Ubuntu

I just got it running on my laptop. Now what?

Now....you JOIN US...... heh heh

Ubuntu's great.

Well I got it dual booting XP and Ubuntu 6.10. I had some issues with WPA wireless and also with my resolution but I got that fixed. I need to work on getting VNC or RDP working so I can get on my XP desktop...

Now what? Now you can get some real work done, that's what! P

I'm running Edgy on my personal laptop as well, and love it. But you shoulda waited -- Feisty Fawn (v7.04) is due to be released next week, 4/19 IIRC. It's supposed to be quite an improvement from the user experience standpoint. I tend to avoid beta distros so I haven't experienced it myself, but I've been told it's very nice.

BTW I use FreeNX to remote into Linux desktops (blows VNC and RDP away) but the Windows NX server isn't free. I've used VNC, rdesktop, and a couple other RDP clients on Linux to hit Windows machines.

I am having problems install 6.10 with my ATI card...


Also having problems with installing it on 2nd partition, vista needs to be on mbr and it hates grub

My problem was with my 855 chipset ?

[quote14e289afee="Paczki"]I am having problems install 6.10 with my ATI card...


Also having problems with installing it on 2nd partition, vista needs to be on mbr and it hates grub[/quote14e289afee]
I had it dual booting with Vista on my laptop for about 2 days, before wiping Vista completely. It was on the 2nd (or 3rd?) partition too. Don't remember having to do anything special.

Where'd you get that cool ubuntu penguin?

[quote42ecb61568="dmorris68"][quote42ecb61568="Paczki"]I am having problems install 6.10 with my ATI card...


Also having problems with installing it on 2nd partition, vista needs to be on mbr and it hates grub[/quote42ecb61568]
I had it dual booting with Vista on my laptop for about 2 days, before wiping Vista completely. It was on the 2nd (or 3rd?) partition too. Don't remember having to do anything special.[/quote42ecb61568]

after I installed ubuntu 6.06
I tried loading vista, my computer would reboot... ubuntu 6.06 worked fine... I also tried Fed core, and open suse but vista still would not load up...

-

my problem loading up 6.10 is because of my ati x800

If you install Vista last, it will always blow away Grub's MBR. You can boot off the LiveCD and run the grub installer to put it back.

The easier way to dual boot is to always install Windows first, then install the Linux distro. Most all modern distro installers, including Ubuntu, will recognize Windows and setup Grub for dual booting automatically.

As for ATI, I know there are lots of folks running Ubuntu on ATI cards, but none of my ATI boxes are running Ubuntu so I can't offer anything other than Google and Ubuntu Support Forums.

[quotedbff4ae834="Wolfeman"]Where'd you get that cool ubuntu penguin?[/quotedbff4ae834]
Tux Factory, same place as usual. I'm pretty sure I referred you there before. P

http//tux.crystalxp.net

[quote6812f56f08="dmorris68"][quote6812f56f08="Wolfeman"]Where'd you get that cool ubuntu penguin?[/quote6812f56f08]
Tux Factory, same place as usual. I'm pretty sure I referred you there before. P

http//tux.crystalxp.net[/quote6812f56f08]
I know but I'm lazy P

[quote1a563315ae="dmorris68"]If you install Vista last, it will always blow away Grub's MBR. You can boot off the LiveCD and run the grub installer to put it back.

The easier way to dual boot is to always install Windows first, then install the Linux distro. Most all modern distro installers, including Ubuntu, will recognize Windows and setup Grub for dual booting automatically.

As for ATI, I know there are lots of folks running Ubuntu on ATI cards, but none of my ATI boxes are running Ubuntu so I can't offer anything other than Google and Ubuntu Support Forums.

