InstallingLinux on a Pre-Installed Windows Vista Computer


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I have a Dell Inspiron 530 and it came pre-installed with Vista. My friends recommended that I try using Linux as it's faster and less susceptible to viruses. I was thinking of partitioning my hard drive and installing Linux on my computer. The problem is, I never did something like this before. How hard is it? Can serious problems occur? Is it recommended that I not go through with this?

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You can start by just running the LiveCD (you download a Linux LiveCD -- for example the Ubuntu or Suse distributions), you put the CD in your computer and restart. The CD will load and run Linux without touching your hard drive (do note that, because you're running from a CD, things will be slower).

But it's a safe way to get started.

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You can start by just running the LiveCD (you download a Linux LiveCD -- for example the Ubuntu or Suse distributions), you put the CD in your computer and restart. The CD will load and run Linux without touching your hard drive (do note that, because you're running from a CD, things will be slower).

But it's a safe way to get started.

Where can I download LiveCD? If I do load and run linux using LiveCD, will I still be able to run Vista?

Forgive me for these questions, but I never used Linux before. So, I'm new at this.

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yes you will still be able to run vista. live cds just load up all they need into RAM and keep the big stuff on the CD. it will run and show you the distro that you have downloaded. you can see if you like it or not.

i might also suggest SLAX put it on a flash drive and run it. that way you will be able to save files and run linux as if it was installed.

if you finally decide that you want linux to run native on your computer then you will need to shrink your vista partition to make room for linux. windows vista offers this in disk management. a better and more capable tool is norton's partition magic. but it wasn't free so you might want to stick with vista's free tool.

once you make an empty partition for vista, you will need to pick a distro. i suggest ubuntu if you are new. and suse or debian if you know what you are doing. download and burn the linux distro you downloaded.

restart with the disk in your computer then go through the installation and make sure you select the right partition to install linux on. on reboot. you will have a chance to pick between the newly installed linux or vista.

my instructions are very basic. google whatever you don't know before you start this and print any step by step instructions you find. http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_wi...alled_first.htm

that's a good page to get started. it shows you how to install ubuntu.

good luck, post here if you need more help. or are confused about a step in the instructions.

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If you have a lot of bandwidth, try some distributions and pick your favorite one (and the one that will auto detect most of your hardware if you dont want to learn now how to make things that don't work by deault work)

Ubuntu: http://mirror.its.uidaho.edu/pub/ubuntu-re...esktop-i386.iso ( www.ubuntu.com )

Mandriva 2009 beta: ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distr...-cdrom-i586.iso

Mandriva 2008 spring: ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/mandrake/Mandrak...-cdrom-i586.iso

Fedora core 9: http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedo...9-i686-Live.iso

SUSE: http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/...LiveCD-i386.iso

You can burn them (as cd image) on CD or DVD or try them using virtualBox (an emulator (don't quote me on that, I know about virtualisation))

without burning them.

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Ok, I downloaded LiveCD and burnt it on a blank CD. I boot up my computer and ran Linux from the CD. As Linux booted up, it froze. So I had to turn off my computer by holding the power button. Looks like Linux is not the way to go after all. It looks a lot of problems. I will be sticking with Vista, unfortunately.

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What is your computer model?

Many distributions run older versions of the Linux kernel. If you have some new hardware sometimes the older kernels do not support it.

(New Desktop 2-3 yrs ago (Socket AM2 mobo), Dell Vostro 1000 (laptop), Intel D945GCLF (mini-itx mobo) I've had problems with that were resolved in newer kernel versions)

Also what error are you getting, you might be able to pass something called a boot option to get the cd to run for you.

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Ok, I downloaded LiveCD and burnt it on a blank CD. I boot up my computer and ran Linux from the CD. As Linux booted up, it froze.

Bad download? Bad burn?

There are some simple and obvious reasons it would just "lock up" like that.

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What is your computer model?

Many distributions run older versions of the Linux kernel. If you have some new hardware sometimes the older kernels do not support it.

(New Desktop 2-3 yrs ago (Socket AM2 mobo), Dell Vostro 1000 (laptop), Intel D945GCLF (mini-itx mobo) I've had problems with that were resolved in newer kernel versions)

Also what error are you getting, you might be able to pass something called a boot option to get the cd to run for you.

I have a Dell Inspiron 530.

I get several errors, which is why I couldn't write them down. There were too many. But the Ubuntu screen would show up with the loading bar moving back and forth. It would keep moving back and forth and then finally command prompt goes on the screen and several errors are popping up. The errors multiply and multiple to no end. So that's when I shut off my computer. This happens BOTH with LiveCD and Wubi.

