing that I missed in it was vob file player for which you can download VLC

both come with office, graphics, multimedia and internet suite.

You can install any one of these two.

Read the guide provided by NucleusKore, link given in my last pos.t

So, there is a difference in downloading the installation ISO and "buying" a DVD. will downloading ISO be sufficient?

Note to NucleusKore, the link he gave for PDF of his article *www.mediafire.com/?vuvfmgfm02j is riddled with a trojan virus. Avast detected SWF: downloader [trj] from that site, I had to disconnect from that site. I ask NucleusKore to post his PDF file elsewhere and edit the link accordingly.

The iso you have listed, boot.iso is a network install iso
Go to
*software.opensuse.org/
And download the dvd so as shown here
*img386.imageshack.us/img386/379/susecm4.th.png
If it's too big you can use the GNOME live cd iso, don't opt for the KDE4 iso, it sux.

Thanks NucleusKore for pointing out the mistake I was about to commit. By the way, did you happen to take note of the trojan virus in the site you have hosted the PDF file? Can you send me the PDF file via email?

Trojan?? Where?? How do you say??

+1 to Suse
ubuntu still needs 1 click installer

Note to NucleusKore, the link he gave for PDF of his article *www.mediafire.com/?vuvfmgfm02j is riddled with a trojan virus. Avast detected SWF: downloader [trj] from that site, I had to disconnect from that site. I ask NucleusKore to post his PDF file elsewhere and edit the link accordingly.

V

As far as distro is concerned, better go with Ubuntu since you are starting from scratch.
Better to use Ubuntu 7.10 instead of 8.04, because many people have reported many bugs in Ubuntu 8.04. Even I have 1 problem after resuming from standyby mode, the screen starts flickering and I have to restart my PC. There was no problem with 7.10.

If you are using a widesreen LCD, better update the kernel for Ubuntu 7.10 from 2.6.23 to 2.6.24 or higher else if you dont want to upgarde the kernal go for Ubuntu 8.04 and be ready for facing bugs.

No probs if you are not using a widescreen monitor.

Sridhar_Rao said:
Note to NucleusKore, the link he gave for PDF of his article *www.mediafire.com/?vuvfmgfm02j is riddled with a trojan virus. Avast detected SWF: downloader [trj] from that site, I had to disconnect from that site. I ask NucleusKore to post his PDF file elsewhere and edit the link accordingly.

Thats wierd

Any way, here the thread posted by NucluesKore regarding the same:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96132

Thanks,

I mentioned that the site (not the PDF file) has a trojan in one of its flash (SWF) files (probably disguised as ad), hence it is not safe to visit the site. Hence I recommended to host the same file elsewhere.

Well, I have already downloaded Ubuntu8, (700 MB) and hopefully installation should be fine. My concern is during previous (unsuccessful) installation the partitions have been altered and messed up. How do I proceed from here. I have already mentioned in one of my previous posts in this thread that I am not interested in dual boot system.

Can Ubuntu and Suse be installed on separate partitions and a choice to boot into either of them possible at start up. It might be a stupid idea, but I am asking out of simple curiosity (nothing else).

Thanks for the tremendous suppport from guys in this forum.

yes you can intall ubuntu and SUSE and boot them both.

I have Ubuntu + Arch Linux + XP in triple boot.
Ubuntu and XP are on one HDD
ArchLinux on another HDD

Mediafire website is not suspicious, its a good service. So probably you AV is giving false postitve.

thanks, can you kindly address the partition issue that I raised in my previous post?
I wish to recover entire area of 40 GB HDD and divide into two partitions, one for suse and the other for ubuntu. How do I go about it, now that previous installation had messed up the partition?

Sridhar use GParted Live CD to create/edit/resize partitons.
Create 2 partitions (ext3) for Ubuntu and openSUSE and one 512 MB Swap partition. Both the linux distros will use the same swap partition.

Dont worry about the dual-boot with Ubuntu & openSUSE. Both with pick each other and enter the entries in Grub Menu.

EDIT: I think Ubuntu Live CD comes with GParted. Might check it out.

First delete the partitions you have already made then repartition them as per your liking.
Use Gparted in Ubuntu Live CD.

Btw why do you want to use whole 40GB HDD for OS? Even 15GB is enough for each of them.