[quote1a563315ae="Wolfeman"]Where'd you get that cool ubuntu penguin?[/quote1a563315ae]
Tux Factory, same place as usual. I'm pretty sure I referred you there before. P

http//tux.crystalxp.net[/quote1a563315ae]

vista is installed first

Vista won't boot from grub at all, it will just restart the comp

That name sounds like some voodoo shit...LOL

I just got 6.10 installed today as well. I had some issues b/c the livecd doesn't support the 1920x1200 resolution of my dell 2407 monitor so I had to figure out how to edit up the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file before I could run the installer. I got it done though.

I just installed 7.04 on my Dell 700m. The new wireless interface is fantastic. No more hacking to get WPA keys in...

I've thought about installing it on my desktop PC, now that I got a lappy from work.. but I can't think of a good reason to go ahead and do it.

[quote89a17424a2="Wolfeman"]I just installed 7.04 on my Dell 700m. The new wireless interface is fantastic. No more hacking to get WPA keys in...[/quote89a17424a2]
I upgraded my Toshiba Satellite from 6.10 to 7.04 as well. The inclusion of Network Manager is nice, but it's not an Ubuntu-specific thing and was available long before 7.04 -- I'd already been using it with Edgy, so I didn't notice any difference on the WiFi front.

My upgrade is underway )

well...the auto upgrade screwed me.....I can't even get a command prompt anymore to try to fix the problem. I'm jsut dling the new version and will try installing it from cd again.

Can I install Ubuntu on a partition on my external hard drive? MyBook to be specific!

I'm breaking down and installing this. I don't have a real need, but I figure I need to learn the OS, and I need practice learning to teach myself new things with documentation.

[quote01b4ad1244="CollidgeGraduit"]I'm breaking down and installing this. I don't have a real need, but I figure I need to learn the OS, and I need practice learning to teach myself new things with documentation.[/quote01b4ad1244]

Ubuntu is pretty easy to begin with, and there is such a wide user base that it's easy to find help when you have linux newb issues )

[quoteabbbbec812="ILoveToys"][quoteabbbbec812="CollidgeGraduit"]I'm breaking down and installing this. I don't have a real need, but I figure I need to learn the OS, and I need practice learning to teach myself new things with documentation.[/quoteabbbbec812]

Ubuntu is pretty easy to begin with, and there is such a wide user base that it's easy to find help when you have linux newb issues )[/quoteabbbbec812]

Excellent ) I'm in a junior programmer type role at work, and I think one of the keys to me being able to jump to the next level is building the patience to read docs and figure things out. This should be good practice.

Good luck to you!

now you say "hmm... interesting" and go back to Windows lol

And my first Ubuntu problem.. it won't let me set a screen res higher than 1024x768. I'm used to 1920x1200 (

[quote75b9aa1e56="gnznroses"]now you say "hmm... interesting" and go back to Windows lol[/quote75b9aa1e56]
Says who? Today my 16yo daughter has been begging me to install Ubuntu on her PC -- since she's been borrowing my Ubuntu laptop she likes it far better than Windows. As do I, but that's no surprise since I've been running Linux since 1995 or so. I was surprised to see her take to it so quickly.

I was reading this guys blog awhile back, when Vista first came out. A guy's dad gave him some money to buy that "new Vista he was hearing about" and install it for him. The dad was pretty clueless about such things and didn't know anything about Vista other than what he'd heard. So this guy goes and installs Ubuntu instead, but doesn't say anything -- he lets Dad believe it's Vista. Later Dad is bragging to everybody about how much better that new Vista is than XP. The guy let his dad run it for several weeks before giving him his money back and telling him what he'd actually been running. )

[quote75b9aa1e56="CollidgeGraduit"]And my first Ubuntu problem.. it won't let me set a screen res higher than 1024x768. I'm used to 1920x1200 ([/quote75b9aa1e56]
This is usually caused by your monitor not being correctly detected, or the proper timings not being set in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. View that file and scroll down to the Monitor section to see what it says. It could also be caused by your vidcard not being properly detected or supported, but in most cases it's a monitor detection issue.

