Advice about Ubuntu installation.

Hello everybody.

Will be installing Ubuntu 9.04 on a fresh SATA harddrive.

So there will be 2 drives on the PC. The old one contains Windows. I want to know how to make the machine prompt me asking for what OS to boot up. So, do i tell Ubuntu to put the GRUB (is this the correct term?) on the HD containing Windows?

Any advice about what partitions to create? Right now thinking about: Swap (primary), Root (Logical) and Home (primary).

Whats the difference between a Logical Partition and a Primary partition? I did investigate, yet i don't quiet get it.

Btw, i'm not doing it right now. That's (hopefully) tomorrow.

Thanks so much for any advice.
 
So there will be 2 drives on the PC. The old one contains Windows. I want to know how to make the machine prompt me asking for what OS to boot up. So, do i tell Ubuntu to put the GRUB (is this the correct term?) on the HD containing Windows?
Ubuntu will do this automatically, you shouldn't need to do anything.

Any advice about what partitions to create? Right now thinking about: Swap (primary), Root (Logical) and Home (primary).
If it is going to be the only OS on the drive you can just make them all primary.
 
Hello everybody.

Will be installing Ubuntu 9.04 on a fresh SATA harddrive.

So there will be 2 drives on the PC. The old one contains Windows. I want to know how to make the machine prompt me asking for what OS to boot up. So, do i tell Ubuntu to put the GRUB (is this the correct term?) on the HD containing Windows?

Any advice about what partitions to create? Right now thinking about: Swap (primary), Root (Logical) and Home (primary).

Whats the difference between a Logical Partition and a Primary partition? I did investigate, yet i don't quiet get it.

Btw, i'm not doing it right now. That's (hopefully) tomorrow.

Thanks so much for any advice.

Ubuntu should be able to figure out these (partitioning) details for you. It will automatically setup the grub and prompt you to select the os at boot time.
 
Really apreciate the quick answers.

So you are telling me to forget about the advanced installation and let Ubuntu create, like, the 5 or more partitions it creates?

Btw, im asking about the GRUB because there's a time when Ubuntu will ask where to install it. Like SDA0, SDA1, etc. Thats where the confusion comes.
 
The two hard disks you have are called sda0/sda1. Keep track of your harddisk sizes. That should help you to select where to install.

If ubuntu creates 10 partitions, let it create them, unless you know better. :)
 
Here is what a default (automatic) layout would look like under 9.04 (single hdd example):

Code:
$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1             1.4T  432G  858G  34% /
tmpfs                 2.9G     0  2.9G   0% /lib/init/rw
varrun                2.9G  200K  2.9G   1% /var/run
varlock               2.9G     0  2.9G   0% /var/lock
udev                  2.9G  148K  2.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs                 2.9G  176K  2.9G   1% /dev/shm
lrm                   2.9G  2.5M  2.9G   1% /lib/modules/2.6.28-13-generic/volatile

$ mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.28-13-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=755)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/x/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=x)

As long as you install Windows first and Ubuntu second, GRUB will let you select which OS to boot.
 
The auto install always tries to make new partitions on my primary drive. I always use the manual ones to tell it to go where I want.
I just use 2 partitions, swap & / but then I only really play around with it & don't fully get the Linux folder system, may be a good reason to make a separate /home?

I actually have the W7 boot loader because I installed that most recently.
I found some tool that lets you edit it to include Linuxes.
On choosing the Ubuntu option it goes to Grub.
I used to use Grub with no issues though.

With 9.04 there is the option to use the new EXT4 filesystem, apparently you need to install the right version of Grub to be able to boot EXT4, but I think a fresh install should be ok?
 
A separated home is nicer, because that way you only need a few GB for /, and you can nuke that / partition any time you want to reinstall the OS or put another OS altogether. Same reason why a 1TB windows partition would be annoying.

default partitioning (everything in / ) is something I use only to install ubuntu on an old 3GB or 4GB drive. (to build a crappy refurbished PC)
 
Well thanks for the input everyone.

Went with /Home (900 GB), /Swap (4GB) and /root ( 15 GB).

Wanted to install 9.04 64 bit but realized i downloaded the 32 bit version, so i used that. Can i (eventually) install the 64 bit verison in this drive also?