I had a brief look at gparted on net and I swear I couldn't understand one bit, may be because it is linux. Frankly, I don't have much idea about partitioning except that I tried my hands on it once successfully while installing windows. I deleted the newly created partitions in windows disk management just as I was asked.

My first attempt at downloading failed as MD5checksum did not match.

Is the Ubuntu installation from *ftp.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/UBUNTU-CDS/hardy/ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-i386.iso that I wish to download a live CD? I am confused, is the gparted being talked about here a part of this installation or is there a separate live CD to be downloaded? Should I go ahead with its download?

Please note that the installation of linux on desktop is purely for expiremental purpose, my laptop runs on XP.

So, should I make three partitions one each for ubuntu and suse and one swap partition. I don't know what a swap partition is

If I am given step by step instruction may be I will be able to do it.

As it says "desktop-i386.iso", desktop cd=live cd.!! Why not use torrent to download Ubuntu?
Swap partition is like a temporary location where less used appz are shifted so that more RAM is allocated to current appz.. It is called pagefile in Windows.
GPartd is so easy, man.

I quote the following from ubuntu documentation, "If you do not intend to keep your copy of Windows installed on the computer, and you have made a backup of all of your important files, choose the Erase entire disk option from the Prepare disk space screen and then press Forward. The installer will automatically partition your hard disk in a suitable manner."

Say I use this option to remove all traces of windows and install ubuntu alone, WILL I be able to install SUSE11 later on the same system again? If yes, what will I have to do when Suse installer prompts me?

T

Yes, you can. You just need to select custom partitioning option in OpenSuse installer.

^Choose custom partition and create one ext3 for suse. Since you seem to wipe out your entire hard drive, then why not use GParted Live CD and create 3 partitions as i said earlier. Then just choose "Manual" partitioning in Ubuntu installer and choose the partitions and install. Same with openSuse. Simple.

Thanks, but since I am a total beginner using Gparted does not appear simple to me. I refer to this image *gparted.sourceforge.net/screens/gparted_1_big.jpg and I can make nothing about /dev/hda1 /dev/hda3 etc.

A step by step guide with explanation would be very handy here.

I quote, "Choose custom partition and create one ext3 for suse", I believe this instruction is while installation of ubuntu and not during subsequent suse installation, have I correctly understood this?

Linux follows a different nomenclature for hard disks and partitions.
The first hard disk (master) is named /dev/hda for IDE drives, and /dev/sda for SCSI and SATA drives.
More often than not, as we have only one hard disk on our home PCs, this is the only one you'll have to deal with. If you have a second hard disk, it will be named as /dev/hdb

The entire linux filesystem is under one directory root (/) which includes subdirectories. The software installed and the hardware are grouped in these subdirectories. In linux everything is a file. You will get used-to this concept, with time.

So /dev is the directory under which drives are located (CD/DVD, floppy, hard disk).

Coming back to the nomenclature, the first partition on your hard disk is designated as /dev/hda1 (In Windows we would call it the C drive.), the second as /dev/sda2 (In Windows we would call it the D drive.), so on and so forth. Now everything is fine as long as you make all these partitions as primary partitions.

But hey!!!!!!! Wait a minute!!!!! Did you know, that you can have only FOUR primary partitions on a hard drive??? How do I partition my 160GB + hard drive??? I want more partitions!!!!! Yes you can have more partitions if you use logical partiitons instead of primary partitions. The first logical partition you make ALWAYS starts with the number 5 (so you can still accomodate 3 primary, get it

). The primary partition used to house the logical partitions is called an extended partition.

I think with this background you are now able to understand GParted.

For further reading I refer you to *tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Partition/
and *tldp.org documentation in general.

The first logical partition you make ALWAYS starts with the number 5 (so you can still accomodate 3 primary, get it )

Now i know why my 1st logical partition would always be sda5 and not sda2

Thanks NucleusKore

, "Choose custom partition and create one ext3 for suse", I believe this instruction is while installation of ubuntu and not during subsequent suse installation, have I correctly understood this?