I assume you're talking about the Dell 2407. I'm not running Linux on my machine with the 2407, but here's an example of a Monitor section configured for a Dell 2407 (I found this via Google, I assume it works)
[code175b9aa1e56]Section "Monitor"
Identifier "External Monitor"
ModelName "Dell 2407"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 31.5 - 90.0
VertRefresh 59.9 - 60.1
ModeLine "1920x1200" 154.0 1920 1968 2000 2080 1200 1203 1209 1235
EndSection[/code175b9aa1e56]
The Identifier line needs to match whatever yours is currently set to, but you can copy & paste the rest of the lines. The critical lines for resolution capability are the HorizSync, VertRefresh, and ModeLine lines. Note that modeline is strictly for 1920x1200 resolution, if you wanted 1600x1200, 1680x1050, or some other non-native res above 1024x768, you'd need additional modelines for each.

Then you need to have "1920x1200" as the first mode listed in the Modes line of the Display subsection of the Screen section. Again, like so (don't copy all of these, just refer to them to make your own changes to your Modes line(s))
[code175b9aa1e56]Section "Screen"
Identifier "External Screen"
Device "Intel Corporation Mobile Integrated Graphics Controller 0"
Monitor "External Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1920x1200" "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1200" "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection[/code175b9aa1e56]

Thanks David.. happily posting this from Ubuntu with a nice resolution D

Yup...that was the same first problem I had.....google took care of it quickly for me )

[quote9a2480a875="Wolfeman"]Where'd you get that cool ubuntu penguin?[/quote9a2480a875]

Check it out, I photoshopped my own )

I <3 Ubuntu...

[quoteb3bb9776fd="Wolfeman"]I <3 Ubuntu...[/quoteb3bb9776fd]

Yeah, me too. I might have to buy a second hdd for it, I don't know that the partition is gonna give me enough space.

So what add-on-apps are you guys running?

Nothing really yet, though I'm open to suggestions. I'm sort of sitting here thinking "Okay, Ubuntu is frickin cool.. now what?"

[quotefc1bb1178d="dmorris68"]Now what? Now you can get some real work done, that's what! P

I'm running Edgy on my personal laptop as well, and love it. But you shoulda waited -- Feisty Fawn (v7.04) is due to be released next week, 4/19 IIRC. It's supposed to be quite an improvement from the user experience standpoint. I tend to avoid beta distros so I haven't experienced it myself, but I've been told it's very nice.

BTW I use FreeNX to remote into Linux desktops (blows VNC and RDP away) but the Windows NX server isn't free. I've used VNC, rdesktop, and a couple other RDP clients on Linux to hit Windows machines.[/quotefc1bb1178d]

"sudo apt-get upgrade" =) I am running Feisty as we speak.

I suggest getting some of the needed tools. For instance, open a terminal and type "sudo apt-get install build-essential". Synaptic and Aptitude are your best friends!

Triforce, mind if I add you to AIM or MSN? I may need a little help now and then.. I'm pretty good at figuring things out, I'll just need a gentle nudge in the right direction occasionally.

I ended up screwing some things up when trying to get Samba working, to share my printer with windows machines. I got frustrated and nuked the Ubuntu partitions.

I'm thinking of trying it again, but is there someone patient enough to help me over IM with getting printer sharing working? I read several guides, and could never get it working.

Are you trying to share a printer attached to the Ubuntu machine, or one attached to a Windows machine?

If attached to the Ubuntu machine, I recommend against Samba printer sharing. For file sharing, Samba is great and it just works, provided you know how to set it up and get all the users & permissions right. It works for printing too, but it can be klunky, primarily because of how Windows clients will take forever sometimes to browse and find network resources.

For sharing Linux printers, you could use CUPS on the Linux box to setup IPP printing, but I prefer to setup a raw print queue and use Chris Gonnerman's Raw Print Server[=http//newcenturycomputers.net/projects/rawprintserver.html]Raw Print Server. It basically emulates a JetDirect print server and is pretty easy to configure and setup. Then you use your regular Windows print driver and connect it to a TCP/IP printer port, as if the printer itself had a JetDirect card in it.

