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Installing Ubuntu and Ubuntu Studio
Install Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) alongside Windows XP Home edition.
1. Clean up then defragment (maybe twice or thrice) your current Windows system. Reduce the overall size of Windows by backing up to cd then removing those files you seldom use. This will allow the Windows partition on the hard drive to be shrunk and moved to its more compact portion of the drive thus freeing up space for the Ubuntu partitions. The easiest and quickest way to free up hard drive space is to burn your audio and video files to cd or dvd then remove them from the system. You can later copy them back to Windows or Ubuntu once it’s installed. I also turned off my Windows System Restore to free up some extra GBs, but I don’t recommend you do the same unless you so desire. It might be a good idea to disable those desktop effects and other such stuff that you are familiar with manipulating, Un-mount any virtual discs in virtual drives you may be using. Basically, just reduce Windows to the absolute minimum you are comfortable with, then turn everything back on after the Ubuntu install is completed. Cleaning up and defragmenting are things you should have been doing all along. Am I wrong? You can also remove old cookies and temp internet files from the browsers using CCleaner or similar apps. You may also want to run a complete virus scan and remind yourself of the great fun that comes with anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall programs. Ubuntu does not need those things. I’m sure you’ll not miss them.
2. Running the Ubuntu Live CD: Now comes the first scary operation. Before you can run the live cd you must change your computer’s bios settings to allow boot from cd as the first booting option. The scary thing about changing a bios setting is that you have probably never even seen the bios screen, much less changed anything. Normally your computer boots up in a sequence that checks the floppy drive first for a boot disc. All you need to do is change the sequence so the machine looks at the cd drive first. It is no big deal, just read the psychocats tutorial linked to near the top of this page. Once you re-set and save the new boot sequence, reboot and log into Windows to reassure yourself that it still works. Load the Ubuntu live cd in the tray and wait for the Ubuntu browser window to open and inform you that you can now reboot with the cd still in the tray. After Ubuntu loads you can begin installation by double clicking the install icon visible on the Ubuntu desktop. We will let the Ubuntu install program manage our hard drive partitioning chores, but in manual mode rather than guided (auto) mode.
3. Partitioning the Hard Drive: This is the second scary step of the Ubuntu installation. If you don’t partition your hard drive correctly you could possibly wipe out the entire Windows partitions. This would leave you with no choice but to install Ubuntu as the only operating system on your computer. That is not a bad thing, but we want to keep our current Windows system installed for old times sake if nothing else. The Ubuntu live cd, after you click install, will ask a few questions then present you with the choice of partitioning manually or guided. Choose manual. There are a few important issues to keep in mind when partitioning your hard drive. First, a hard drive can contain only four primary partitions. Your Windows system already occupies one partition if it came with a Windows installation disc. It may occupy two partitions already if it came with a system recovery partition rather than an install disc.
Assuming your Windows is already using two partitions, you are left with only the possibility of having two more primary partitions. Ubuntu can be installed using only two partitions: root and swap, but it is better to have it use three partitions. The first partition being where root “/” is mounted, the second for mounting /home, and the third for swap. With Ubuntu mounted on three partitions you can do fresh installs of the system repeatedly while keeping your various user settings and files intact on the /home partition. This is a great thing because Ubuntu releases new improved versions of its operating system at six month intervals. You can do a fresh install of Ubuntu’s latest every six months and never need to mess with your initial settings or relocate files which all reside in the /home partition.
Do you see a problem? We want three partitions for our Ubuntu install, but our hard disc can have only four primary partitions and Windows is already occupying two of those. Omigosh, where will we get that fifth partition needed for /home? Easy answer. We install Ubuntu on an extended partition rather than a primary partition. An extended partition is a container for an unlimited number of logical partitions. Even though an extended partition has a designated descriptive drive number, it cannot be mounted because it is just a container for the logical partitions contained within. Those logical partitions can be mounted with / and /home and swap. Please read the Psychocats tutorial on Planning Partitions for a clearer understanding of partitioning schemes. The link is near the top of this page. Now we will actually partition the hard drive by using the partitioning tool included in the Ubuntu live cd.
