Installing Linux: My experience

[jmcc]

Hi to everyone

I just want to comment that in the last night I installed Ubuntu on my computer and I want to share some thoughts. For me to install Linux was relatively easy and it could be even more easy if I had followed the installation program defaults. Ubuntu is now working fine but some things were not as I expected , in part because of me.

I have a 250 GB Western Digital SATA II HDD, but the 250 GB stated on the label ends in 232.88 GB for the operative system because the unit used by the HDD industry is different from the rest of the computer world [for them a MB is 1,000 KB and a GB is 1,000 MB, being for the rest a MB = 1,024 KB and a GB = 1,024 MB] and due to the file system too, I suppose.

I tried to create partitions on the disk myself with the manual method because I wanted to divide the disk as follow:

- a 2 GB swap partition, being this one the first partition
- a 30 GB root partition (with reiserfs file system)
- a 200 GB /home partition (in reiserfs too)

I decided to use reiserfs because I have read on one of my guides that it was better than ext3. Also on one of those guides I read that, since there is no limit for logic partitions on a HDD (primary partitions are limited to 4 on one hard disk), “normally” you will have no problems using logic partitions over an extended partition that occupies the place of a primary partition.

Maybe it is a delicate matter but since the installation program said nothing in the automatic method of how will be the disk divided, I decided to go manual to manually add the 2 GB swap partition (thinking on the future because maybe I will get a second 512 MB RAM module [DDR2 533MHz] for this PC).

So I created an extended partition using all the space available on the disk and, inside of this partition, I created first the 2 GB swap partition, then the 30 GB root partition (“/”), and finally the /home partition with around 200 GB. After doing it all, I started the installation and the process ended normally, asking me at the end if I wanted to keep using the LiveDVD or just to restart the machine to start using the installed GNU/Linux Ubuntu OS.

I restarted the PC but when in the screen appeared the message “Please take out any CD from the CD-ROM drive, close the tray (if any) and press Enter” I did that but the Enter button didn't work. I tried it several times and nothing so I used the reset button

And the only thing I received was a message from the motherboard BIOS, something like “There is no bootable drive. Please insert the bootable media and restart”. I checked the BIOS options, all was fine but I tried putting the HDD as first boot device but nothing worked.

I was a bit frustrated so I choose to install it all again but using the automatic options of the Ubuntu installation program. When the program checked the disk, I found used space so the previous installation was apparently fine, but I choose to delete all the disk and install. At the end, when I was restarting, the same thing with the DVD (a Lite-On +/-R +/-RW drive that appears on the Ubuntu equipment folders only as a +/-R drive) happened, so I was in the need, again, of using the reset button

But after restarting things worked fine this time, as far as I am capable to detect. The default file system is ext3 so I am using it.

The thing that worries me a bit now is if I did bad reformatting the disk just immediately after a previous format process. I have heard that doing this is dangerous for the HDDs. Am I wrong?

Now let me think. I believe that it would be right to share some impressions about the GNU/Linux Ubuntu OS.

Well, the visual aspect is nice, very beautiful giving the fact that it is a free OS.

It is a bit more slow than Windows XP opening DVDs, CDs and diskettes, I believe. Another thing is that there is no refresh button on the system explorer, so if I want to know the capacity of my USB pen drive or diskette I need to unmount and mount it again (using secondary button menu), a bit frustrating thing.

Properties windows remain on top of everything and I don't know what to do to make then behave as normal windows (doing secondary click over the title bar there is an option named “On top”, but it is not activated and still the windows appear over all other windows).

And other things I don't remember now, except this: I have no video or audio file that can work in Ubuntu... I would like to know, if you can tell me corfy, what programs you use to watch the ML trailers in your Linux computers, please. Also, Totem (the Ubuntu video player) don't reproduce any DVD. I know of course the free software philosophy of Ubuntu but I suppose that there is a way to reproduce all those video files on this OS. Mplayer? VLC? Because I need to reproduce at least the next file types: mov, avi, wmv, wma, mp3, mpg, DivX, Real media, vob, ts (HDTV) and other that maybe I don't remember. And DVDs too, of course!

After having found this I was upset, asking myself why I didn't installed Fedora Core 6 or openSuSE 10.2 (by the way, my Ubuntu is 6.10, I will upgrade as soon as possible). I even put the installation DVDs of both OS in the drive to see if I can extract packages from them but Fedora and openSuSE support RPM (Red Hat) packages and not DEB (Debian) packages as Ubuntu (I found the package for amarok in one of the disks).

I also tried to install both Fedora Core and openSuSE but I didn't found an option to install them together with Ubuntu and, since I didn't want to format the drive again, I left it with Ubuntu alone and meanwhile I will try to find a solution to avoid a reformat process of the drive again.

Another thing is that everything apparently is installed and working but on the Ubuntu's device manager utility I can found a lot of “Unknowns”. Also I can't find info about the processor or the fans or the internal temperature of the case.

I have used my USB pen drive, floppy (but now I have a 1.44 MB disquette on the unit and it only recognize half of the capacity) and DVD drive fine. By the way, how can I give format to a floppy disk with Ubuntu?

