Backup! - Page 2

spud42 · 09-09-08, 10:10 PM

yep. give ubuntu a go. a mostly painless install and a very helpful community on the ubuntu forums.....

**breley** · 09-09-08, 10:25 PM

I concur with DaLabrador and Spud42. I've tried Redhat, but liked SuSE linux best, and on my old laptop used to dual-boot into it frequently...it ran like a champ compared to XP on same system, but I'd recommend Ubuntu as well. I tend to prefer the KDE desktop GUI to Gnome, which is what Ubuntu defaults to, but am quite comfortable with Gnome.

I haven't used OpenOffice as heavily as Microsoft Office due to my workplace using Microsoft, but it's a fine piece of office product, I highly recommend it, even on Windows. Evolution was very good for POP3 email, and I hadn't tried it with IMAP or MAPI.

You know what, I've got a 150GB drive in my system that's just blank, so for kicks I'm going to put Ubuntu on it and see how it plays with my wireless-N card. It should play nice with my Vista Ultimate default install on the other drive(s).
If you don't hear back from me tomorrow you'll know it didn't....

spud42 · 09-10-08, 12:36 AM

yes , in the past i have also tried redhat but found ubuntu to be easier for a newbie to try. install is easier. i have ubuntu 8.04 i386 version on my dell laptop with XP sp2 as the default system due to work requirements.bu t when i get my new pc setup in my soon to be finished home office.. i will be triple booting at first XP VIsta 64 bit and ubuntu 64bit

**radimus** · 09-10-08, 06:58 AM

here it is... wow it is 2 years old.

May need some updating :-)

Yet another PC freeware program thread

**breley** · 09-10-08, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by breley

You know what, I've got a 150GB drive in my system that's just blank, so for kicks I'm going to put Ubuntu on it and see how it plays with my wireless-N card. It should play nice with my Vista Ultimate default install on the other drive(s).
If you don't hear back from me tomorrow you'll know it didn't....

Hm, well I might have to try the ndiswrapper app in Ubuntu to "borrow" the Windows drivers for my Linksys WMP300N wireless adapter.

Oh well...
And hey, the Large Hadron Collider didn't annihilate the earth, so I should be able to grab the updates today too. :yeah:

Jogga · 09-10-08, 09:15 AM

I’ve decided to document the process (and my progress) of loading Ubuntu onto my old DELL Dimension. There’s a couple of reasons that I felt that this would be useful:

It gives me a history that can be used for auditing purposes (if things don’t go as expected).
It allows the experts here at Aximsite/Mobilitysite to view my progress and (hopefully) give me some hints and tips as I start my journey into open source.
Other users considering a similar project can learn from my efforts and (hopefully) avoid any faux pas I might make.

Equipment

I’ve started with my old DELL Dimension 8400 which I trashed a week ago. The local repair shop is installing a new 160GB hdd for around £85.00. I consider the rest of the PC to be a sunk cost. Most of us will have old pc lying around I’m sure and some of you really clever people will know how to install Ubuntu and use your existing equipment as a dual boot environment. Unfortunately, I’m not that clever, but luckily I do have a spare computer. :)

My intention is to network the PC in order to make use of existing shares such as a network drive (1TB) and my printer/scanner.

Although I’m not expecting the PC back from the repair shop until Friday or Saturday, I thought that I could start some of the preparatory work in anticipation of the big day.

Downloading Ubuntu

This is simplicity itself: you can download the latest version of the OS from here or access it from the Ubuntu homepage and follow the links. If you’re using Firefox as your browser the download is saved in the download folder; if you’re using something else, I recommend saving the file in a folder on your desktop.

The download is 694mb and took me around thirteen minutes to download via my broadband connection. If you don’t have a broadband connection or have download limits with your ISP, you can buy the OS from Amazon ($12.99), Ubuntu or Kubuntu.

Checking the Integrity of the Download

This step checks the download for errors and provides some comfort that you have downloaded the correct software. Ubuntu recommends (in fact they highly recommend, but I couldn’t bring myself to use the adverb

) that you check the integrity of the Ubuntu OS download before you burn it to a install disk. For this, you’ll need winMD5Sum. You can download the sum checking software here.