Another thing. Why it asks me for permision (Gnome i think) when i try to access my other Windows HardDrive?
 
Too bad.

After installing some packages, like ATI Catalyst and Ubuntu restricted extras the system inst able to boot. The screen displays some weird characters and does nothing. The recovery mode does nothing.

I began to download the 64 bit version. Mean while any ideas?
 
Why it asks me for permision (Gnome i think) when i try to access my other Windows HardDrive?
Just a security precaution since you can delete/modify any file on the drive. You can just check the remember box and it will not prompt you again.

After installing some packages, like ATI Catalyst and Ubuntu restricted extras the system inst able to boot
I assume you installed from Synaptic and or restricted driver manager? I've never had any problems with that. What kind of ATI card do you have? The older one's are no longer supported in the newest Catalysts.
 
my answer would have been to add the ntfs partition in /etc/fstab, reboot and be done with. I know those kind of things but not much the GUI ways :LOL:.

I would do a 2GB swap, enough by far I believe. (right now on a 512MB ram machine I have 36MB swap used, and on a 4GB ram machine 43MB swap used..)
 
Lets see... The ATI card is on board. MSI 790G integrated graphics using HDMI input. After the installation of Ubuntu and booting everything was fine. After instaling the packages it doesnt work anymore.

my answer would have been to add the ntfs partition in /etc/fstab, reboot and be done with. I know those kind of things but not much the GUI ways :LOL:.

I would do a 2GB swap, enough by far I believe. (right now on a 512MB ram machine I have 36MB swap used, and on a 4GB ram machine 43MB swap used..)
Dont understand exactly what you are saying. I did the remaining part of the HD (after swap and root) /home and used Ext3 for everything. I do know Windows isnt able to recognize that file system.

Will try to install 64 bit version. How do i uninstall Ubuntu? Or i just over write it?
 
which part did you not understand :p.
here's a readable page on the /etc/fstab file, with an example of a ntfs partition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fstab
to know your partitions from a command line :
sudo fdisk -l

I believe this isn't too complicated. yet probably user hostile when you don't know or want to care.

my comment about swap was that ubuntu won't use the swap very much, so you can set a 1GB or 2GB swap and spare a few GB for actual data storage.
to install ubuntu 64, you can just format the / partition and install over it. or rework the partitioning.


lastly windows can read an ext3 partition ; there are two kind of software, ext2/3 "explorers", or ext2 drivers (which allow windows to mount the partition as any other drive). It's quirky though : the partition is mounted as ext2, which is compatible with ext3. But if you modify that partition from windows, ubuntu will have to scan that partition on boot. (well I'm not sure about the behaviour)
 
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Refreshment, which windows version are you using? Windows XP can be quite particular as far as tolerating Linux by its side...
 
Thanks Blazkowicz, as always very helpfull with your answers.
Refreshment, which windows version are you using? Windows XP can be quite particular as far as tolerating Linux by its side...
Stefan, just to avoid what you are saying i ordered a new HardDisk just for Linux alone. To have then divorced, you know, the wife with the cash and the husband with the spanking new mistress :)

Btw, just today i realized theres no utorrent for Ubuntu. Any good torrent managers available?
 
Stefan, just to avoid what you are saying i ordered a new HardDisk just for Linux alone. To have then divorced, you know, the wife with the cash and the husband with the spanking new mistress :)

Just forgot to add, well I had problems GRUB in the past on one PC (don't ask me why, worked flawlessly on others). In the end I had to use MS's boot manager to start ubuntu (worked pretty well). There's a tutorial for that on the ubuntu user forums. (Only use that as a last resort, if anything else fails) :D
 
Ahhh Well....

So as told earlier, the 9.04 32 bit install failed. Downloaded the 64 bit one and installed from zero. Erased all the partitioned HD space made for the 32 bit version and proceeded to install the OS. Is working ok now... "BUT "

How is it possible that the 32 bit version appears in GRUB, as well as the folders from the previous installation? The new partitioning should have erased all data.

Thanks for the input for the torrent manager. I keep hearing good things about deluge. Can i do the torrent search within deluge? Like in Utorrent?

Also is there a way to modify the time the GRUB allows for OS selection? Is kind of booting to fast for me and is a bit difficult to choose windows.
 
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