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snirk16
December 22nd, 2012, 09:40 AM
hello

I received an 1600MHz atom netbook with 1024MB of RAM.
I tried lubuntu on a DoK and it seems to work fine out of the box.

I would like to install lubuntu on the hard drive but without risking the winXP and the SmartON (LG's quick boot option, based on splashtop).

Is the preformence penalty when using wubi significant? its seems to me like the easiest option to install lubuntu without messing around with partitions.

1. Are there any other ways to install lubuntu while ensuring both winXP and smartON unharmed?
2. Is there another ubuntu variant you guys recommend for a net book? (leaner then lubuntu)

sudodus
December 22nd, 2012, 11:03 AM
Welcome to the Ubuntu Forums :-)

I think that it is a good idea to install Lubuntu. The question is how to do it.

Wubi is primarily for testing without touching the present installation, except that a big file is created, with the linux file system inside it. But such a file system is not as stable as an ordinary file system in a partition.

The wubi installation is fairly fast, that is not a problem, and you can test Lubuntu for a while. But when you really want to use it a lot and in the future let it be your main operating system, I suggest that you migrate your wubi install to a regular one.

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

When you edit the partitions in order to make room for a regular installation alongside Windows, a dual boot system, you should start by backing up your whole drive or at least make a rescue disk for Windows and backup your personal files, documents, pictures etc. It is usually safe, and nothing happens to Windows, but things can go wrong, the risk is not zero.

I don't know anything about SmartON.

snirk16
December 22nd, 2012, 03:30 PM
Thank you,

Actually I'm returning to ubuntu after a few years.
So a proper install it is...

The smartON is basically a small linux disro. which boots up very fast (few seconds) and lets you conncet to the web, play to music/videos and so on.
Its a nice function I'd like to keep.

I have three partitions:

Recovery 4.3GB (don't think its smartON)
~50GB winXP
~100GB user data


What will be the best strategy to re-partition the drive?

sudodus
December 22nd, 2012, 03:54 PM
So welcome back to ubuntu :-)

SmartON sits somewhere. Can you find out where? Does it have a grub or lilo boot system? Is it inside Windows's file system (like Wubi)?

You tried lubuntu on a DoK and it seems to work fine out of the box. Is that a USB flash drive? Please boot like that again and run the following terminal commands

sudo fdisk -lu
Mount your partitions (for example using the file browser) and run

df
and post the output in a reply. It will make it easier to give good advice.

Without that information I would suggest that you take part of your data partition, at least 8 GB, but I suggest around 20 GB for Lubuntu. This can be done with gparted (included in the live Lubuntu CD/USB system).

Make a swap partition of the same size as (or a little bigger than) the RAM, say 1280 MB. The rest of the freed space can be used for the linux root partition /.

But before you start with any partitioning:
1. Try to find where SmartON is stored!
2. Backup your drive or at least you should make a recovery disk for Windows and backup your personal data.

snirk16
December 22nd, 2012, 07:31 PM
smartON sits in the winXP partition, I found it there in an hidden directory.
Don't know about lilo/grub, but I don't think there is. I believe its being booted in the bios/MB level - with a dedicated physical button.

Of course I'll back up everything! I'm not worried about the data, I'm only worried about loosing usability (XP, smartON, recovery partition, etc.)

BRB with the terminal output you asked

snirk16
December 22nd, 2012, 08:11 PM
here are the terminal outputs you asked for:

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/cow 507864 36240 471624 8% /
udev 499280 4 499276 1% /dev
tmpfs 203148 804 202344 1% /run
/dev/sdb 983792 732624 251168 75% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 653952 653952 0 100% /rofs
tmpfs 507864 4 507860 1% /tmp
none 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
none 507864 132 507732 1% /run/shm
none 102400 12 102388 1% /run/user
/dev/sda1 4194300 2574328 1619972 62% /media/lubuntu/RECOVERY
/dev/sda2 52428796 28802028 23626768 55% /media/lubuntu/FA9E21799E213015
/dev/sda3 99664892 2451824 97213068 3% /media/lubuntu/184C25284C25025C




Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xce7d3b87

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 8390655 4194304 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda2 * 8390656 113248255 52428800 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 113248256 312578047 99664896 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdb: 1007 MB, 1007681536 bytes
31 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1024 cylinders, total 1968128 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0009e87d

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 ? 3223366752 3470046675 123339962 f4 SpeedStor
/dev/sdb2 ? 378192737 710426324 166116794 10 OPUS
/dev/sdb3 ? 225603442 225603451 5 74 Unknown

Partition table entries are not in disk order

sudodus
December 22nd, 2012, 09:53 PM
here are the terminal outputs you asked for:

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
...
/dev/sda1 4194300 2574328 1619972 62% /media/lubuntu/RECOVERY
/dev/sda2 52428796 28802028 23626768 55% /media/lubuntu/FA9E21799E213015
/dev/sda3 99664892 2451824 97213068 3% /media/lubuntu/184C25284C25025C




Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xce7d3b87

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 8390655 4194304 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda2 * 8390656 113248255 52428800 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 113248256 312578047 99664896 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
...

