Introduction
If you are like 93% of Internet surfers out there, you are reading this article from a browser installed on your Windows machine, however I’m sure you have heard of that “other operating system”. You know the one which is really difficult? Yeah, that’s right, Linux. Well, it’s almost right, except for the part about “really difficult”. You may have seen screenshots, thought about trying it, already tried it, or just thought “hey, it’s a cool idea”. If you are any of these and curiosity just has you itching to give Linux a shot, or another shot, read on!
In this article I’ll show you how to get up and running on your current system in your very own Linux environment. I will be walking you through installing the most popular, and in my opinion the best flavor of Linux called Ubuntu. So before you read any further, hop on over to the the Ubuntu Linux download page and start downloading the CD image. You may be wondering which download do you need. If you have an Intel or AMD processor, get the Intel x86 version. Avoid the 64 bit version, even if you have a 64 bit processor, it is not officially supported. Mac users will need the Power PC variation.
Don’t worry, we will be setting up a dual boot so your Windows install is safe!
UPDATE: We have posted a video of the entire process of installing Ubuntu Linux, using 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” as the testbed for our video. While this article will provide a lot of detail for you, be sure to check out our video to SEE it in action!
Why Bother?
Good question. Why would you want to try Linux when you are a happy Windows user? Here are just a few reasons:
- It’s 100% free and always will be
- Thousands of applications are immediately available and 100% free
- No more virus, spyware, or malware hassles!
- You want to learn something new (this was my reason)
- It’s cool
- Why not?
- It’s 100% free (did I mention that yet?)
If any of those reasons are compelling, or at least good enough, Linux is worth giving a shot. Who knows, you might actually like it!
Important Stuff to Know
Before we actually start the installation, it is important to make sure your expectations of Linux are set correctly. First and foremost: Linux is not Windows! You are going to have to use the command line sometimes and most likely do a little bit of troubleshooting. Please do not let this intimidate you, after using Linux for a short while you will become proficient and, with a little patience and persistence, eventually be just as comfortable with Linux as you are with Windows. I’ll even point you to some very helpful resources to get all the answers you need. I’ve only been using it 5 months, and while I still know Windows better, I can use Linux just as easily.
As you may know, Linux is “open source” software, meaning anyone, anywhere can take the code and edit it without restriction. This sounds great, and don’t get me wrong, it is, however because there is no commercial backing, there can be certain shortcomings. Some of these include device driver support and availability of software (especially games). Do not let this discourage you though, virtually all hardware has support for Linux and you are going to have thousands of applications available to you with just a few clicks of your mouse once we get you set up on Ubuntu. Sound good? Of course it does! Check you download progress!
The machine I will be referring in this article is an Intel Pentium 3 866Mhz. The motherboard is an Asus CUV4X with 512MB of memory. Additionally, I have a DVD drive and 2 15 gigabyte hard drives, One has XP Professional already installed (primary IDE master) and the other is empty (primary IDE slave). Here is a basic rundown of what I will be covering in this article:
- Setting up Ubuntu Linux on a separate hard drive from Windows
- Answering a few post-new installation questions
- Familiarizing you with your Linux environment… using Windows terminology
- Pointing out some stuff you might want to try
Lets Install Ubuntu!
Ahh, there’s nothing more exciting than a new operating system install. Nervous? Don’t be, this is going to be easy. Is your download done yet? Well, when it is, burn it to CD immediately and pick up this article from this point. I’ll even leave you a marker so this spot is easy to find.
HERE IS WHERE TO PICK UP
You have the Ubuntu install disc, so pop in your spare hard drive (if you do not know how to do this, make a quick detour to the PC Mech Forums and you will have it done in no time) and put the install disc in your CD drive and lets get started.
After your computer goes through its boot sequence you will be greeted with the Ubuntu installation welcome screen. After pressing Enter, you will be asked for your preferred language, followed by your location and keyboard layout. The install will then start detecting some of your hardware, load some basic components, and auto detect your network settings. Now you will be prompted for your “Host Name”. This is the equivalent of your Windows computer name. I am going to call this computer tux (the name of the Linux Penguin). Up next, the install will detect your hard drives and ask what you want to do. Much like Windows, Ubuntu will let you select the drive you want to install it on and with the press of your Enter key handle everything for you. The problem is, that’s no fun, plus there is a better way. So let’s do a little Linux “geeking”.
