Widdowmaker Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Decided to give linux a double boot go, a friend recommended ubuntu for me so im trying that. Few questions. I currently have 3 Hard Discs installed. 1 50gb, 2 250gbs. The 50 is my OS and the others are partioned into 2 150gbs and 2 100gbs partions. IF i installed ubuntu on the 50gb drive would i be able to acess browse and use all my media files. Play my music, access the internet, watch a dvd? Or would all those random files have to be imported or something. Is it possible to use linux and AVOID the command line in its entirety? What about hardware? Its not going to think my processer is something its not and overclock it is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted March 18, 2008 Veteran Share Posted March 18, 2008 First, you will not be installing Linux in your 50GB NTFS partition. You will need to shrink an existing partition to make room (the Ubuntu installer provides a slider to use to make this easy). An alternative to this is using "wubi", but I am not very familiar with this, other than it creates a large file on your existing NTFS partition and Linux treats that as an ext3 filesystem. Yes, you can play music and go online, silly! :p If Linux didn't do that, I wouldn't be using it. ;) You will be just fine, and Linux won't destroy your hardware. Boot Ubuntu as a LiveCD and poke around a bit before installing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdowmaker Posted March 18, 2008 Author Share Posted March 18, 2008 First, you will not be installing Linux in your 50GB NTFS partition. You will need to shrink an existing partition to make room (the Ubuntu installer provides a slider to use to make this easy). An alternative to this is using "wubi", but I am not very familiar with this, other than it creates a large file on your existing NTFS partition and Linux treats that as an ext3 filesystem.Yes, you can play music and go online, silly! :p If Linux didn't do that, I wouldn't be using it. ;) You will be just fine, and Linux won't destroy your hardware. Boot Ubuntu as a LiveCD and poke around a bit before installing. I was planning on just installing from an iso since my dvd rom cant burn cds. How can i shrink an existing partition without deleting everything ON that partition? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdowmaker Posted March 18, 2008 Author Share Posted March 18, 2008 i dont think i CAN install it from an iso... dang it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted March 18, 2008 Veteran Share Posted March 18, 2008 You can, but it is difficult. It is really designed to work as a CD media. Find a friend that can burn one for you. The shrinking is fine. It doesn't remove the partition and re-create it - just modifies the partition's last cluster. You ought to ensure you have a backup of your data. Important any time you make major changes like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 this is what you want then: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallerForWindows Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdowmaker Posted March 18, 2008 Author Share Posted March 18, 2008 this is what you want then: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallerForWindows link dont work. thanks though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 http://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallerForWindows this one should work, the forum mangled my link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slammer55 Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Why use dual boot when you can use VMWare. http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ This gives you as many free registration #'s as you would like. Create a VMmachine and run whatever OS you desire....save MAC (i think??) Best of all you don't have to worry about messing up your MBR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Why use dual boot when you can use VMWare. http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ This gives you as many free registration #'s as you would like. Create a VMmachine and run whatever OS you desire....save MAC (i think??) Best of all you don't have to worry about messing up your MBR. with the link i provided he can install it directly on his hardware and he can "uninstall" it if he changes his mind. The biggest advantage it provide is direct access to his hardware (video card) so he can try some of the cool eye candy. Don't get me wrong, I run Ubuntu in a VM for my programming but he believe he will get a better "feel" for the OS by installing it natively Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted March 18, 2008 Veteran Share Posted March 18, 2008 I am all for a "real" install over virtual, especially for someone new. When you run into a boot/display issue in a virtual machine, there is too much ground to cover with the addition of virtualization making things a bit more complex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdowmaker Posted March 18, 2008 Author Share Posted March 18, 2008 http://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallerForWindowsthis one should work, the forum mangled my link Not sure how that installs anything. It seems like an informational wiki with no link to a download or installer. What should i click? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berserk87 Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 with the music thing, i think what hes talking about is the mp3 support from install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdowmaker Posted March 19, 2008 Author Share Posted March 19, 2008 with the music thing, i think what hes talking about is the mp3 support from install. In more detail, what i am asking is if i can run mp3, mp4, jpeg, bmp, avi, wmv and possibly a few other media types nativly, or with an easy to install (no command line) lightweight program. My computer currently bogs down ever since i added the 2nd 250 hard drive. When i minimize to the desktop it takes 5-6 seconds for the icons to load, then another few seconds for the picture on the icon to show up instead of a white page. Would running ubuntu fix or reduce that problem? I am idealy trying to switch to ubuntu, do everything i do on my computer now EXCEPT gaming (though if i could run emulation software for things like the NES thatd be sweet.) have my computer run faster, ect. If its an overall improvement (the only games i really play on my comp is portal and some older games. Like starcraft or Warcraft 3.) then ill end up keeping it. If i could do all this WITHOUT having to backup>wipe the drives>load the 2 os's>re-enstate all data then thatd be great, if i could just throw ubuntu on my comp as a dual boot and have it load up my HD's and still give me acess to my music seamlessly (no hoops to jump through to browse to My Documents or to D:\Music\Ownage.mp3 and so on and so forth then ill keep ubuntu. Im just leery of linux, there used to be so many hoops to go through to get it to even work, the first time i tried it it failed to functuion on my hardware, and i had to use command line for everything from installing from some propitary filetype to opening a picture. That was like 5 or 6 years ago though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralph_tran Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Im just leery of linux, there used to be so many hoops to go through to get it to even work, the first time i tried it it failed to functuion on my hardware, and i had to use command line for everything from installing from some propitary filetype to opening a picture. That was like 5 or 6 years ago though. haha.... linux is nothing like it was 5-6 years ago. Just give ubuntu a try.. you'll fall in love with compiz fusion. Your existing hard drives and partitions will show up, so yes, your stuff will still be accessible. Shrinking partitions is not at all hard. Just back up your important data (as said before)... you shouldnt have to reinstall anything. EDIT: oh yeah.. forgot to add that you can install vlc and other programs with Synaptic or the package manager. verrry easy.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdowmaker Posted March 19, 2008 Author Share Posted March 19, 2008 Got the CD burned and put into the tray. reboot, didnt boot from it. Checked in windows and the file *IS* on the cd. I went to the BIOS and changed the boot order to CD>Floppy>HD from Floppy>CD>HD and tried again. No change. How do i boot from the CD in order to load it? I tried del, f8 and tab while booting. None of them did it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralph_tran Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 what program did you use to burn the iso to cd? Make sure you aren't just burning the iso file itself onto disk. I'd give imgburn a try, and set the burn speed to 4-8x. It might be really slow, but some picky cdrom drives can only read bootable disks burnt at this speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted March 19, 2008 Veteran Share Posted March 19, 2008 If you open the CD in Windows, and you see one big .iso file, you didn't burn it right. You need to burn it as an image, because the ISO-9660 format for CD-ROMs, and the ".iso" file is a copy (or image) of that full filesystem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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