This looks good.

- Only 3 primary partitions, which means that you can make an extended partition without deleting any of the existing ones.

- An almost empty data partition, that you can shrink and make space for Lubuntu. So you can get 20GB or even 30GB for Lubuntu. Sometimes it is good to have some extra space on the root partition, for example when large temporary files are created.

Many people recommend that you use Windows's own tool to shrink an NTFS partition. It works well also with gparted, but maybe it is safer to treat Microsoft stuff with Microsoft tools, and then, when there is free space, start using gparted from the Lubuntu install drive.

So create an extended partition of the free space. Inside the extended partition, create a swap partition of 1280 MB or 2 GB (depending on your habits to fill memory). And use the rest for an ext4 partition, which should be used as the root file system of Lubuntu.

Finally start the installation and at the partitioning page, select 'Something else' and use the ext4 partition for the root file system. It will find the swap partition automatically, and also find automatically where to put grub (into the mbr area of the only HDD of the netboot).

Good luck :-)

oldfred
December 22nd, 2012, 10:04 PM
I know nothing about Smart-on. But all BIOS based computers boot from BIOS to MBR which then loads more boot code from where ever MBR sends it.
Your Smart-on may be a customized BIOS. It is easy to reinstall a standard Windows boot loader but if your BIOS is customized then you may want to back that up separately just to be safe.

normally I consider it easier just to reinstall grub or a Windows boot loader but use this to back up MBR.
Backup MBR
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot#Master%20Boot%20Record%20backup%20 and%20re-replacement
Backup the MBR e.g.
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=mbr.bin bs=446 count=1


Then mbr.bin is a copy of you MBR.

snirk16
December 24th, 2012, 04:04 PM
This looks good.

- Only 3 primary partitions, which means that you can make an extended partition without deleting any of the existing ones.

- An almost empty data partition, that you can shrink and make space for Lubuntu. So you can get 20GB or even 30GB for Lubuntu. Sometimes it is good to have some extra space on the root partition, for example when large temporary files are created.

Many people recommend that you use Windows's own tool to shrink an NTFS partition. It works well also with gparted, but maybe it is safer to treat Microsoft stuff with Microsoft tools, and then, when there is free space, start using gparted from the Lubuntu install drive.

So create an extended partition of the free space. Inside the extended partition, create a swap partition of 1280 MB or 2 GB (depending on your habits to fill memory). And use the rest for an ext4 partition, which should be used as the root file system of Lubuntu.

Finally start the installation and at the partitioning page, select 'Something else' and use the ext4 partition for the root file system. It will find the swap partition automatically, and also find automatically where to put grub (into the mbr area of the only HDD of the netboot).

Good luck :-)

Everything is backed up (thanks for the MBR backup tip, oldfred) and I'm ready to partition.
Let me just make sure I got it right.
In the end state there are 5 partitions:
recovery
winXP
shrinked ntfs data
linux swap
ext4 for lubuntu

Or the data partition is being devided to swap and ext4 partitions? (recovery, winXP, swap+ext4 inside the old NTFS data partition)

as you can see I don't no much about partitioning...

oldfred
December 24th, 2012, 04:35 PM
LInux has to use Linux formatted partition, and does not work from Windows formats (except wubi).
You will also see an extended partition. MBR(msdos) partitioning only allows 4 primary partitions. But one primary can become an extended which is just a container for many logical partitions.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
GParted partitioning software - Full tutorial
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

Error in below - you cannot make /home NTFS and should not share /home with other installs. Use another NTFS data partition if sharing data with Windows.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DualBoot/Partitions

snirk16
December 25th, 2012, 09:47 PM
Thanks a lot guy!

I decided to split the large data partition to swap an ext4.
WinXP and SmartON are working fine and so is Lubunto.

oldfred
December 25th, 2012, 11:59 PM
Glad you got it working. :)

sudodus
December 26th, 2012, 07:04 PM
Congratulations to a good job snirk16 :-)