New to Ubuntu and what to do?

[jquest68]

Hey gang, I'm new to this whole Ubuntu. My friend told me about this and I was curious. I'm on windows 7 and afraid to try ubuntu. But he mentioned that I can choose either OS for my laptop upon start up. Is this true? and what would be my best way of doing this?

this is what I've downloaded: Wubi, Ubuntu 9.10, virtual box. I haven't installed anything yet cause I don't know what to do. Can someone tell me whats the best way and or better yet tell me how to do it? thanks.

[phillw]

Hey gang, I'm new to this whole Ubuntu. My friend told me about this and I was curious. I'm on windows 7 and afraid to try ubuntu. But he mentioned that I can choose either OS for my laptop upon start up. Is this true? and what would be my best way of doing this?

this is what I've downloaded: Wubi, Ubuntu 9.10, virtual box. I haven't installed anything yet cause I don't know what to do. Can someone tell me whats the best way and or better yet tell me how to do it? thanks.

You should head over here --> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8390927 for the possible pit-falls of Win7 and ubuntu.

Regards,

Phill.

[MelDJ]

read the pocket guide. see: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1052065

[ed-koala]

Burn a Live CD of Ubuntu and try it out a bit first before doing anything.

Period.

[garvinrick4]

Ed Koala you just scared Hell out of New guy. " Burn a Live CD" with no explantions.
He probably thinks he will have a CD growing hair on it or something. Like the old
Frankenstein movies. It's Alive, It's Alive.


He just meant you download an .iso file of Ubuntu software to your desktop about
699 meg. Takes about 10 minutes or so. Then you choose the burn option when putting
it on to 10 cent CD. and have the CD boot first in your order in BIOS. They are usually
set that way by default. Then you can try out Ubuntu for yourself. The previous guys
gave you plenty of good reading material. Once you get hang of Linux it opens a new
world in computing. Just give it a fair chance and you will not regret.

Any file you download from Ubuntu's sites will be and .iso file. Just a file that can be turned
into Alive CD thats all, an image. Its Alive, It's Alive. Do not leave it out of it's jewel case at
night for any reason.

[jquest68]

thanks guys for all your input. I really want to try this but you mean to save the file on disk and then install it to my laptop? if so, would I be able to switch from windows 7 and ubuntu on start up?

it seems so difficult to install, so much information that I'm afraid to even attempt to install it. is that hard?

[MelDJ]

see: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation

and go through the pocket guide. it will be extremely helpful

[darkod]

You already have some links to read so I'm not gonna add more. Just this: Don't be scared, it's not difficult at all.
Yes, there is quite a bit of information to read but you should NOT start installing a whole new OS without reading some basic information first. Not in my opinion anyway.
Yes, there are things to learn, but it's like that with any OS/software. When you started using windows for the first time you knew how to do everything? :)
Read the tutorials, if you have specific questions there are plenty people here willing to help you, as you already saw.

[jquest68]

thanks again for all your help. I will read a bit more before installing Ubuntu. good to see that theres a site that can help. thanks again. will come back tonight to check up on some more info.

[99DC]

When I wanted to try ubuntu I bought a new 120gb hardrive for £35 and installed it on there.

This means I can get used to it, find any glitches, see if I can set it up how I want.

I have had ubuntu installed and I have three quite major problems:

My media player attached to my tv won't read linux files (no matter how hard I try)

My printer doesn't have drivers available

I'm missing adobe illustrator

I'm trying to find solutions to these but I feel safe I can just swap the hardrive and start from where I left off with vista

[darkod]

I can't help with first two, but for Illustrator have you tried Wine? Not sure if it's supported and how good it works, but check www.winehq.org (http://www.winehq.org)

Also the printer driver shouldn't be a problem, but I guess you already googled around for solution.

[garvinrick4]

It installs it in a folder just like an application in Windows. No more than that. It has an
uninstall and everything. Just like an Application. Are you afraid to download Adobe Flashplayer in Windows. It is no more as hard or no less.

[jquest68]

ok, I want to load it in my computer, which one should I load if I have windows 7? there are so many versions out there.

[garvinrick4]

9.10 is very stable and I have one box with a Wubi install there. You should be happy with it.