What is the Ubuntu version of Boot.ini? I want to change the boot options. I am dual booting XP and Ubuntu...

[quote97e8e467d1="Wolfeman"]What is the Ubuntu version of Boot.ini? I want to change the boot options. I am dual booting XP and Ubuntu...[/quote97e8e467d1]
/boot/grub/menu.lst contains the grub configuration. Be careful editing it by hand.

If you're wanting to change a Windows boot parameter, that might still be in boot.ini on the Windows partition, since I believe grub just chains to the Windows bootloader. Not positive on that though.

[quote4d03b367b1="dmorris68"]Are you trying to share a printer attached to the Ubuntu machine, or one attached to a Windows machine?

For sharing Linux printers, you could use CUPS on the Linux box to setup IPP printing, but I prefer to setup a raw print queue and use Chris Gonnerman's Raw Print Server[=http//newcenturycomputers.net/projects/rawprintserver.html]Raw Print Server. It basically emulates a JetDirect print server and is pretty easy to configure and setup. Then you use your regular Windows print driver and connect it to a TCP/IP printer port, as if the printer itself had a JetDirect card in it.[/quote4d03b367b1]

The printer is attached to the LInux machine. I've got it set up through CUPS now, but it is sort of a pain to connect to the shared printer from a Windows machine.

Using the Raw Print Server, would it essentially consist of searching for a network printer, choosing it, and letting windows do the rest? (as with a printer shared from Windows)

Edit assuming the above is true, can you give me a hand setting up a "raw print queue"? I read Chris Gonnerman's notes, and that bit looks easy enough. It's the raw print queue that I've got no idea about.

No, RPS just emulates a JetDirect server. Direct IP connection, no Windows networking, so no browse master capability. Honestly, I much prefer it that way. If you really want it to be discoverable like that, you'll need to use Samba.

This is off the top of my head, so some details may be slightly off, but it should get you headed in the right direction. Using the CUPS admin console (you do know about the CUPS web interface, right? Just point your browser to http//localhost631 on your Linux box), create a new print queue for the desired printer port/device, and set the printer model to "Raw." Then edit the RPS configuration file to associate a port number with that print queue (by name), and make sure RPS is running (add it to a system startup script so that it always runs). On the Windows side, you just create a TCP/IP printer port connection to the Linux box address and set the port number appropriately.

If you can't figure it out from that rough overview, let me know and I'll walk you through it with a little more detail.

I got to the last step of adding the Raw printer, and it asked for my CUPS username/password. No idea what that would even be -- I tried root, and the username I work under (ryan), with no luck.

Edit I must have fat-fingered it. Now to continue along my merry way.

I used to have Ubuntu (6.10 maybe?) installed on a seaprate drive and was Dual Booting between that and XP, but then all of a sudden Ubuntu decided to stop working and I couldn't select any options or change anything.

I'm now solely using Vista and have my 10k Raptor with XP installed going unused. I might wipe it and install Ubuntu on it, but anyone have an idea as to why everything may have stopped working out of the blue?

Also, what are some essential apps for using on Ubuntu as well as some cool ones? D

[quote42064d4be7="theysayjump"]I used to have Ubuntu (6.10 maybe?) installed on a seaprate drive and was Dual Booting between that and XP, but then all of a sudden Ubuntu decided to stop working and I couldn't select any options or change anything.

I'm now solely using Vista and have my 10k Raptor with XP installed going unused. I might wipe it and install Ubuntu on it, but anyone have an idea as to why everything may have stopped working out of the blue?

Also, what are some essential apps for using on Ubuntu as well as some cool ones? D[/quote42064d4be7]

No idea about why it stopped working.. but if you're going to try Ubuntu again, download 7.04 (Feisty) and install that. As far as recommended software..