Once you’ve installed windMD5Sum, it’s a simple matter to check the integrity of the download (Using Windows Vista):

Locate your Ubuntu download file
Right click the file
Select Send to and then the winMD5Sum option
Let the software run its check on the downloaded file
Now you need to check that the hash created (the long string of alpha-numeric characters) corresponds to the official Ubuntu release. You can find the official Ubuntu hash here: locate your version number (right column) and then copy the md5 hash (left column).
Paste the md5 hash into the Compare text box in the winMD5Sum software dialogue box and click “Compare”.
Hopefully, Windows gives you a confirmation message that the two hash numbers are the same

For a better description of the process, you can visit the Ubuntu reference page, here.

If you get the OK message, the next step is to burn your OS disk. If not, check that you have selected the correct version number.

Burning Your OS Disk

First you’ll need to install either Infra Recorder or ISO Recorder in order to burn the image file to CD. You will also need a blank, unformatted CD. If you want to burn to a DVD, you will need to install ISO Recorder.

I went with ISO Recorder (simply because the process had fewer steps!) and, if you follow my example, you’ll need to know whether you want the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the burner. To determine which version of Windows you are running, you can go to the Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB827218.

Whichever burner you choose, instructions on how to use the burner to create the image CD can be viewed here. Make sure that you select a slow burning speed to maximise the quality of the burning process.

I guess that the next instalment will be when I load Ubuntu onto the new hdd – I’m hoping that will be at the weekend. Feel free to pass comment or observations; after all, it's still not too late to reload XP

DaLabrador · 09-10-08, 07:58 PM

This might be too late but I usually dual boot (Only for games, since vmware and/or wine can cover the rest of my windows needs). The following information is a tad bit old. I don't use Vista and linux installation procedures have evolved since the last time I needed it.

The easiness of creating a dual-boot system sadly depends on how old your computer is (then you'll need to partition it a bit more complicated or dual boot with windows' boot loader, and that's not just click-and-go), and I don't know if your computer is too old(I believe it depends on BIOS).
Anyhow:
* What you need to do is partition the hd into one (primary) partition for windows and the rest can be left unallocated. The hardest part of this is choosing how much space your windows partition ought to have (especially if you're into games). The tools to do this can be found on a linux live cd (the ubuntu install cd is a decent choice

) (fdisk is powerful but takes a bit of learning). I don't remember if windows installs give you partitioning freedom, since financial security through obscurity has been a winner for MS in some cases.

* Install windows on the primary partition you created above.

* Install linux. When it comes to the partitioning part of the install process it will ask you if you want to keep your windows install (you should install linux in the unallocated space on the hd anyways), and when you boot you'll get a choice between booting linux or windows.

Linux can use files on the windows partition and vice versa.

If your BIOS(?) is too old and you want to create a moderately large windows partition you need to create another partition "in front of" the windows one which will be used as the "boot" partition for linux(need to be setup when you install linux aswell), because older BIOSes(?) can't jump from its own execution to addresses higher than a certain level(made for small harddrives/single boot systems).

OR...
THE FOLLOWING WORKS FOR XP! >>>
You can let the windows bootloader boot linux (which seems a bit strange) like this(linux is installed and bootable):
* In linux: start a shell, type:
dd if=/dev/hda2 of=bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
(hda2 if your linux partition (the root or the boot(if you've got a boot partition)) is in the SECOND partition of your HD. hda1 if it's the first)
* Copy the file bootsect.lnx to a floppy or directly to your windows root folder.
* boot your windows XP install cd and start the recovery console
* type the commands 'fixmbr' and 'fixboot'. Only one of them is needed, but I can't remember which one. Be advised that some people warns about running one of them, but I've never had any trouble running both.
* reboot into xp
* edit boot.ini in the windows root folder by adding:
C:\bootsect.lnx="Ubuntu"
as the last row. To boot ubuntu default instead of windows change default to:
default=C:\bootsect.lnx

THE FOLLOWING WORKS FOR VISTA! >>>
* Get EasyBCD for configuring the equivalent of boot.ini.

HOWEVER nowadays linux install CDs may contain tools for resizing and moving windows partitions, so this workaround may be automated.

Different HD's are way more simple. Install windows on one and linux on the other.

Jogga · 09-11-08, 02:32 AM

Originally Posted by DaLabrador

This might be too late but I usually dual boot (Only for games, since vmware and/or wine can cover the rest of my windows needs). The following information is a tad bit old. I don't use Vista and linux installation procedures have evolved since the last time I needed it.