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Please don't use the word "Linux", it mean almost nothing exept 2-3mb of stuff on the CD. What distribution are you using, it is what matter. And write down and tell us 1 or 2 error, we will se what kind they are. Normally, if you see error after error like "read error" or stuff like that, it is a bad burn or download. If it is really your hardware (I doubt about that) you will see 1 error.

To be sure about your download, use bittorent, it is safer for large download. Every distribution website provide torrent.

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yes you will still be able to run vista. live cds just load up all they need into RAM and keep the big stuff on the CD. it will run and show you the distro that you have downloaded. you can see if you like it or not.

i might also suggest SLAX put it on a flash drive and run it. that way you will be able to save files and run linux as if it was installed.

if you finally decide that you want linux to run native on your computer then you will need to shrink your vista partition to make room for linux. windows vista offers this in disk management. a better and more capable tool is norton's partition magic. but it wasn't free so you might want to stick with vista's free tool.

once you make an empty partition for vista, you will need to pick a distro. i suggest ubuntu if you are new. and suse or debian if you know what you are doing. download and burn the linux distro you downloaded.

restart with the disk in your computer then go through the installation and make sure you select the right partition to install linux on. on reboot. you will have a chance to pick between the newly installed linux or vista.

my instructions are very basic. google whatever you don't know before you start this and print any step by step instructions you find. http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_wi...alled_first.htm

that's a good page to get started. it shows you how to install ubuntu.

good luck, post here if you need more help. or are confused about a step in the instructions.

Or you can use Gparted, which is free.

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Please don't use the word "Linux", it mean almost nothing exept 2-3mb of stuff on the CD. What distribution are you using, it is what matter. And write down and tell us 1 or 2 error, we will se what kind they are. Normally, if you see error after error like "read error" or stuff like that, it is a bad burn or download. If it is really your hardware (I doubt about that) you will see 1 error.

To be sure about your download, use bittorent, it is safer for large download. Every distribution website provide torrent.

Is there really such thing as a bad download?

Tonight when I get home from work, I'll give it another shot. I'll try to run Wubi again and download Ununtu again and see if it will work. I'll write down a couple of the errors if I have a problem again. I really would like to try and run Linux as I heard it was a good OS that's virus-free.

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Rather than immediately re-downloading (and, yes, there are bad downloads and bad burns), check the md5sum. If you aren't sure how (and Windows doesn't provide a built-in tool for this), the Ubuntu CD that you burned has a "media check" function that does it on the CD you have installed, and compares it to the included correct md5sum value stored on the CD.

It takes several minutes, so boot the CD, start the check and go make yourself a quick sandwich to munch on while it does its thing.

If it is a valid CD, then you have some other strange issue going on, and you save yourself the hassle of re-downloading and re-burning. (Y) (and just have to look at the hassle of "why isn't it working?")

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I would also like to add that at first, my computer wouldn't boot Ubuntu from the Linux CD when I restart the computer. So, I had the CD install something so it will boot off of the CD when I restart it. So when I restarted it, that's when I had the problem when trying to boot Ubuntu off of the Live CD. So, I decided to try Wubi. When I installed Linux using Wubi, it didn't download Linux again; it just installed it. I guess it saw that I already downloaded it, so it used the iso file I downloaded previously. Once Wubi finished installing, I restarted it and tried booting Ubuntu. And the error occured again, just like what happened with the LiveCD.

Since both of these options tried to run Ubuntu from the same iso I downloaded, there could be a chance that I had a bad download. Like I said, when I get home tonight, I'll try to check the md5sum. If it's indeed a bad download, I'll try again.

Edited by xraffle
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I would also like to add that at first, my computer wouldn't boot Ubuntu from the Linux CD. So, I had the CD install something so it will boot off of the CD when I restart it.

...

I got the cause right here from this disclosure!

The problem is that you opened the .iso file and burned what you saw.

A CD .iso image is a full filesystem image, including the boot sector. When you "open" it and look inside, you see the files, but lose the boot info!

If you burned it that way, that would explain the appearances of being complete, even though you lost your CD's boot info.

The download could still be good. md5sum it. Or just reburn the image, using your burner software's "burn as image" option. (Y)

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Or just reburn the image, using your burner software's "burn as image" option. (Y)

I did burn it as an image.

Even if I didn't burn it correctly (which I know I did), that doesn't explain the Wubi problem.

I think my statement was misleading. I think I might have said it incorrectly. My computer wouldn't boot Ubuntu from the CD when I restart the computer. However, it would boot when I put the disk in when running windows, but not when restarting. In other word: I leave the CD inside, restart and the computer goes right into Vista like it always does. It ignores the CD. Sorry for leaving out that info. I'll edit that in my post.