"Manual" & "Custom" partitioning are the same.,just depends on what different distros call it. In both cases choose them and i think you will be clear about partitions names with that lucid explanation by NucleusKore.

rahimveron said:
Now i know why my 1st logical partition would always be sda5 and not sda2 Thanks NucleusKore

You're welcome
Please read TLDP, it's very informative

Thanks to the community here, I am getting some idea. But, the nomenclature is a bit confusing. A PC with only one (master) drive is either IDE or SCSCI, am I right? If so, the nomenclature should be /dev/hda for IDE drives and /dev/sda for SCSCI drives, am I right here?
Assuming my HDD is IDE drive, I can have four primary partitions /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 /dev/hda3 and /dev/hda4. Each primary partitions can have an extended partition housing several logical partitions, which should be named from /dev/hda5 onwards, right?
My understanding is that while /dev/hda1 represent C drive of windows /dev/hda2 represent the D drive, am I right here?

Coming back to the nomenclature, the first partition on your hard disk is designated as /dev/hda1 (In Windows we would call it the C drive.), the second as /dev/sda2 (In Windows we would call it the D drive.), so on and so forth.

Say, I partition the first primary partition into three logical partitions (named hda5 hda6 and hda7), how would the logical partitions of second primary partitions (hda2) be named?
Please excuse my ignorance, but hey, thanks to you guys I am getting somewhere.

Sridhar_Rao said:
Say, I partition the first primary partition into three logical partitions (named hda5 hda6 and hda7), how would the logical partitions of second primary partitions (hda2) be named?
Please excuse my ignorance, but hey, thanks to you guys I am getting somewhere.

You cannot make logical drives your primary partition as it is. You have to first create an extended partition (which is a type of primary partition in itself), and then make logical drives in it. Naming would be hda 5 , 6, 7, in sequence. If you want to make two such special extended partitions on your hard disk I do not know.

AND READ THE DOCUMENTATION ON TLDP

Was going through your website, looks like we finished from the same institution.

^^ AFAIK in the Microsoft fdisk and generally Windows; there can only be one Primary Partition, and one extended partition (no more primary and extended partitions possible) and all the other partitions as logical ones in the extended partition.

And in linux, we can have 4 primary partitions?

This is driving me mad.
Ive used linux so much but never used their partitioning tool. :!:

Created partitions using Windows and installed in them using linux. :neutral:

Yes, I did go through the TLDP article, it is vast and hence could not cover it fully. Frankly, this partition issue is troubling me.

I feel, like the ironman stated, would it not be fine to partition the disk in windows and then install Linux on them afterward?

Here is the situation, I have 40 GB (FAT system) hard disk. After unsuccessful installation of suse11, additional partition of 1.62GB in C drive and 8.77 GB in D drive were created. Using windows disk management I removed the 8.77 GB and recovered back to windows with name I. Unknowingly, I formatted the same in NTFS system while the other partitions are in FAT.

This is the current scenario:
C drive: 7 GB FAT and 1.6 GB unallocated
D drive: 21 GB FAT
I drive: 8.77 GB NTFS

Assuming that I know nothing more than this, can anyone here kindly help me STEP BY STEP how to reorganize the hard disk in the following way:
I want to have 50% for XP (I changed my mind and wish to retain it), 25% for Ubuntu and 25% for Suse. After all the mess, I want to start afresh, even willing to install XP freshly. I repeat, I would be comfortable partitioning in windows environment, then install XP, then Ubuntu, then suse (in that order).
A) How should I go about it?
B) Which tool should I use now and where can I find it?
C) Should I format in NTFS system or retain the FAT system (would it matter anyway)?

^Believe me use GParted Live CD to format the whole hard drive and then create
1: 20 GB NTFS for Windowx XP (Primary).
2: Create 20 GB Extended Partitions where you will create 3 logical partitions as belowe:
3: 10 GB for Ubuntu "/"
4: 9 GB for openSUSE "/"
5: Remaining space for Swap.

Or Else just resize/merge/delete partitions with GParted. Keep your XP partition and delete the rest and then create 3 partitions as above.