Look your way around for abit in the program after install. Here is first thing to install.

ubuntu-restricted-extras

That will get flashplayer working and mplayer and nice fonts installed.

When you need assistance post a thread and people will help.
I will look on this one once a day to see if you posted.

[jquest68]

9.10 is very stable and I have one box with a Wubi install there. You should be happy with it.

Look your way around for abit in the program after install. Here is first thing to install.

ubuntu-restricted-extras

That will get flashplayer working and mplayer and nice fonts installed.

When you need assistance post a thread and people will help.
I will look on this one once a day to see if you posted.

thank you so much for all your help. I will be testing this out tonight.

[jquest68]

Hey gang, I managed to install ubuntu, looks great. The only thing is that I can't get on the internet. I'm sending this message from my iPod touch. What did I do wrong or didn't do?

[jquest68]

I don't know what I did wrong but I don't have Internet connection and I don't see mw windows 7 option when it boots up. Oh man, what did I do? Please help someone

[darkod]

No windows option is not a problem, but having no internet is. You need it to do some tests and post back.
If you can manage somehow to get on the internet booting with ubuntu cd and selecting Try Ubuntu option, then download the script in my signature, put it on the desktop for example, and run it in terminal with:
sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

It will create results.txt file. Copy the content of that file here and put CODE tags around it (hit # button in the toolbar above), it will make it easier to read.

[jquest68]

No windows option is not a problem, but having no internet is. You need it to do some tests and post back.
If you can manage somehow to get on the internet booting with ubuntu cd and selecting Try Ubuntu option, then download the script in my signature, put it on the desktop for example, and run it in terminal with:
sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

It will create results.txt file. Copy the content of that file here and put CODE tags around it (hit # button in the toolbar above), it will make it easier to read.

Thank you so much in at work but when get home I will try this and I'll let you know how its going.

[jquest68]

I am kicking myself for this...I can't get Internet access nor can get back windows 7. I am totally screwed. What can I do from here? I'm going to try wiring my laptop to my router and see if i can get internet, but I think I lost windows.

[Bartender]

Let's see if Windows is really gone or still there but you can't get to it. Toss your Ubuntu LiveCD in the optical drive and boot from it. Choose "Run Ubuntu without making any changes". When you get to the desktop, go to System>Administration>Gparted. It should give you a map of the partitions. If there's more than one drive involved, even a thumb drive plugged in, you can scroll thru the drives by clicking in the little box upper right.
Your main HDD should be "sda". Do you see an NTFS partition?

[darkod]

Do what Bartender said, and if you plug ethernet cable ubuntu liveCD most likely will give you internet access. You can check things and post right away, directly from ubuntu liveCD.

[jquest68]

thanks for all your help, well, I managed to re-install 9.10 and updated all updates and drivers. Everything is running great. It was giving me problems installing drivers because there was one that would freeze my laptop, so this time around I didn't install that one and used the "recommended" one (its the graphics card that gave me problems).

I'm wireless, but I know for sure that I lost my windows 7 but thats all right. when I set up 9.10 and went to the partition page it only read the old 9.10 and the new 9.10. Its all right though.

I lost all my desktop files and programs in windows 7, question can I install photoshop cs3?

[Bartender]

can I install photoshop cs3?

The quick answer is "No". Photoshop is written for Windows.

Google "WINE Photoshop" to see what people are saying about running Photoshop under WINE. You can also go straight to "WINE HQ" and look for reports on Photoshop.

Did you burn your recovery discs before wiping out Win7? If not, you can contact the manufacturer. Usually they'll ship you a copy of the recovery DVD or DVD's for a reasonable fee.

[jquest68]

The quick answer is "No". Photoshop is written for Windows.

Google "WINE Photoshop" to see what people are saying about running Photoshop under WINE. You can also go straight to "WINE HQ" and look for reports on Photoshop.

Did you burn your recovery discs before wiping out Win7? If not, you can contact the manufacturer. Usually they'll ship you a copy of the recovery DVD or DVD's for a reasonable fee.

thanks I'll do that because I didn't burn any recovery discs. Since I don't have a copy of Win 7 and planning on buying it, if I install it to my laptop do I set it up the same way as Ubuntu, meaning with the partition or would I have to wipe out ubuntu and load win 7 and then install the liveCD and do the whole partitioning set up?

I appreciate your help, thanks.