- Beryl (window manager that gives you Vista-like effects, such as desktops on a spinning cube http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ)
- Pidgin (IM client)
- Screenlets (widget engine. desklets and adesklets are good, but they don't seem to work nicely with Beryl)

Of course you can IM me if you want to get into a hot, steamy, nerd discussion D

I just ditched Vista for Ubuntu and...

I LOVE IT. IT'S AWESOME!

SOOO much better than Vista! D

lieditli

I'm kind of confused as to how to install Screenlets. I went to their website and downloaded the "screenlets-0.0.10.tar.bz2" file, but I have no idea as to what to do with it. Anyone know? I'm sure I can search around the Ubuntu forums and figure it out (installation shouldn't be too hard) but if anyone wants to tell me then that'd be great. )

lieditli

I figured out how to get programs from the add/remove thing (totally awesome BTW), but I still can't figure out how to install downloaded files. ?

I like Ubuntu over Vista, but not over XP. I guess the main reason Ubuntu does not really appeal to me was that I had no reason to switch over other than wanting to try it. I have Ubuntu and XP on my laptop, but my desktop keeps Windows XP, since its primary use is gaming.

[quote886c1f3f40="J4320"]I just ditched Vista for Ubuntu and...

I LOVE IT. IT'S AWESOME!

SOOO much better than Vista! D

lieditli

I'm kind of confused as to how to install Screenlets. I went to their website and downloaded the "screenlets-0.0.10.tar.bz2" file, but I have no idea as to what to do with it. Anyone know? I'm sure I can search around the Ubuntu forums and figure it out (installation shouldn't be too hard) but if anyone wants to tell me then that'd be great. )

lieditli

I figured out how to get programs from the add/remove thing (totally awesome BTW), but I still can't figure out how to install downloaded files. ?[/quote886c1f3f40]

Installing source files like that is easy, but you have to do it from the command line, and I can't ever remember how....

....so really my post is useless to you....sorry shrug

[quotecca19f74ef="ILoveToys"][quotecca19f74ef="J4320"]I just ditched Vista for Ubuntu and...

I LOVE IT. IT'S AWESOME!

SOOO much better than Vista! D

lieditli

I'm kind of confused as to how to install Screenlets. I went to their website and downloaded the "screenlets-0.0.10.tar.bz2" file, but I have no idea as to what to do with it. Anyone know? I'm sure I can search around the Ubuntu forums and figure it out (installation shouldn't be too hard) but if anyone wants to tell me then that'd be great. )

lieditli

I figured out how to get programs from the add/remove thing (totally awesome BTW), but I still can't figure out how to install downloaded files. ?[/quotecca19f74ef]

Installing source files like that is easy, but you have to do it from the command line, and I can't ever remember how....

....so really my post is useless to you....sorry shrug[/quotecca19f74ef]

Yeah I figured as much.

Anyway, I was browsing this page ---

http//lifehacker.com/software/ubuntu/hack-attack-top-10-ubuntu-apps-and-tweaks-195437.php

and I noticed the little install code thing in green below each of the 10 entries. Example - on the Firefox one the code in the green box is "apt-get install firefox"

Where do I enter that code in in Ubuntu? I don't know how to open up a terminal.

let me fire up vmware, and i'll check a second for you....It's under applications somewhere, but all apt-get is doing is install apps that you can add by using the add/remove application.

Applications >> Accessories >> Terminal

You'll have to run apt-get as root to install stuff -- type 'sudo' before the command, i.e. [b6fe424cfaf]sudo apt-get install firefox[/b6fe424cfaf] and enter your password when prompted.

I usually used apt-get over Synaptic or GUI tools because I usually work at a terminal, but if you're not comfortable at a command-line, Synaptic does the same thing. Just search inside Synaptic for the package you want to install (whatever you would type after 'apt-get install').

