Linux Help

[RDR]

Right then... i want to have a go at that Ubuntu studio thing.. SO..

I need to run linux on my Lappy... who can help me do this.

I have NO knowledge of Linux really... How do i install it on my hard drive???

Which version is the best?

HELP!!!!!!

[TechMouse]

OK, Ubuntu Studio is the distribution you want.

Download an ISO image from here (http://ubuntustudio.com/downloads).

Burn to a CD.

This will be a live CD which you can boot from. (You might need to enable "boot from CD" in your BIOS).

Boot the CD, and it will load up Ubuntu Studio - simple!

If you want to install to your HD, which you will need to do for it to run fast and let you tweak it for your system, there will be an "install" icon on the desktop.

This should hand-hold you through the process.

[TechMouse]

FYI, I will probably be doing this either tonight or tomorrow, so I can report back with any hints & tips if you want.

[RDR]

FYI, I will probably be doing this either tonight or tomorrow, so I can report back with any hints & tips if you want.

Right, im downloading it now! its a 868 DVD image, but ill just iso it and install for a laugh

How would i start it in windows? Will it give me an icon and then once active take over the system?

Do i have to have a partition?

Cheers

[detfella]

some links that might be useful

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_dapper
http://tips.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/06/08/1651225&tid=50
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/install.exe/Prototype

and a video of dual boot
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6104490811311898236&q=

[TechMouse]

Right, im downloading it now! its a 868 DVD image, but ill just iso it and install for a laugh

How would i start it in windows? Will it give me an icon and then once active take over the system?

Do i have to have a partition?

Cheers
Hmm, OK - perhaps you're misunderstanding the concept.

Linux is a whole operating system, like OS-X or Windows.

Ubuntu Studio is a distribution of Linux geared towards music / video / art.

You can download an ISO of the install CD. You can boot from this CD and use it to install the operating system to your Hard Disk.

When you install to the hard disk, you can either overwrite your existing Windows installation (which I doubt you will want to do) or you can create a new partition and install to that. The installer should setup a bootloader for you, so you can choose which OS to boot at startup.

There is a walkthrough of the installation process here (http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntustudio_7.04).

There is more info at the Ubuntu Studio Wiki (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio).

[RDR]

Hmm, OK - perhaps you're misunderstanding the concept.

Linux is a whole operating system, like OS-X or Windows.

Ubuntu Studio is a distribution of Linux geared towards music / video / art.

You can download an ISO of the install CD. You can boot from this CD and use it to install the operating system to your Hard Disk.

When you install to the hard disk, you can either overwrite your existing Windows installation (which I doubt you will want to do) or you can create a new partition and install to that. The installer should setup a bootloader for you, so you can choose which OS to boot at startup.

There is a walkthrough of the installation process here (http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntustudio_7.04).

There is more info at the Ubuntu Studio Wiki (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio).

Dont be silly mark, of course i know its an o/s

Its my fault i wasnt clear enough, i should have asked...

can i install this without touching my windows partition? Please tell me i can :(

[RDR]

I really should follow the links people send me before asking silly questions shouldnt i... :(

[TechMouse]

Hehe...

Don't worry Chris - it is confusing.

Windows and OS-X protect you from a lot of the day to day rigours of running a proper operating system, though of course in doing so they remove a lot of the control.

It's easy to forget that not so long ago you had to boot into DOS and type "win" to get anything done.

[RDR]

Hehe...

Don't worry Chris - it is confusing.

Windows and OS-X protect you from a lot of the day to day rigours of running a proper operating system, though of course in doing so they remove a lot of the control.

It's easy to forget that not so long ago you had to boot into DOS and type "win" to get anything done.

Did anyone ever type 'lose' i wonder...

OT: A new phrase "I winder what its doing..."

Meaning: When a windows application decides to get stuck and [apparently] does nothing for around 2 mins.

[TechMouse]

You loon.

[RDR]

im still confused about which version i should be installing...

i guess this is both the detraction and the benefit to users... fully configurable but complex with it.