[..snip...]

Thanks DaLabrador. The Image Disk (Ubuntu OS disk) actually helps create the partition in a dual boot environment as part of the install process. Excellent step-by-step instructions for creating a dual boot environment can be found at Psychocats' Ubuntu web pages.

:approve:

DaLabrador · 09-11-08, 07:09 AM

Originally Posted by Jogga

The Image Disk (Ubuntu OS disk) actually helps create the partition in a dual boot environment as part of the install process.

Awesome. :approve:

spud42 · 09-11-08, 09:51 AM

see i told you it was friendly....lol

Jogga · 09-13-08, 04:27 PM

Well, there's not much more to document!

The install routine was flawless and took just a few minutes. The inevitable update took a little longer and I've spent a few hours playing and configuring the interface. So far I'm really pleased.

Ubuntu found the network and shares without any difficulty. I did have to download the hp drivers for the printer/scanner, but that was pretty painless :) I've had to download true fonts to get Firefox into some sort of shape and that still requires some work.

Nonetheless, this is my first post using open source software :) Moreover, my 160GB hdd cost a little over £60, Quins won and Bath lost - that's not a bad day

Jogga · 09-17-08, 05:20 PM

Ok, this is the challenge: tomorrow, I'm going to try to get through the day using Ubuntu and only Ubuntu.

This may not sound like a big deal to you Open Source experts, but I've been using Windows since the mid 1990s (from Windows 3.1) and, apart from some obscure trading systems, I've never used a different OS until this week. So far I'm impressed with Linux, the installation was painless, the software seems competent and I've even got used to the Terminal Window (am I allowed to call it a window?). Sure, you need patience to get the right drivers loaded and to research the command lines that get your hardware recognised; but, the software and support (which is plentiful and of high quality) is free. I'm in danger of becoming a convert!

However, over 90% of the worlds' PCs are Windows based and that includes my clients'! So, the question is, can I interact with my family, friends and clients without using the same operating system? I am reasonably confident that I can: email is taken care of (Thunderbird) and, at a stretch, I can use webmail (using Firefox); the Internet is no problem (so I can get my news fix and rss feeds) and my Office applications are substituted with Open Office (Sun).

Easy right? I'll let you know tomorrow ;)

Posted from my iPAQ (which will also be rested tomorrow)

AKAJohnDoe · 09-17-08, 10:00 PM

The process of taking backups does not alter with the OS; only the tools.

See this for more info.

And, yes, I do have a Linux box as well as a Windows box, and a Windows Mobile box, too.

**breley** · 09-18-08, 09:11 AM

Thanks, AKAJohnDoe...your backup documentation is excellent and been bookmarked by me for some time!

Jogga, for extra eye-candy and interface customization like icons, wallpapers and so forth, be sure to visit either Eyecandy for your GNOME-Desktop - GNOME-Look.org or Eyecandy for your KDE-Desktop - KDE-Look.org
Gnome-look.org would be the default choice for most Ubuntu users.

Hey, send a screencap once you get everything finalized!

I'd be configuring my Kubuntu and seeing if I can get the wireless-N card to work, except we've been without power at home since Sunday.

Jogga · 09-18-08, 02:32 PM

Well, I haven't exactly covered myself in glory with the Linux experiment :(

I lasted until around 13:00 when I realized that I couldn't get to a file that I needed on the network. Unfortunately, I was discovered sneaking into my Windows PC (thanks Box

). The file, a very large Excel file with lots of lookups and calculations (but only 10.5mb) did open in Open Office but subsequently crashed every time I tried to do anything with it.

So, I went back to Excel on my Vista machine to finish an important assignment.

However, that's not the end to my shame! I had to send the amended file back to my client and Outlook (on my Vista machine) would not cooperate! I had to open my laptop to send the file so I not only had Windows Vista running, I had Windows XP and Ubuntu running all on different machines.

Clearly, Open Office is not up to the job. It may have been better if I had not tried to open an Excel spreadsheet (.xls), but, in fairness, the splurge does claim that the program can handle it.

I still like the setup and I am determined to give it every opportunity to meet my needs, however, today both Ubuntu and Jogga failed miserably!