Ubuntu Install

I'm trying to install Ubuntu from a CD i burned but when it loads and i hit install it hangs up on the "loading Linux kernel" when it hits 100%. Should I just try to reburn the image and try over?

 

Reburn it at a slower speed, ONLY on a CD-R disc.

 

First run a test for the media. It should be in the same menu as booting Ubuntu.

 

yeah, flaky burn I think...I've had that happen

 

Ok, I got it. I just reburned it at a slower speed.

So when I'm installing Ubuntu how should I partition it? I have 2 partitions right now. One for XP and another for Files and such.

 

you want at / (for system files), /home (for all your personal files, etc) and a /swap. All separate partitions. That's the way most of us do it. Put as much to the /home as possible, at least a gig to /swap, and you'll need at least 7-8 gigs for the /.

I have mine / (18 gigs), /home (80 gigs), and /swap (2 gigs)

 

For an easy and regular partition setup just make a "/" partition for your files and install and a "swap" for your "pagefile". You might want to try the "/home" partition setup described already though.

 

OH NOES!
YOU HAVE MORE SPACE FOR VISTA?!?!?!?!
WTF?!?!?
[/end_rant]

 

Do I need to setup a /home when I already have a partition on my HDD for files?

 

Not really, if it's NTFS then you should be fine. Otherwise you need a /home partition. You might have to manually mount it every time you want files from it though.

 

I'd recommend it. It'll allow you to do a clean install of the next version of Ubuntu without backing up any of your files on your Linux partitions. You can just remount your /home partition in the new install, and all your application settings will still be there (eg your desktop wallpaper and Firefox addons/bookmarks will still be there).

 

I dont know how dated this info is, but you should satisfy this equation when deciding how much swap space you want "swap + RAM = 1GB" (if you have more than 1GB of RAM then you dont need swap). Maybe if someone else could validate this, i been away from this for a few months.

Personally, i dont use swap space at all.

and i would recommend mounting the partition you have for your files as the /home one, no sense in having two partitions for the same reason.

 

Soooo i'll be installing my programs on the /home partition?

ahhh i'm reading so many different things on what to do. My head hurts

 

Good to know. Somewhere I read it should be double the RAM.

 

No, the programs are installed in the root partition, at least if you use the built-in package manager. But all your settings for each program are stored independently, in your home directory. For example, the Firefox settings are in ~/.mozilla/firefox. When you install any program, it looks to see if that directory already exists. If so, it just uses the settings there. Otherwise, it creates the directory and places the default settings in there. So if you do a clean install of Ubuntu 8.10 when it is released and don't format your home partition, any software you previously used will use the settings there.

Reinstalling programs after a clean install isn't difficult to do though. Keep a list of all the programs you install on Hardy, and when you install Intrepid Ibex, you can use the terminal to install everything again with one command. What takes a lot of time is configuring all the programs with the settings you want, but having a separate home partition allows you to avoid that.

That's not correct. 1 GB RAM is not going to be enough in many cases. I'd suggest going with 4 GB combined, but that's just an arbitrary number I chose.

That's what used to be recommended. It's not really accurate anymore with how much RAM most new computers have. On Linux swapping isn't usually going to be necessary (though it probably is in Vista).

 

Ok, so programs in the root directory, and settings in the /home directory.

So when I'm partition my HDD again it should look something like this when I finish: / /home, Swap (do I need this with 2gb of ram), C: (XP), F: (files)

 

I think you understood what you were told but what you were told overlooked an important piece of information. Per-user settings are normally stored in "/home/<login>" (where login is the login name of a user). But system-wide settings are stored in /etc. Under most partitioning schemes /etc is on your root partition so when you wipe your root partition, you wipe your system-wide settings. Not a good deal. I backup all of the files I modify in /etc/ and even some I don't modify myself like /etc/X11/xorg.conf. It helps with upgrades and when I have to reinstall for some reason.

And as mentioned by others it is in general a good idea to have your root partition be separate from your home.

 

i wouldnt use swap, i have 2gb of RAM and my ram usage never goes above 1gb so you should be ok without swap.

personally, here is what i would use:

/
/home (you can use the file partition for both operating systems, if you format it as ntfs windows can read it and so can linux. This eliminates the problem of transferring files between operating systems if you need them in both. All you need to do is mount it as /home in linux when you install)
C: (XP)

make sure you always backup your data before doing some partitioning (especially if it is your first time)

 

Yeah I think that's the way I did it a couple of yrs ago when I used Ubuntu.

 

I've got 3gb ram, and have seen swap usage on very large file transfers from my External HD, such as my 14 gig XP virtual harddrive....I don't think I'd go without one

 

/ is like your C:\Windows. All your OS files and stuff goes into here, only this time all the programs that went into C:\Program File goes into / as well.

/home is like your C:\Documents and Settings, all your movies, documents, music, program settings, etc goes into here.

when I did my install, I put
sda1 / ext3 10gb
sda2 /swap 2gb (because my RAM is 2gb. If you want to use hibernation support, have swap the same size (or larger) than your physical RAM)
sda3 /home ext3 [rest of the HD space]

The main reason for having a separate /home partition is so that if something goes wrong with your /, or if you want to upgrade or change distros, you can reinstall Linux without having to re-copy all your stuff into /home again. You don't have to touch it. Everything will reintegrate itself with the OS

/home is actually within / itself. (/ is called "root" for a reason )