[dan the acid man]

this one http://ubuntustudio.org/downloads

just pick any mirror to download from

[RDR]

this one http://ubuntustudio.org/downloads

just pick any mirror to download from

but thats the one that boots from CD and installs by raping your harddrive and install of XP doesnt it, there's another version in a link someone put up that installs inside windows and partitions, but i dont think this is the same build as the one you are linking to dan...

Tell you what , how about this - whats the best application for partitioning a HD that already has an install on it?

[dan the acid man]

partition magic may let you do that, not sure though as i've not used it in a long time

[TechMouse]

but thats the one that boots from CD and installs by raping your harddrive and install of XP doesnt it
No, when it gives you the partition option...

http://images.howtoforge.com/images/ubuntustudio_7.04/16.png

... choose manual and it will let you set up partitions.

On my laptop, (from an 80GB disk), I have:

1. 20GB - NTFS - Windows System - C:\ in Win, \mnt\cdrive in Linux
2. 19GB - EXT2 - Linux System - N/A in Win, \ in Linux
3. 01GB - EXT2 - Linux Swap partition - N/A in Win
4. 40GB - NTFS - Data - D:\ in Win, \mnt\ddrive in Linux

It should sort the rest out for you.

[RDR]

No, when it gives you the partition option...

http://images.howtoforge.com/images/ubuntustudio_7.04/16.png

... choose manual and it will let you set up partitions.

On my laptop, (from an 80GB disk), I have:

1. 20GB - NTFS - Windows System - C:\ in Win, \mnt\cdrive in Linux
2. 19GB - EXT2 - Linux System - N/A in Win, \ in Linux
3. 01GB - EXT2 - Linux Swap partition - N/A in Win
4. 40GB - NTFS - Data - D:\ in Win, \mnt\ddrive in Linux

It should sort the rest out for you.

That sounds good, but im afraid i dont understand.

Did you set this up from the get-go or did you do it after you had installed win and did you create the partition afterwards? Also the EXT2 does that refer to an external HD?

Thanks

[TechMouse]

That sounds good, but im afraid i dont understand.
OK, lets try and fix that....


Did you set this up from the get-go or did you do it after you had installed win and did you create the partition afterwards?
Pretty much the first thing I do when I buy a PC is blank the disk and re-install the OS.

I make a point of using a seperate partition for System and Data, because I want to be able to reinstall my OS and not lose all my data files.

So, what I did was... install Windows, but the Windows installer lets you set the size of the partition you want to create.

I then installed Linux, and used the partition manager in the Linux install to set up all the other partitions I wanted.

You can re-size the Windows partition for sure. I've done it with Partition Magic and I've done it with free Linux-based alternatives. A good example is Gparted (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/), which can be downloaded as a LiveCD.

It's pretty user friendly...

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screens/gparted_1_small.jpg

You may be able to use the partition manager in the Linux install to re-size an existing partition, but you'll probably find Gparted a lot easier.

Or you could just make life really hard for yourself and use FDISK.


Also the EXT2 does that refer to an external HD?
No, EXT2 is just the filesystem that Linux uses.

Windows 3.1 used FAT16.
Windows 95 used FAT32.
Windows NT / 2000 / XP (and I assume Vista?) uses NTFS.

EXT2 has long been the stardard filesystem for Linux systems, although there are other alternatives (e.g. ReiserFS).

EXT3 is new on the block, and offers EXT2 compatibility with journalling. That is each disk write gets logged and if you ever have a powercut the system can recover it's state.

Hope this helps?

[TechMouse]

Oh, another thing.

You can only have 4 primary partitions.

If you want more, you need to create an extended partition as one of your primaries, in which you can create "logical" partitions.

If you don't need more than 4 partitions, then don't worry about it.

[RDR]

Brilliant

Thanks mark!

gonna take the plunge tonight!

Cant wait... biting my nails though.