Partitioning Step 1
Reduce the size of the current Windows partition. Again, assuming Windows is currently occupying two of your hard drive partitions. The first partition probably contains the Windows Recovery files. Its size will be relatively small, maybe 6 GB or less. Don’t do anything to this partition. The Windows partition that we want to shrink is the second partition and it will show up on the partitioning tool as NTFS. Resize this partition to a size that contains several GB of free space in addition to the NTFS used space. Example; Windows space used is 40 GB, add 10 GB free space, so you will shrink your NTFS partition down to a size of 50 GB. On my machine there is a 120 GB hard drive so I now have, after shrinking NTFS, the first partition of 6 GB containing the Windows Recovery files, the second partition containing the Windows NTFS files at 50 GB, the empty free space containing about 60 GB.
Partitioning Step 2
Now comes partitioning that 60 GB of free space for Ubuntu to use. Using the Ubuntu live cd partitioning tool. First create a logical partition of 10 GB and specify its type as ext3 and its location at the beginning. This means it will be the first partition of the Extended Partition (which is partition 3 on your hard drive but unnamed on the tool). The partitioning tool automatically names the partitions for you don’t change the names. Because the extended partition is a container only, it will not show up on the tool as a seperate entity, however you will know it’s there because the first logical partition will be assigned a number that seems one digit higher than it should be. Example; Windows partition 1 will be shown as partition #1, Windows partition 2 will be shown as partition #2, Ubuntu partition root / will be shown as partition #4, Ubuntu partition /home will be shown as partition #5, and Ubuntu partition swap will be shown as partition #6, The simple act of creating the first logical partition will automatically create the extended partition subliminally, you need not be concerned or do anything pertaining to the extended partition. Now mount root “/” without the quotes on this first logical partition. Either use the dropdown list to choose / as the mounting point or type in / as the mounting point. Next create the second logical partition which will contain /home. Use all the free space remaining except for 1 or 2 GB which is needed for the swap partition (depending on the amount of ram in your computer). If your pc has 512 MB RAM, save 1 GB for swap. If your computer has 1 or 2 GB of RAM, save 2 GB free space for swap. Example; On my 120 GB hard drive… The first Ubuntu partition where root / is mounted is 10 GB, The second Ubuntu partition where /home is to be mounted now contains 49 GB, the remaining 1 GB of free space is for the swap partition. Once the second Ubuntu partition is created (ext3) mount the /home on it by typing in /home as the mounting point or selecting /home from the dropdown. Note; the dropdown menu does not show any mounting points for newly created partitions, but does show them when re-installing on existing partitions. This second logical partition will automatically be placed next to the first Ubuntu partition. Finally, create the swap partition of 1 or 2 GB and specify its location at the end when mounting it as swap. The partitioning tool will show that the first two Ubuntu partitions and possibly the swap partition are set (ticked) for reformat which is correct. Make sure the two Windows partitions are NOT ticked for reformat. When the partitions are ready and you feel confident you have done everything correctly, click continue or next and wait for the big repartitioning and installation to complete. When the installation is finished you will be told to remove the live cd from its tray (wait for the tray to automatically open). Click enter and after the new installation boots up you will be presented with the black boot up screen and options to log into Ubuntu (top option) or Windows (bottom option) listed as Windows Whistler Personal. The other Windows option listed as Windows 2000/NT/XP is for the Windows Recovery sector, don’t select that one. You will have a ten second countdown at every boot up in which to choose the system you wish to log in (use the keyboard arrow buttons to select which one, then the Enter button) before auto-boot into Ubuntu (if Windows wasn’t selected). Note: when you do log into Windows for the first time after installing Ubuntu you will be presented with a Windows disk check, This is normal and happens because you resized the Windows partition. Allow the disc check to complete before re-booting and logging into Windows. The final results of all the partitioning and installation (on my 120 GB hard drive) - partition #1 = Windows recovery sector at 6GB and 85% full; partition #2 = Windows NTFS partition at 50 GB and appx 70% full; partition #3 = invisible extended partition containing three logical partitions; partition #4 = logical partition (ext3) Ubuntu / at 10 GB and 30% full; partition #5 = logical partition (ext3) Ubuntu /home at 49 GB and 1% full; partition #6 = Ubuntu swap at 1 GB and 0% full. Note; percentages are approximate and for illustration only.