Partitioning for Your Linux Installation
Before showing you the partitioning scheme I will be using for this setup, it is important to understand how the use of partitions differ between Windows and Linux. On a default Windows install, all your files are stored in a single block of space on your hard drive called a partition. To make things easy, Windows assigns a letter (usually C) to this partition. Linux does the exact same thing except it does not use letters. In fact, if you were to “explore” your Linux file structure, it would appear everything was stored on a single drive, even if you have several partitions or multiple hard drives “mounted” (more on this later). Enough talk, select the option to manually edit your partition table and let’s move on.
Now you will see a listing of your existing hard drive partitions. Linux refers to your IDE devices (usually your hard drives and CD drives) using the letters “hd” followed by letters a through d (representing primary IDE master through secondary IDE slave, respectively). Additionally, hard drive partitions have a number after them referring to the partition number. For example, a hard drive on your secondary IDE cable set as master, with 2 partitions would show as hdc1 and hdc2. A CD drive on your primary IDE cable set to slave would show as hdb (there is no number because CD’s do not have partitions).
You should see your primary hard drive (hda) which has your Windows installation with all of its partitions listed. We are going to leave this one alone. Additionally, you will see your empty hard drive (hdb, hdc, or hdd) with the size of the drive listed followed by “FREE SPACE”.
Highlight “FREE SPACE”, press enter and then select the option to create partition. We are going to first create the “/” partition which is equivalent to the Windows C drive. All of your programs and libraries (libraries in Linux are similar to Windows DLL’s) will be stored on this “/” partition. A size of 5-10 GB should be plenty for this. Since I only have 15 GB on my installation drive, I am going to allocate 5 GB, but if you have a bigger drive, assign more space just to be safe. On my primary machine, I have an 80 GB drive and I have 10 GB partitioned for “/”. After entering the size, select Primary as the partition type. Next you will be asked where to place the partition on the disk. Since “/” is our workhorse partition which will store all our crucial Linux operating system files, including the information we need to boot the system, it makes sense to place it at the beginning. At last you will be presented with a partition configuration screen. You will see the option to change the partition file system, but lets leave it with the Linux standard, ext3. Make sure the mount point is set to “/” and change the bootable flag to “on”… after all we do need to boot our system right? Select the option to be done with this partition and let’s move on to the next one.
You should now notice some of the free space has been allocated to your “/” partition. We still have a couple of more partitions to set up so highlight “FREE SPACE” again and create our swap partition. The swap partition is used for temporary random storage in case your computer doesn’t have enough memory to store what programs demand. Additionally, if you hibernate your computer, all the contents of your memory are stored in the swap. Windows refers to this as “virtual memory”. The recommended amount to allocate for this is one and a half times your memory, so for me, I am going to make it 768 MB. Make this a primary partition and place it at the end of your drive. At the configuration screen, change the partition to a swap area. Apply the changes.
Lets set up the final partition. Select the remaining “FREE SPACE” and assign all of your remaining space to this primary partition. When you get to the configuration screen, notice the mount point is set to “/home”. The /home directory in Linux is equivalent to “My Documents” in Windows. For example the user I am going to set up, “jason”, has its own directory (/home/jason) which stores all my personal settings and files. The reason we make this a separate partition is for abstraction. For example, we can format our “/” partition for a new install or distribution upgrade without losing any data… even better, all my settings such as bookmarks and playlists will be kept no matter what happens to the “/” partition. Pretty neat idea. Apply your changes, this is the last partition!
Well, the hard part is now over. Compare your screen to mine, they should look similar. Go ahead and select finish partitioning and confirm you selections to write the partitions to your hard drive.
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Bevan
27. Jul, 2007
New to Linux and need to use it for Nessis and security monitoring. Don’t care so much for the hot air only want instructions on how to…Instructions are correct.
Zach Stern
09. Aug, 2007
The AMD64 version of Ubuntu is FULLY supported.
Victor Govan
12. Aug, 2007
Using a download of 7.04 with cd as boot disk. Go to install do the partition as in your article, answer all questions, get to “now installing” and it stalls at 15%.