[TechMouse]

I'll try and remember to stick MSN on later, on the off chance you need tech support ;)

[RDR]

partition? = o.k. 20gb
install? = o.k.
Working? = not o.k.

xserver issue.. with the graphics but i can find out how to alter to settings to make sure i selectred the right screen size..

bugger

??

PS that gnome partition didnt work, partition magic did the trick perfectly.

[TechMouse]

Sounds bizarre.

Do you get an error message?

if not, it might be dumping an error log somewhere.

[RDR]

its a screen rez issue

915 resolution issue, i had to go into something called sudo mode and turn off xorg??

Argh!

now i can get it to run but only have 1024x768 resolution to use

[TechMouse]

su is a command in UNIX which lets you temporarily jump into "superuser" mode to do administration tasks.

sudo is a prefix which you can add to any other command to say "do this command as the superuser".

What screen rez do you use normally?

Do you know what graphics chipset you have?

XOrg is the X Windows system.

Their website is here (http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/).

There will almost certainly be a hardware compatibility list and some troubleshooting info.

[TechMouse]

OK, I'm guessing you have the i915 chipset - which is listed in the Ubuntu compatibility list.

Was it a Dell laptop you got?

Which model?

[RDR]

It is the 915 chipset.

I used the i810 workaround for this.

I have a 5630 acer aspire.

Still looking on the ubuntu sites, sadly not very much makes sense to me.

thanks for your help mark.

chris.

[TechMouse]

From https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportMachinesLaptopsAcer

Section on Acer 5612WLMi (which is the closest number I can find)...


X resolution is 1024x678 but in Xorg.conf file there is 1280x800 resolution. And it should be 1280x800 that is the real screen resolution. This bug is solved with the 915resolution program: http://www.geocities.com/stomljen/ (a link to ubuntu wiki is here)

Full information here (http://www.geocities.com/stomljen/).

Worth a look?

[RDR]

From https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportMachinesLaptopsAcer

Section on Acer 5612WLMi (which is the closest number I can find)...



Full information here (http://www.geocities.com/stomljen/).

Worth a look?

Yeah thats it.... but TBH i dont really know how to use it... downloaded it to the linux partition but not sure about it.

[TechMouse]

OK, so this is totally off the cuff...

In a command prompt, cd into wherever you downloaded the file.

Do...

tar -zxvf 915resolution-0.5.3.tar.gz

This will decompress the archive into a folder.

Now...

cd 915resolution-0.5.3
make
su

... you will need to stick in your root password here...


make install

This will compile and install the program.

Now, still being in root...

915resolution -l

You should see some information e.g.


Intel 915GM VBIOS Hack : version 0.2

Chipset: 915GM

Mode 30 : 640x480, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 32 : 800x600, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 34 : 1024x768, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 38 : 1280x1024, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3a : 1600x1200, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3c : 1920x1440, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 41 : 640x480, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 43 : 800x600, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 45 : 1024x768, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 49 : 1280x1024, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4b : 1600x1200, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4d : 1920x1440, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 50 : 640x480, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 52 : 800x600, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 54 : 1024x768, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 58 : 1280x1024, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5a : 1600x1200, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5c : 1920x1440, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 60 : 1280x770, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 61 : 1280x770, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 62 : 1280x770, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 63 : 512x771, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 64 : 512x771, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 65 : 512x771, 32 bits/pixel

Pick a mode you don't need (e.g. #38 1280x1024) and overwrite with what you do (e.g. 1280x800)...


915resolution 38 1280 800

If you need 24 bits per pixel...


915resolution 38 1280 800 24

You'll need to add this to your Xorg.conf file...


Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "device"
Monitor "LCD"
DefaultDepth 16

Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x800"
EndSubsection
EndSection

Now start X Windows...


startx

If it works OK, you'll want to add the 915resolution commands to your startup scripts.

We can work through that later.

[TechMouse]

There's a Google group (http://groups.google.com/group/915resolution) where you'll be able to get far more help than I can possibly offer.

[RDR]

Thanks mark!

Your a massive help, im not gonna do this now as ive had a few beerss.

Mistake central.

;)