HOW TO: Install LINUX with or without windows

[Guest]

I am at swing right now. =)

Dont even know what that is haha

[danny0085]

Here is a video tutorial how to install ubuntu step by step without deleting Windows

[JAHGoVeg]

thanks for the link. danny

[Kherr]

I just checked the toplist of all the threads on the site and THIS THREAD is number one... HA!

Thanks guys for rating it high!

[JAHGoVeg]

well it as such a great article how could we not?

[stooby71]

Here is a video tutorial how to install ubuntu step by step without deleting Windows

If you decide to 'dual boot' your PC, there are some really useful things you can do to make it easier to switch between the two operating systems. Before you think about doing any of them, you need to do some setup in Linux.

This guide will (hopefully) help you auto mount your Windows disks on Linux.

Now, this might not sound like a useful thing, as the disks get mounted if you try to search their contents anyway. All will become clear on this later. For now, trust me that this is worth doing.

Most people will only have 1 drive in Windows. Some have more. I have 3. In Windows, they are called WINDOWS, DATA1 and DATA2.

It helps to know the size and contents of the disks.

I am running Ubuntu 10.10 so don't have the newest interface. So you will need to hunt this application down yourself if you are using a 'Unity' version of Ubuntu. You need to run an app called 'Disk Utility'. In my version, you click on 'System' -> 'Administration' and it's in there.

When you run it, you can select the different disks on the left, and on the right you are shown the details. If your disks have multiple partitions, you can click on each one and get the names. /dev/sdb1, /dev/stb2 etc.

Once you have your drive names, you need to make the folders that they will be accessed through.

Open a terminal screen and type the following

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sudo mkdir /media/windows

If you have other partitions you want to automatically mount, you need to make folders for them too. On my PC, I also make

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sudo mkdir /media/data1
sudo mkdir /media/data2

You need to make sure these drives will be accessible from your regular user. My user is (unsurprisingly) stooby

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sudo chown -R stooby:stooby /media/windows
sudo chmod -R 755 /media/windows
sudo chown -R stooby:stooby /media/data1
sudo chmod -R 755 /media/data1
sudo chown -R stooby:stooby /media/data2
sudo chmod -R 755 /media/data2

Now to edit a configuration file. Make a backup of it first:

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sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.BAK

Now edit the original

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sudo gedit /etc/fstab

The file will look something like this:

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# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=96ce0563-a7fd-48ea-9272-053f03e0699c /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=e1140290-1027-4010-a298-08e0050d6fcc none            swap    sw              0       0

I suggest sticking a couple of blank lines at the bottom of the file, and adding the following (well, this is what I add for my PC - note the /dev names and the /media names) These lines should work with NTFS formatted disks

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/dev/sda1 /media/data2 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /media/windows ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /media/data1 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

Now you can test your handy work by rebooting, or typing

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sudo mount -a

Phew, that's enough for now. I shall add more another time, to show how useful this can be.

[crustyasp46]

Thanks for the tutorial stooby71. From a noob on Linux, running Oz Unity 1.0 x 32bit on main box , Puppy Linux on 2 , 486 AST boxes. Was disappointed with Ubuntu,for lack of support on dial-up but found theses distros which worked fine , out of the box for me. No dual boot for me. Windows went out the window when I decided to make the switch. I'm a slow learner, but enjoy my screw ups, and have made this an adventure of learning for myself,> It keeps the grey matter under the grey mat active!

[stooby71]

I always like it when I see/hear of another Linux user!

And I have also learnt a lot the hard way...

Unfortunately, as I have a bit of an addiction to games, and Windows has rather a lot that I like, I have kept it on my PC.

I have converted my wife comepletely though. She curses if I have left my PC in Windows.

I have promised to post more to that guide, and will in a bit... but not now as I've just got home from a 300 mile journey on a Friday afternoon... need a beer and a rest right now.

[stooby71]

Back to things that can make Windows and Linux a bit more... integrated:

In Windows, you have My Documents, My Pictures, My Videos, My Music and possibly a Downloads folder.

In Linux, you also have Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music and Downloads.

To link them together, and have one file appear in the other, you can do the following:
Open a terminall, and begin by making a backup of the fstab file.

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sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.BAK

Now we need to edit it again, and add some extra lines at the bottom. (I don't need to show you an example of it, as I did that earlier)

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sudo gedit /etc/fstab

As before, go to the bottom of the file, add a couple of blank lines, and put the following in: (note the username stooby and change with your own. The /media/Windows bit is the Windows username, and the /home/stooby bit is the Linux user.

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/media/Windows/Documents\040and\040Settings/stooby/My\040Documents /home/stooby/Documents none bind 0 0
/media/Windows/Documents\040and\040Settings/stooby/My\040Documents/My\040Music /home/stooby/Music none bind 0 0
/media/Windows/Documents\040and\040Settings/stooby/My\040Documents/Downloads /home/stooby/Downloads none bind 0 0
/media/Windows/Documents\040and\040Settings/stooby/My\040Documents/My\040Videos /home/stooby/Videos none bind 0 0
/media/Windows/Documents\040and\040Settings/sooby/My\040Documents/My\040Pictures /home/stooby/Pictures none bind 0 0

As before, you can make Linux read the updated file by typing

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sudo mount -a

you will now see all your Windows documents in Linux.

The thing to be careful of, is nameing 2 files with the same letters. Linux will allow the following files in the same folder:
qwerty.txt
Qwerty.txt

Windows does not understand the difference between upper and lower case. I'm not sure what would happen if you did this, as I have been careful not to mix my cases like that.

The reason you see \040 is because that is how you describe a space in the settings file.

[Kherr]

Updated this thread today. Hehe, I really should be in bed... lol.