So how do you install something that you've downloaded off the internet?

my guess it's a tar file so usually you have to unzip it more or less...then make and make install

it's a pain really.....

Also, are your flash videos really messed up? Youtube is really screwed up and a bunch of other flash video player sites don't even work. What do I need to install to fix that? I already have the Macromedia Flash plugin for Firefox and the Gnash thing. ?

[quote9a88952c83="J4320"]So how do you install something that you've downloaded off the internet?[/quote9a88952c83]
If it's a tarball (tar.gz or tar.bz2) then you extract it and follow the instructions for whatever you're building/installing.

To extract a tar.gz [b9a88952c83]tar xvzf filename.tar.gz[/b9a88952c83]

To extract a tar.bz2 [b9a88952c83]tar xvjf filename.tar.bz2[/b9a88952c83]

If you downloaded a .deburl==http://=http:///url file, which is a Debian package, then you can just double-click it in Nautilus, or from a terminal type [b9a88952c83]sudo dpkg -i filename.deb[/b9a88952c83]

As far as your video issues, I've not seen that. Flash videos work fine for me, and I use VLC and its Firefox plugin for all other videos. I don't like Totem or MoviePlayer, because they require a ton of codecs to work right. VLC plays almost anything without any external codecs.

Vista isn't [i1cb9eacd7c]that[/i1cb9eacd7c] bad. Granted, the benchmarks against XP favor XP, but I don't see why people hate it so much. But then again, my laptop runs it really nicely =P

Alright, so I jumped on the Ubuntu bandwagon and installed 7.10 last week. I've had some experience with Slackware Linux. I did have some trouble with the audio drivers (Creative X-fi). I followed a tutorial to build my own kernel, etc. in order to get them to work. Then I ran into the problem of getting my graphics driver to work in tandem. Since I was running a custom kernel, the restricted Nvidia driver was unavailable.

So, I did some digging. I found out that OSS now has a (beta) X-Fi driver! I didn't need a custom kernel after all D I rebooted into the generic kernel, installed the OSS driver, then enabled the Nvidia restricted driver. Voila! Sound [ia4684b7e4c]and[/ia4684b7e4c] video! Compiz runs like a champ now. Amarok, VLC, Wine, and btnx are up and running. I've been wanting to experiment with Wine a little more, though, Compiz doesn't seem to play well with Wine.

I installed Ubuntu (7.10) on a separate drive and now the drive isn't recognised by Windows at all, other than in Device Manager and under Manage when right-clicking My Computer.

In Disk Management it shows that the drive has one big partition and a small one of about 1.6 GB. Is the smaller where Ubuntu is and if so, what went wrong during the install and can I make it work without reinstalling?

TSJ, Windows won't recognize Linux partitions at all. If you want to ditch Ubuntu and reclaim that space, you can delete the partitions, repartition the free space, and reformat, all from Drive Manager.

Hmmm.......I don't want to ditch Ubuntu, I want to dual boot it with XP.

Still possible?

Oh, yeah, sure it's possible -- that's what I do on some of my machines. The easiest way to dual boot with XP is to install Ubuntu after XP. Otherwise XP will blow away the Ubuntu boot record and you'll have to manually recreate it. Ubuntu will recognize an existing XP install and automatically configure the Grub boot manager to dual-boot. It will default to Ubuntu, but that's easily changed if you prefer to boot XP by default.

There are lots of guides on the net on manually setting up a dual-boot configuration. But if you never did much with Ubuntu and don't mind starting from scratch again, a reinstall is probably your best bet.

[quote680b64bb65="dmorris68"]Oh, yeah, sure it's possible -- that's what I do on some of my machines. The easiest way to dual boot with XP is to install Ubuntu after XP. Otherwise XP will blow away the Ubuntu boot record and you'll have to manually recreate it. Ubuntu will recognize an existing XP install and automatically configure the Grub boot manager to dual-boot. It will default to Ubuntu, but that's easily changed if you prefer to boot XP by default.