Using Win 2000 on main drive with a new drive as slave to install Ubuntu on.
Help
The Gene Pool | 50 Reasons to Dump Windows
14. Aug, 2007
[...] you want to try it yourself, here is a good tutorial at PC Mechanic relating to the Ubuntu installation. Trackback [...]
Egon
15. Aug, 2007
Though the 64-bit ubuntu is fully supported indeed, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you know what you’re doing.
The technical explanation is, though Linux is Open Source, for a lot of tasks one needs to use Closed Source software and while the binaries (compiled programs) for Linux are starting to catch on with commercial companies such as Adobe (Macromedia Flash and Adobe Reader): those binaries are mostly NOT available for 64-bit systems. (And to be technically correct: yes, an x86-64 (AMD64 or equivalent Intel CPU) processor can run 32-bit x86 binaries, but you will need to tell your computer to do so when installing and it can cause a lot of complications: for instance if you install Firefox on a 64-bit Linux, this Firefox will be compiled to a 64-bit binary, but the Flash plugin only exists in 32-bit, which the 64-bit Firefox can’t handle (without some tricks, which are not that easy for a beginner). Another option is to use a 32-bit Firefox, which can load the 32-bit Flash without any problem, and Ubuntu has some scripts available just for that task, but that way also leaves some loose ends).
As I’m using the 64-bit version of Ubuntu myself, I know what I’m speaking of. It runs, but with a lot of loose ends, if you’d ask me. I’m planning on switching back to 32-bit, as the performance gain of 64-bit is too minimal. While a 32-bit installation allows you to use most repositories available for Ubuntu, without needing to mess around with 3rd party packages and forcing them to use the 32-bit mode (which isn’t ideal, as that might conflict with some of the 64-bit packages, also some libraries will need both an 32-bit and 64-bit version to work with all programs, this causes you a lot of a mess, I can say).
So, everybody: just follow this article, don’t even bother to try the 64 bit version. In the future the 64-bit version will become a good alternative, I can tell you, but nowadays it justs causes trouble which you won’t have with the 32-bit version. The only downside of a 32-bit Linux is that it doesn’t use your CPU fully, but hey, most Windows versions also don’t (there is actually a 64-bit Windows, but it isn’t installed by any big company (Dell, HP, …), and 64-bit Vista exists also but most companies stay far away from it, because of the same problems as with 64-bit Linux: most drivers are 32-bit, while Vista drivers are quite rare, 64-bit XP/Vista drivers are even more rare than regular Vista drivers).
Max
11. Jan, 2009
Liar! HP is currently promoting 64 bit like crazy!!! Most systems now have the option to come with 64 bit vista! Thus, 64 bit is definately gonna be the future while 32 bit will die because of its limitations (like recognizing limited processor, recognizing only 3.2 gigs of ram, etc)
Bobby
29. Jan, 2009
Ooooh, you showed him, one and a half years later…
Andrew
15. Aug, 2007
Thanks for your quick work on partitioning in the kubuntu install. I’m a linux noob and have worked with partitioning in windows before but never with the terms used in kubuntu. this helped out quite a bit
-Andrew
Siddaramaswamy
21. Aug, 2007
i restarted my computer leaving ubuntu cd in the drive… it showed the welcome screen.. i pressed the enter key selecting the first option…. it checked something and displayed ok ok something…. after that i got a blank screen… nothing was there on that screen…. i don’t know how to proceed further with the installation… after this it is even not coming out of that state…. it is remaining in that state only and i have to restart my computer by pressing restart button…. plz help me…. how to do it……..:-(
Egon
21. Aug, 2007
@reply #7:
Do you know what kind of graphic card you’ve got, or has your computer any kind of specialist hardware (special SCSI/SATA/RAID controller or something similar)? If so, you should check if it is supported (most ATi/nVidia/Intel/Matrox cards should work though).
You can always try by setting a different graphic mode: in the welcome screen you get by booting the Ubuntu CD on the bottom of the screen you can see which function key you can use to change your display mode (F3 or something), just try something as 1024 x 768 x 16 or standard VGA (something with a name, in any case).