Gparted Guide and Explanation with Screenshots

I got your point, but I am unable to proceed. I downloaded Gparted.iso, burnt it on CD, booted it and got it running too.
I see the following:

/dev/hda1 fat32 6.40 GB
unallocated unallocated 1.62 GB
^/dev/hda2 extended 29.29 GB
/dev/hda5 fat32 20.51 GB
/dev/hda6 ntfs 8.77 GB
unallocated unallocated 7.84 GB

How do I proceed from here? Sorry

I tried to understand the documentation (@ *gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/generalities/gparted.htm) but couldn't understand.

use GParted Live CD to format the whole hard drive and then create
1: 20 GB NTFS for Windowx XP (Primary).
2: Create 20 GB Extended Partitions where you will create 3 logical partitions as belowe:
3: 10 GB for Ubuntu "/"
4: 9 GB for openSUSE "/"
5: Remaining space for Swap.

How do I format the entire hard disk here? I don't want end up rendering the drive useless due to my ignorance or foolhardiness.
Kindly, give me directions in steps, I'd be very thankful.

Just select the partition /dev/hda1 and click "Delete" and do the same with all partitions one by one and then click "Apply"
Look at the screenshots as it explains how to delete,create, etc very clearly and i dont see the confusion

For Deleting see Figure 18
For Creating partitions see Figures 14-17

Only these partitions /dev/hda1, /dev/hda5 and /dev/hda6 can be deleted, other partitions, especially the unallocated ones can't be deleted.
What do I do about them?
What next, after I delete the partitions and "apply"?

The unallocated are empty spaces and its not a partition, so cant be deleted. Once you delete all the partitions there would be one 40 GB unallocated space left,and then you can start creating partitons.

Can You Follow the Screenshots 14 to 17

1: 20 GB NTFS for Windowx XP (Primary).
2: Create 20 GB Extended Partitions where you will create 3 logical partitions as belowe:
3: 10 GB for Ubuntu "/" as ext3
4: 9 GB for openSUSE "/" as ext3
5: Remaining space for Swap. as linux-swap
You can do all these steps in one go. It will show you the final picture in the Bar above. Then click Apply and it will be done..

Hurrah! Thank you..thank you...

Task accomplished, I now have 18 GB primary partition in NTFS system and another extended partition containing three logical partitions (two of 9 GB each in ext3 system) and 1.3 GB in linux-swap.

Thanks for guiding me. Can I now exit and start loading XP? Is there anything you would inform me before I do that? Will this partition be affected in anyway if I install XP? Any useful tips?

Go ahead and install XP followed by Ubuntu or openSUSE.
Tip: Keep that GParted Live CD for your partitioning needs and enjoy Linuxing

Hope to see you more in this section.

Now that I quit Gparted, is there any way I check in BIOS if these partitions exist?

^You cant check partitions in BIOS

It will only show the presence of a hard disk. What makes you beieve it wont exist? DO not make it harder for you Sridhar. Go on and install your OS and you will be fine.

Sridhar_Rao said:
Thanks,

I mentioned that the site (not the PDF file) has a trojan in one of its flash (SWF) files (probably disguised as ad), hence it is not safe to visit the site. Hence I recommended to host the same file elsewhere.

Well, I have already downloaded Ubuntu8, (700 MB) and hopefully installation should be fine. My concern is during previous (unsuccessful) installation the partitions have been altered and messed up. How do I proceed from here. I have already mentioned in one of my previous posts in this thread that I am not interested in dual boot system.

Can Ubuntu and Suse be installed on separate partitions and a choice to boot into either of them possible at start up. It might be a stupid idea, but I am asking out of simple curiosity (nothing else).

Thanks for the tremendous suppport from guys in this forum.

Once you migrate to Linux you can stop worrying about worms & malwares

A little off the original topic, I slipstreamed an ISO file using the XP installation CD that came along with the laptop and SP3 service pack. Can I use that ISO file on a CD to install XP on a newly partitioned hard drive on desktop? Will there be any problems, since may be the XP installation was tailor made to be installed on a Laptop?

I dont think its a problem.

Hello,
I am at this moment installing ubuntu using the live CD and I am stuck at partitioning. Please help me. I chose the manual edit and selected the /dev/sda5 partition, which is 9Gb and was created to install Ubuntu only. I can only edit or delete the partition, new partition is disabled. What next? the documentation says

Root partition - where Ubuntu is installed. This should be at least 4GB.

Home partition - where your files are kept.

Swap partition - this need only be twice the size of your memory.