There are lots of guides on the net on manually setting up a dual-boot configuration. But if you never did much with Ubuntu and don't mind starting from scratch again, a reinstall is probably your best bet.[/quote680b64bb65]

That's the thing, I never got to actually use it. XP was already installed.

I put the disc in, let it install throughout the day and checked on it to add my input on whatever it required of me and then when it was done and asked me to remove the CD, I did so, restarted and Grub never loaded. It took me straight to XP.

I restarted and it did the same thing. Took all the cables out and reattached them, switched the jumpers and when I have that drive as a Master, it boots slowly and then says there was a "disk boot failure insert system disk and press enter" so I changed them back and now I'm using XP.

shrug

That's strange then, out of many many installs I've never run into a situation like that. Unless you told the Ubuntu installer not to install Grub, or changed it's destination from the default MBR to the boot sector of the second drive, then it should have just worked.

How many IDE cables are you using between the hard drives, one or two? If you're connecting two drives to a single cable, then the first drive connects to the very end of the cable and must be jumpered as Master, while the second drive must be jumpered as Slave.

If, OTOH, you have separate cables with each drive on its own cable, then each must be jumped as Master. But be aware that SOME brands of drives (some Western Digitals for example) have separate jumper settings for Master alone versus Master with a slave attached -- be sure yours is jumpered appropriately by checking the jumper diagram on the drive label, or imprinted near the jumpers.

Alternatively, if you have a Cable Select cable (usually identified by a cut & twist in between the two IDE connectors on the ribbon cable), both drives could be jumpered for CS. However I typically don't trust CS and always jumper each drive specifically.

BTW, I'm assuming you have an IDE optical drive. If so, and assuming your mobo has only two IDE ports, you should Master/Slave the two hard drives on the same cable, and leave the optical drive by itself. It's never a good idea to pair hard drives with optical drives on the same IDE cable, because the optical drive will drag down the hard drive's performance. Yet another argument for SATA. ;)

If the drives are properly configured, and you go through the default Ubuntu installer, it should definitely detect your Windows install and properly setup Grub as your boot manager. You could also manually fix your Grub configuration by booting from the Ubuntu LiveCD, dropping to a terminal, mounting your hard drive boot partition, and running the grub or grub-install tool from the command line. However you have to know how to identify your drives properly to grub, and it's a bit of an advanced topic.

There are plenty of how-to's on repairing or reconfiguring grub on the web, and it's not that hard but is a bit esoteric -- I can see how it could seem intimidating to the non-technical types. If you don't have a lot of customization or data created under your Ubuntu install (which I doubt since it sounds like you can't boot into Ubuntu), my suggestion would be to get the drive situation straightened out first, then attempt to reinstall Ubuntu from scratch. Make sure not to change the default Grub configuration.

I initially installed Ubuntu using the advanced settings option and went through the install process selecting what I wanted to install, and I chose Grub to be installed (instead of Lilo I think it was), but it never worked, so I reinstalled from scratch and just let it install via the Basic option.

I have three drives, my master XP drive which is a 10k Raptor (SATA), my 250GB storage drive (SATA) and then a 40GB IDEA drive which is what I tried to install Ubuntu on. Both my optical drives are IDE. I have two ports on my motherboard for IDE, one is used by both optical drives and the other is used only for the smaller 40GB drive (which has one end on the motherboard and the other end in the drive (with the middle input on the cable free)). Both optical drives are on their own IDE cable.

I have to leave for work just now but I'll check the jumper settings again when I get home (all drives are Western Digital btw).

Thanks dude, much appreciated. D

Installing from source is not that much of an issue. Here is a great thread explaining all the steps.

http//support.zenwalk.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=13069[]http//support.zenwalk.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=13069

It is in the Zenwalk forum, but the instructions are pretty much across the board for every distro. There is also plenty of info on how to install from source - Google is our own little miracle.

If you are having problems with graphics, videos, etc. Check this out

http//medibuntu.org/[]http//medibuntu.org/

There are several Windows/dvd codecs that are [i0182e72ecb]restricted[/i0182e72ecb] and not included in a regular libuntu distribution. Also, check out the restricted repositories that libuntu does offer.

If you are having problems installing libuntu, I recommend downloading the [b0182e72ecb]Alternate[/b0182e72ecb] install disc. I use a lot of older, low memory equipment, and always use the alternative install. Never had a problem. It's text based, but pretty cut and dry.

Having said all that, (and not trying to start any flame war ;) ), I wasn't very impressed with Ubuntu. I then tried Xubuntu, preferring the Xfce desktop over Gnome. After trying several Xfce-based distros, I finally settled with Zenwalk. Based loosely on Slackware, it's very simple and lightweight, as well as being very fast. I continue to try pretty much any distro that comes along and stirs my interest, and I look forward to the next release of libuntu.

Installing from source is, for the most part, not necessary anymore and is really a hindrance to widespread adoption of Linux by the less-technical masses.

I'm probably the biggest Linux geek on this forum. I've been using (and programming) Linux for, oh, about 12 years now. Started with Slackware (don't remember version) and then moved to RedHat v3. I still have a boxed copy of RH4 on the shelf right behind me. )

In those days, there were no repositories and automated package management like today, so I and most everybody else used to install from source. But now that the major distros have self-updating package management and very large package repositories, with automatic dependency handling, installing from source is an anachronism. I only install from source now if I need bleeding edge code that isn't in a repo, or if I need to tweak the code myself. I much prefer installing ready-made binaries from a repo, and wouldn't suggest that Linux beginners get in the habit of building/installing from source. Sure, it makes you feel all "geeky," but when your build breaks and you aren't a coder so you don't know why, and you're no longer notified of updates, and you have to manually track down dependencies to get a successful build, etc., it will sour your typical home user in a big hurry.

Regarding Ubuntu, I started liking it around 6.06 I think. I've used most of the major distros, but for the most part was a RH/Fedora bigot up until FC6, which I had major problems with. That's when I jumped ship to Ubuntu and loved it. I also like Kubuntu -- I was always a KDE fan over Gnome up until Gnome2, when KDE kinda felt old and slow. Now that KDE4 is out I may switch back, but so far my experiments with KDE4 have been a bit quirky -- I think it needs to bake a bit more.

Yes, for the point-and-click people coming from Windows to Linux there really is no more of a need for building from source, but if one does choose to build from source they should know the basics of it.

libuntu does offer quite a repository, but when you move away from the mainstream distros you may want something that you're current distro does not have in it's repository. Then you need to build it. That's when it does get fun. I've had builds go wrong, then you need to figure it out. That's what Linux, to me at least, is. It is very much more hands on than Windows will ever be. There is no 1-800 number in Linux, just forums; and asking questions. In my experience, the forums have been a lot more friendly than any 1-800 number has ever been.

I left Windows because I wanted to be more a part of what my computer was doing. That meant getting real friendly with CLI. Granted, I did not jump right in to doing more than I could handle; but when I was ready I started small and simple.

If I wanted to continue to point-and-click, I would have stayed with Windows. I want to do more, and slowly but surely, I'm learning. And if I can pass something along to a person new to Linux, that will help them [i9c374783bc]if[/i9c374783bc] they want to do something more, then to me that is something positive and well intended.

Anyone using the Hardy Heron beta yet?

I'm running a clean install of it now, seems pretty nice. Firefox 3 Beta 4 is cool too, except the fonts are HIDEOUS ( I'm not investing too much time into it though, because I imagine it will be fixed in either the final version of Hardy Heron, or FF3 (whichever one is causing the problem)

I'm running it on a spare machine I have, so I can beat up on it, and I don't have to worry too much if I decide to wipe everything and do another clean install.