Step by step..?

punk_one82

I want to install either Ubuntu or SuSe on my laptop thats running vista. Can anyone give me a step by step guide as to what I'm supposed to do? eg.Disk partitioning etc..
Help would be greatly appreciated.

An Fear Aniar

I recommend Ubuntu. I tried Suse and didn't like the package manager much. Ubuntu's much more the ticket for someone new to Linux.

Take a look at this:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installing

The latest version, Intrepid Ibex will have some slight differences but its basically the same as the Hardy installer.

It's nice guide. Make sure to back up anything you don't want to risk losing, pictures of your cat, that kind of thing.

If you really don't want to partition, you could try the Wubi installer, maybe a safer option until you're more comfortable.

http://wubi-installer.org/



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punk_one82

I think that I want to get SuSe though because I'm used to using it as it's on the lab computers in college. I tried to download to ISO images tonight from the suse website but I couldnt get the download to work.(pictures of my cat are top priority btw )

ethernet

They're all great!

You can download the openSUSE DVD here. It has more packages than the CD that you might well end up installing. It also gives you the choice of KDE 3.5, KDE 4 or Gnome. Gnome is the default in Ubuntu, Debian and many other distros. I prefer KDE myself but you can always change between them anyway.

When it's downloaded, burn it to DVD (not as you would a normal file, however). See here. The installer should give you the option to resize your Windows partition but post if you've any questions.

punk_one82

Cheers for all the help lads.I succesfully installed openSuse11 today and now I'm sorta stuck as to how to get the internet working and how I set up dual-booting so I have the option of Vista or openSuse whenever I turn on the laptop. How do I go about doing this?

An Fear Aniar

punk_one82 wrote: »

Cheers for all the help lads.I succesfully installed openSuse11 today and now I'm sorta stuck as to how to get the internet working and how I set up dual-booting so I have the option of Vista or openSuse whenever I turn on the laptop. How do I go about doing this?

When you installed Suse it should have set up a GRUB boot menu for you, givng the options.

Go into Suse and look at this file:

/boot/grub/menu.lst

Copy and paste the contents here so we can have a look at it.

To boot into Windows you should have an entry something like this:

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

If your internet connection is DHCP then you should connect automatically through an ethernet cable. How you connecting to the interweb?


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punk_one82

Hey, I got the dual-boot working. I can't connect to the wireless internet at home, but I'm using an ethernet cable in college and I can connect fine now. Now I need help with downloading a java compiler. I'm not exactly sure what I need tbh. Once again, help would be greatly appreciated.

ethernet

punk_one82 wrote: »

Hey, I got the dual-boot working. I can't connect to the wireless internet at home, but I'm using an ethernet cable in college and I can connect fine now. Now I need help with downloading a java compiler. I'm not exactly sure what I need tbh. Once again, help would be greatly appreciated.

What model laptop do you have? More importantly, what chipset is your wireless card using? If there's no native support for it in the kernel, you can use ndiswrapper and the Windows driver file (whatever.inf) to get it working.

Regarding Java, open up YaST, enter your password, open Software Management from the side and choose the option to launch the package manager. Search for Java and install the ones prefixed by 'Sun' if you want the real deal. Or go to install Eclipse and it should pull the dependencies for you.

civis_liberalis

Hi guys, I'm attempting to dual-boot Ubuntu with linux also and am having some probs.

I'm using this tutorial here http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm?page=2

The problem that I have is that on that page of the tutorial, there is a fairly big discrepancy between their figure and mine(see image below). Maybe it makes no difference but, with my limited knowledge of the inner workings of OSes and partitioning, my best guess is that the 1082 MB that comes up on my Disk Management by default would not allow me to install Ubuntu? 1082mb seems a bit on the small side. Then again, it could have nothing to do with it?

ethernet

That's not enough space for an install. You'll need a good 5-10 GB at least.

Edit: if partitioning is a big problem, you might like to install Ubuntu using Wubi. Ubuntu will appear as a program under Windows and you won't need to partition as the entire OS will run off a single file in your Windows partition.

Tillotson

civis_liberalis wrote: »

Hi guys, I'm attempting to dual-boot Ubuntu with linux also and am having some probs.

I'm using this tutorial here http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm?page=2

The problem that I have is that on that page of the tutorial, there is a fairly big discrepancy between their figure and mine(see image below). Maybe it makes no difference but, with my limited knowledge of the inner workings of OSes and partitioning, my best guess is that the 1082 MB that comes up on my Disk Management by default would not allow me to install Ubuntu? 1082mb seems a bit on the small side. Then again, it could have nothing to do with it?

Problem is that vista installs the master page file near the end of the disk making it impossible to shrink from within vista
Guide for getting around this: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/working-around-windows-vistas-shrink-volume-inadequacy-problems/

punk_one82

ethernet wrote: »

What model laptop do you have? More importantly, what chipset is your wireless card using? If there's no native support for it in the kernel, you can use ndiswrapper and the Windows driver file (whatever.inf) to get it working.

Regarding Java, open up YaST, enter your password, open Software Management from the side and choose the option to launch the package manager. Search for Java and install the ones prefixed by 'Sun' if you want the real deal. Or go to install Eclipse and it should pull the dependencies for you.

My laptop is a Medion Akoya, and I think the wireless card is 802.11n Wireless LAN card. I'm not really sure what to do from here.