Edited by xraffle
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OK, I tried to re-download Ubunti using Wubi and still had the boot problem. When I select Ubuntu, the Ubuntu logo shows up and the loading bar moves back and forth. Finally, after about a minute or two I get several errors. These errors all really long, so I was only able to write one down. Here is one of the errors I get:

"145.114604 ata2.00: exception E mask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen"

Similar errors like this keep on popping up and multiplying. The only way to get this to stop is to turn off the computer. What is causing this?

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Try an other distribution. It may fix the problem. But if I understand the error message, something plugged on the pata bus is causing conflict with a kernel driver, that's bad sign. Can you try damn small linux, it is ugly, but only a 50mb download. It is not for using as OS, but just for test. If you want to do a full download, try knoppix, it is not a really good distribution, but the way it boot is a little different (at least it was in the past) so it may boot fine.

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I would suggest Puppy 4.0 or Puppy 3.01 it is much smaller Linux Distro than Ubuntu--- Less Chance of a bad Burn...

Puppy Linux 4.0

http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/offici...-linux-40-dingo

88mb

Puppy Linux 3.01

http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/offici...puppy-linux-301

94mb

And Should that one give you issues--- I would also suggest downloading the "RETRO"

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I have a Dell Inspiron 530 and it came pre-installed with Vista. My friends recommended that I try using Linux as it's faster and less susceptible to viruses. I was thinking of partitioning my hard drive and installing Linux on my computer. The problem is, I never did something like this before. How hard is it? Can serious problems occur? Is it recommended that I not go through with this?
I wouldn't go through it unless you have specific problems with Vista from which Linux could save you, and you are ready to go through the trouble of learning how to use the new OS and its applications. Your Dell Inspiron 530 probably includes 2GB of RAM and a Core2Duo, so Vista should run blazingly fast on it; secondly, viruses don't install themselves out of nowhere, if you use good sense with your downloads you can basically remain virus and spyware-free for years on either XP or Vista; with Vista it's even easier as the security has been overhauled.

Before switching to Linux you should make sure that you're not giving up on some of your favorite software. You'll run into trouble pretty fast if you like to try out the latest games (well, not just the latest actually). Also you can't use Office so you're stuck with OpenOffice. You can't use Photoshop, so you're stuck with The Gimp. You can't use Visual Studio so you're stuck with one of the free IDEs (KDevelop, NetBeans, etc.) The list goes on.

So don't format that C drive before careful consideration. I'd try out both Vista and Ubuntu (you can try Ubuntu with a Live CD without needing to install anything) and see which one meets your needs best. My guess is that you'll stay with Windows.

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You may want to look into running Linux In a MSVPC 2007- If you have 2 gigs of ram you can easily allot 128mb of memory for the Virtual OS and puppy runs just fine on that and 2gigs of Hard drive Space (allot this using MSVPC)

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I wouldn't go through it unless you have specific problems with Vista from which Linux could save you, and you are ready to go through the trouble of learning how to use the new OS and its applications. Your Dell Inspiron 530 probably includes 2GB of RAM and a Core2Duo, so Vista should run blazingly fast on it; secondly, viruses don't install themselves out of nowhere, if you use good sense with your downloads you can basically remain virus and spyware-free for years on either XP or Vista; with Vista it's even easier as the security has been overhauled.

Before switching to Linux you should make sure that you're not giving up on some of your favorite software. You'll run into trouble pretty fast if you like to try out the latest games (well, not just the latest actually). Also you can't use Office so you're stuck with OpenOffice. You can't use Photoshop, so you're stuck with The Gimp. You can't use Visual Studio so you're stuck with one of the free IDEs (KDevelop, NetBeans, etc.) The list goes on.

So don't format that C drive before careful consideration. I'd try out both Vista and Ubuntu (you can try Ubuntu with a Live CD without needing to install anything) and see which one meets your needs best. My guess is that you'll stay with Windows.

Actually I'm trying it with Wubi which installs without partitioning the hard drive. That way, you can easily uninstall Ubuntu should I not want it later on.

Anyways, I found what was causing the problem. I had to go to System Setup and change the SATA from IDE to RAID. However, when I change that setup, Ubuntu boots fine, but not Vista. So, I have to keep changing that setup when I want to switch OS. In other words, Ubuntu wants RAID while Vista wants IDE. This is ridiculous. And people say Linux is issue-free? This looks like more of a headache to me.

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Linux is not issue free, only some idealistic guys say that. It is far from "just work in every imaginable case". But it open a new world. World of virus free, free software. World where the communoty is as important as the OS itself. An os more powerfull with very deep configuration capabilities where you have absolutely no limits. It can look how you want it to look, work how you want it to work, feel how you want it to feel. Those things are very hard to tweak, or just impossible on windows.

Try more distro, chose the one you prefer, it is a start, not an end. Thats Linux. It is not just an os, it is a way to interfact with computer, a free way, no lock-in.

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