I have not burned a disc still and the DVD +/-R +/-RW DL Lite-On burner I have is labeled as a CD DVD +/-R drive alone.

The multicard reader was detected as 5 floppy or memory card drives but I don't have cards to try it (at least 2 of them are labeled as Sony, the brand of the device).

I have connected the USB cable of the UPS on the computer and I have not received any message.

My provisional conclusion is that Ubuntu is beautiful but I have not used it enough to give a definitive opinion, but it looks really well.

A last question: is out there a place where I can download programs for Ubuntu (like VLC media player, because on its page there is no link to download the version for Ubuntu ) to let me to record it on CDs on an internet café and then take it to my home, where I don't have internet connection?

[corfy]

Unfortunately, I don't know how to download packages for install on a computer without internet access. I'm sure there is a way, but I don't know what it is off the top of my head. I will do some searching and see what I can come up with.

Here is some information about installing the so-called "restricted formats" on Ubuntu.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

I have also had decent luck using Automatix (http://www.getautomatix.com/) and EasyUbuntu (http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/), but they both use Internet access.

And for the record, I use VLC Player, although I have several installed. But Ubuntu doesn't include support for DVDs and the other formats because they aren't open standards. But there are easy to follow instructions for installing them (assuming an internet connection, again, I will do some research).

And I've never tried formatting a floppy in Linux. I haven't had any trouble reading floppies, though (although I don't use floppies anymore... I find they are too unreliable).

I'm not sure why you are unmounting and mounting your USB drives to find out the capacity. Maybe it is different with the GNOME desktop manager (Ubuntu's default, I use Kubuntu, which uses the KDE desktop manager), but on mine, all you do is right-click on the drive icon and select "Properties". I will log into GNOME here in a minute and see if something else needs to be done.

EDIT: Nope, the concept is the same in GNOME. Just right-click on the icon, select "Properties". It will calculate the used and free space for you.

[corfy]

BTW, I found this about downloading packages on one computer to install on another: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=516621

[jmcc]

Thanks a lot corfy Yesterday I have found that users can manually download packages from packages.ubuntu.com. I downloaded VLC media player and XMMS but I still haven't installed it on my PC. I will try today.

Another question: Can I have KDE on my present Ubuntu system? Is it better than GNOME? I wonder why distributions like Fedora and openSuSE use KDE and I would like to see it

I have found this page, for example. And this one. So you don't have Ubuntu or simply you have installed KDE in your previous Ubuntu installation?

About the thing I said of a diskette with only half of its total space on Ubuntu, after using it on Windows XP I found a hidden folder, something like ".Trash_". I suppose that when I deleted something from the floppy in Ubuntu, it used the same diskette space as recycle bin. I deleted that folder and the disk was again at 1 dot something MB.

[corfy]

I prefer KDE myself. There are constant online arguments over which is better, which I'm not going to get into. GNOME is the default for a lot of distros because it is slightly less hardware intensive than KDE, which means GNOME will run on older machines, but that isn't an issue with the computer you have (if you had a 700 Mhz processor or slower, it would be an issue, as it is, it is mostly personal preference). Also, since most distros come on CD, GNOME takes up less disk space, so they can fit a larger number of programs on the CD.

But in general, GNOME seems to remind me a bit more of the old Mac interface (not exactly the same, but there are general similarities). KDE reminds me more of Windows, although both are highly customizable.

Yes, it is usually fairly easy to install KDE on Ubuntu, but again, I don't know how hampered you will be by the lack of Internet access. The easiest thing to do might be to download the ISO for Kubuntu CD. You should be able to install the necessary packages from that.

But while Ubuntu is considered the "flagship" product, Canonical has several "*buntu" products.

Ubuntu use the GNOME desktop and, "out of the box" is probably the best suited as a quick "all-purpose" solution with it's wide range of applications
Edubuntu also uses the GNOME desktop, but with an emphasis on educational software (targeting students and schools)
Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop, although at least on the LiveCD, the default applications are a bit lacking.
Xubuntu uses the Xfce desktop, which will run on much older computers, but lacks some of the advanced bells and whistles of GNOME and KDE.

Me being the geek that I am, I have GNOME, KDE, and Xfce all installed on my computer, although I have barely used GNOME or Xfce. They work quite happily beside each other, and share the same programs, program settings, and files. You can choose which one you want to start when you log in. It isn't really an issue of which system you want, but of which graphical interface you want for your system.

All of these use the same set of repositories and are all officially supported by Canonical. The biggest difference being which packages are installed by default. Once any one of these are installed on your computer, you can pretty much install what you want.

You said you had the LiveDVD... it is possible that KDE might be available on the DVD and it just wasn't installed. I haven't used any of their DVDs before, so I don't know for sure what is available on it.

[jmcc]

Thanks a lot corfy, I will check the LiveDVD to see what is on it. I am also considering the possibility of taking my computer (the case, I mean) to an internet café and upgrade the system there and to try to download the things I don't have (because dependencies can be a big problem if I keep downloading on internet cafés and taking the files to my home with the pendrive).

[jmcc]

Two screenshots from my computer: