Installing Ubuntu in a dual-boot configuration

I’ve installed Ubuntu several times on various machines in a dual-boot format, but I’ve never blogged about it. In all cases, it’s been with Windows on the first partition (mostly with XP, but also once with Vista on a new machine), so I’ll use that as my example here.

First things first. Get Windows ready. This usually includes defragmenting to get all your files at the beginning of the partition. That’s pretty much it.

Next, get the install CD (from Ubuntu or your favorite distribution).

Boot into the installation CD. Ubuntu comes with a partition editor (GParted) on the CD, which you’ll need soon.

Resize your Windows partition in order to leave enough space for (a) the linux system itself, (b) a swap partition if your RAM isn’t plentiful, and (c) any other shared partitions you may want to make:

• (a) In the case of Ubuntu, the minimum hard drive space required is 4 GB, although in my experience at least 10-15 GB is better. This partition will probably be of type ext4 (at least, it is in the latest version of Ubuntu)
• (b) Depending on how much RAM you have and how much hard disk space is available, you may want to add a swap partition. This is a sort of paging file used to swap out segments of the RAM that aren’t used very often, freeing up memory for more active applications. On my old machine, which has 512 MB RAM, I added a 1 GB swap partition. On my current machine with 4 GB RAM, I don’t have any swap space at all and everything runs fine. It’s up to you.
• (c) If you want to be able to share files between Windows and linux (and haven’t yet converted to a cooler solution like Dropbox), it might be wise to make a FAT32 partition that can be read by both operating systems. Make this one however large you need.

Be sure to tell the partition editor that you’re going to want to put the root file system (/) on your ext4 partition, and ensure that your swap partition (if you made one) is correctly identified as such.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re almost done. Now run the installer and let it work its magic.

Ubuntu’s always installed GRUB without a hitch. But if you do run into trouble, this documentation from Ubuntu is a good place to look.

Congratulations, and welcome to linux!

Microsoft patent infringements and Linux

The latest buzz in the Linux forums deals with Microsoft’s claims on patent infringements. Novell made a deal with Microsoft last year dealing with interoperability between Linux and Windows. Word has it that Red Hat is now following suit, despite previous resistance, and making plans to talk to Microsoft.The part that baffles me is how Microsoft is claiming that open-source software is infringing on its patent rights, even though it may be that Microsoft has violated some open-source patents.

Now it seems the Free Software Foundation has made a blunder with the new GPLv3. It makes me wonder if the open-source community will leave the FSF in the dust or if they will submit to the new terms. Linus Torvalds, at least, has said that they don’t anticipate moving the Linux kernel to the new GPL.

What a mess.

On the brighter side, Apple’s stock is skyrocketing since the iPhone came out last week.

Vim and how to write a worm

Being the computer geek I am, I found a few articles that are intriguing to the geeky mind.

On July 26, 1989, Robert Morris, a student at Cornell, was indicted for releasing the Morris worm. This computer worm, one of the first ever created, played on several UNIX security vulnerabilities and infected thousands of computers once it was released. I found an article by University of Utah professor Donn Seeley, which describes how the worm was built. It was a fascinating read.

I also came across a few articles on Vim, my favorite command-line text editor. It can do amazing things. This website discusses using Vim efficiently, working with multiple files, and customizing the vimrc file. I’m putting these links here mostly for my own benefit, but perhaps someone out there shares my love for Vim…

Xfce desktop environment

I started using the Xfce desktop environment under Ubuntu the other day and have loved it so far. GNOME is a bit too heavyweight for me, so I’ve been using Fluxbox for a few months. It’s lightning fast and really slick, but there’s no eye candy whatsoever.

So the other day I decided to download Xfce and try it out. It looks quite similar to GNOME but runs a lot faster. It’s much easier to customize than fluxbox and it supports my keyboard metakeys much better. Plus the eye candy is great without taking too much toll on the speed. I really like the themes, too. (There are even some windows-esque ones.) And everything runs just as well or better under Xfce as it did under fluxbox.

Another cool feature is the ability to create multiple “sessions” or startup profiles. You can set Xfce to prompt you for which session you want when you log in. So I can create one for play, one for work, and one with nothing special.

So there you have some ramblings about the wonders of Xfce.

Ubuntu Studio

I helped my friend install Ubuntu Studio on his laptop yesterday and today. It’s pretty cool, I must say. Being a huge linux fan, I’m really excited for him. Ubuntu Studio has a ton of open-source multimedia authoring and editing software. And a really sweet theme (pictured at right).

We ran into some issues while installing but were able to resolve them fairly easily. Here’s a summary and some tips for anyone that may be having the same problems:

• He first installed 6.06 because that was the only CD version he had. Since it was a fresh install, he didn’t have any trouble upgrading to 6.10 and then to 7.04 (besides a slow connection).
• Once the full 7.04 system was installed, we followed the instructions on The Ubustu Feed to install the Ubuntu Studio packages on top. We had to make sure the “universe” repository was selected, as we were getting “<package name> is not installable” messages.
• His screen resolution was less than optimal (1024×768 on a widescreen laptop made for 1280×800). But he has an Intel graphics card, so we resolved it using the 915resolution package and these instructions.