Another hint for windows users, this may not be entirely Linux, but it may help in getting started: Wubi which is a Windows installer for Linux (it doesn’t need any repartitioning, it uses some space from your Windows partition).
barret
28. Aug, 2007
I’m installing unbuntu on vmware. I installed using the liveCD option, then running the installation application on the desktop.
When editing the partitions, it sets it up on the drive called /sda/dev, and after setting up 6gb for the root, 768 for the swap and the rest is free space, i then go to mount said partitions to root, swap and free space [/,/swap,/home respectively] except the partition drop down list is blank.
I then go back and the 3 partitions can’t find the file system i set them up with [ext3] so I gave up.
I’m thinking this is just an issue with vmware…but perhaps anyone has ideas?
Thanks
Drew
29. Aug, 2007
*please* when making how-to guides dont put things like:
“No more virus, spyware, or malware hassles!”
This is totally not the case and is misleading especially to those new to linux.
Whilst its agreed that *nix systems are less prone to issues one might find on a windows box, they are by no means perfect and suseptable to exploits, trojans and rootkits, which will no doubt increase in number as the user base grows.
So please don’t lull “linux noobs” into a false sense of security and “forget” to patch, and thus add another machine on the net ready for a spammer to add to his “drone collection”. Thanks.
Mike Jensen
31. Aug, 2007
Ubuntu sucks, got no sound and apparently never will. Problem with the Kernel, so it seems, but will probably never will know for sure. No wireless either and cant ever get the neat graphics of Beryl to work for that matter. Sticking with windows at least it works
bill
16. Jun, 2008
I appreciate your frustration, but Ubuntu is good, and superior to XP, ONLY IF YOU USE FREEDOWNLOAD MANAGER ON THE ISO FILE ,WINMD5SUM THE DOWNLOAD, BURN & VERIFY WITH IMAGBURN,& INSTALL IT CAREFULLY & CORRECTLY,( SEE UBUNTU.COM ),if you don’t, you will have a disaster, and possibly loose XP.
Do your research on computer suiteability, partitioning especially, then installing drivers, and you will have a rewarding result.
Regards Bill.
Andy
03. Sep, 2007
Thanks for the clarity in portioning. I was trying to install Xubuntu over top Fedora Core 4 to give the machine some new life. The auto partitioning feature of the installer was not working, and it couldn’t figure out how to deal with the Red Hat auto partitions. I started from scratch using a manual partitioning and your guidance and that did it. Much appreciated.
Jan Engel
05. Sep, 2007
I did it! It was easy. I am now listening to my favorite internet radio station (I had to download and install Flash Player – I did that,too) Ubuntu recognized everything connected to my old Win 98 desktop (it’s a P4, with plenty of memory.) This OS is faster than Win 98 on this desktop. I still don’t know much about the file system, and strange file extensions, but no doubt will learn. New is fun. It’s so nice not to see all that blasted blue. Feisty Fawn is a keeper.
–Jan
Scott Noob
16. Sep, 2007
Downloaded 7.04 iso, created installation disk. Rebooted with disk in drive. Got the menu and selected option 1 to install. No option was given to install, but the OS launched and I was able to run from CD (kinda slow). I have no sound right now. Haven’t tried to fix it yet. I imagine I will need to find Linux driver for sound card. I like the look and feel, but I will need sound and I can’t get the damn thing to prompt me for installation to the Hdd. Please advise!!!
Mark
24. Sep, 2007
Hey Scott,
The OS you are seeing after you booted from CD is only the the ‘Live’ version of Ubuntu. Its directly running from your memory and will be slow in case of older systems. If you would like to run linux only from Live CD, then Knoppix (another popular linux version) is a better solution, its less resource hungry and compatible with wide range of hardware.
Ubuntu is faster and more stable if its installed on Hard drive. Once you see the Ubuntu desktop, click the install link on the top left corner to install on hard drive. Follow the steps in the article from here
All the best
Mark
Mark
24. Sep, 2007
Hello Scott,
I found this link, this should be helpful to you.
http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_ubuntu7.04
Peace,
Jerry
Denis
03. Oct, 2007
Hey everyone, just to let anyone know, Ubuntu supports the Logitech G15 keyboard. Personally, I was a little worried that it wouldn’t work, but it natively works, so anyone with a G15 musn’t worry!
john
03. Oct, 2007
thanks a lot i was really stuck on the partioning thing but your guide made it work i am finishing the installation now thanks a lot
Mustafa
02. Nov, 2007
I downloaded the unbuntu OS and burned it onto a CD, however, when i insert the CD in the computer, restart it, it automatically boots on Windows (i have windows XP SP2), without asking me to boot from CD. what could be causing this ?
p.s. I am trying to install ubuntu on my old pentium III computer, could that be the problem?
thank you.