Since I have created a separate swap partition in hard disk (/dev/sda7 swap), should I create another swap partition here? How can I create root, home and swap partition here?
What is the mount point?
Should I format the partition again before installing?

AFAIK, only 3-4 PRIMARY partitions are allowed on one HDD.

So, create one primary partition for / and make rest space as extended n create logical partitions according to your needs.

This is the scenario
/dev/sda1 ntfs 19329 MB (XP installed)
/dev/sda5 ext3 9664 MB (meant for ubuntu)
/dev/sda6 ext3 9664 MB (meant for suse)
/dev/sda7 swap 1398 MB (swap for both ubuntu and suse)

I think there is only one primary partition where windows is installed and other is extended partition which contains three logical partitions. Have I done something wrong in partitioning here? Should I have made three primary partitions, one each for xp, ubuntu and suse and then logical partitions for root, home and swap within each?

Just choose /dev/sda5 and select "/" as mount point and check Format box.
Similarly select /dev/sda7 and slect linux-swap or swap. You dont have to create a separate /home partition.
You have already created the partitons and no need to create again. Its just selecting the partitons and choosing the mount points
sda5 as / and sda7 as swap.

Hello Rahim, please look at the post #61 regarding root, home and swap.

Forget the /home stuff for the time being and just choose the partitions, click on Edit and choose mount points as "/" for sda5 and "swap" for sda7.

Can you do the above steps ? and forget above primary/extended stuff as you have done the partitioning part already with GParted,isnt it?

Ok, I did that, but looking at the post #61, tell me is that approach of making 3 primary partitions for xp, suse, ubuntu and then creating logical partitions of home root & swap for the each of the two a "correct" way, just asking. would it be wrong to do so?

^There is nothing wrong with what you wanna do. Creating a /home partition will help you to migrate/re-install other distros without loosing your data in your /home folder(no need to back it up). Its more of a convenience than a necessity. Keep me posted here about the install.

Hurrah, thanks....very much. I got to install successfully.

Two point here...
1) I missed created an additional logical partitions in the primary ntfs partitions, so the in windows there is only C drive.
2) Can the 1.3 GB swap logical partition be used as a swap partition again while installing suse?

Thanks for coming online for my assistance!

Yes you can use sda7 as swap for suse.
You didnt miss to create additional swap for all Linux distros can share the same swap partition.

For suse install, just select sda6 for "/" and sda7 as "swap".

All Linux installed (more than 80

) on a single computer can use SAME swap partition.

Ok, but how can I create another drive in the windows partition because there is only single partitions (C drive)?
Why is there 3 ubuntu options besides windows while booting? which one should be chosen and what do they represent.

F

Why is there 3 ubuntu options besides windows while booting? which one should be chosen and what do they represent.

One is the normal boot option. The second is a failsafe and I believe the third might be a Memtest . Its been quite a long time Ive been on Ubuntu so someone on it might have to confirm. You would choose the first option for normal work .

Sridhar_Rao said:
Ok, but how can I create another drive in the windows partition because there is only single partitions (C drive)?
Why is there 3 ubuntu options besides windows while booting? which one should be chosen and what do they represent.

Why do need to create another partition?
Are you saying that Ubuntu Partition is not showing in Windows? If yes, you can install some plugins Ext2IFS in Windows for that.

You should choose the 1st Ubuntu entry for a normal boot. The other entry(failsafe) is used to trounleshoot if anything goes wrong with root privilege.

All the partitions are showing up in windows, that is not what I meant. I have only one partition in windows (C drive) for windows. I would have liked to have another one (say D drive) to keep the files. OS as well as all of my files are now in one single drive (C

, if I ever have to format that I will have to lose (or backup) them.

By the way, can you please have a look at this thread, it's urgent
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76470

install EXT driver and then you can write to your ext partitions directly. you need to use any seprate partititons
*www.fs-driver.org/

Use GParted Live CD and select sda1(WinXP) and click on "New" and create a new partition (say 8 GB) for your data needs.
Advice: Do a defragmentation of C: drive before partitioning

Thanks,

Since the partitions are in ext3 format, can EXT driver work without issues?

By the way, can you please have a look at this thread, it's urgent
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76470

OK, now that I got ubuntu installed successfully with your help, can you guide me on how to go about using it. Of course, I can see the menu and the applications installed but some commands and general tips.