Ben
04. Nov, 2007
Mustafa…You need to enter your bios and tell the computer to try to boot from your cd drive before it boots from your hard drive. Most computers have a specific key (F2 or DEL) to hit during the boot process to enter the BIOS setup. Also, make sure you hit F10 after changing the boot order to SAVE and EXIT the bios.
Deepak
13. Nov, 2007
First of all thank u for that piece of info about linux and its installation.
But i have a problem here i have Vista Ultimate installed on my system(pentium4 915gl chipset 3.06GHz motherboard, 1GB RAM)
The hard disk is a 80GB one and has 4 partitions viz, C(20GB),D(20GB),E(20GB),F(17GB). with vista installed on C.
Can i install ubuntu on one of the above partitions keeping vista on C and the other two partitions also???
If yes could u help me a bit please….
EagerNinga
14. Nov, 2007
Thanks for the info on how to install this OS, but I’m afraid it still has a long way to go before it even gets close to being as user friendly as Windows.
I know you have just got to be different,, but for a start why is everything on the desktop in the wrong place. Geeze,,, the first thing that users do is change it back to where it should be, just like windows. Haven’t the developers worked that one out yet?
No one makes any decent programs for this thing which in turn makes my Linux/ubuntu computer experience rather a non event!
Yes I know there are a heap of freeware installs out there,, but none of the real good prog’s are available or are even compatible like ConvertXtoDVD just as an example.
Why bother with it if you can’t even use it to do the things you can normally do with Windows?
I’m sorry but unless it becomes more main stream it is and always will be just a toy and it will always be just a thing you put on an old HDD that you where going to throw out anyway.
Call me again when it is finally out of beta testing in about another 10 years.
There are so many of these half baked Linux based OS’s out there now that I bet MR Linux feels that although it was a good idea in the beginning that all these crummy operating systems are coming back to bite him now. He has shot himself in the foot.
hitchface
14. Nov, 2007
You pretty well missed the point.
1. Linux ain’t supposed to be like Windows.
2. User friendly depends on the user.
3. Desktop modification beyond the norm happens in Windows too. I have no icons on my desktop, and I never use my hidden taskbar.
4. Define decent program. I have a full recording rig for free, and it does everything it needs to do. A decent program to me is one that can do the job, not one that I’m used to using.
5. I bought a new HDD to put Ubuntu Studio on.
6. Lots of crummy OSes? See Vista. At least most of these distros actually have features.
I’m not flaming you, it just sounds like you are too used to Windows or other to actually get out there and learn something new. The functionality of Linux in many respects lies in the parts that are not like Windows. As a result of learning tricks from Linux, my operations in Windows are much quicker (dual boot, of course) and more efficient. I have had people come over and say “What OS is that?” simply because I am getting things done faster and don’t use many conventional Windows tools.
I’ve used nothing but Windows up until very recently. Trust me, when you start to learn even a little bit about what makes Linux tick, you’ll appreciate a lot of what it brings to the table.
Elmo
20. Nov, 2007
In Response to No. 22:
I’m sorry, a toy? It’s probably not hugely relevant to a discussion about Linux on the desktop, but it’s worth mentioning that Linux/Unix kind of runs the internet… (The good parts of it at least).
If you are desperate for certain Windows programs, virtualisation has come a long way and you can run most programs using VMware etc. Obviously applications like games won’t work, but each to their own. That’s what I have consoles for.
Mike
13. Dec, 2007
I am a linux noob, and i am running into problems right from the start. I have the cd made, and the boot order of my system a compaq P4 1.66 512MB that normally runs on windows xp. Now, it won’t boot at all, how long do i have to wait? Also, i would like to erase that hard drive completely, and start a new. How should i Do this?