Installing Ubuntu 5.10 over Suse 9.3

[Akshay]

I have used Suse Linux 9.3 for sometime & I want to try Ubuntu Linux now. My experience with Suse is not gr8. So on several recommendations, I want to install Ubuntu Linux 5.10. I have tried the Ubuntu Live CD and it detected all drivers for all my hardware (suse didnt)

System Specifications:

Compaq Presario Laptop: Intel Centrino, 768 MB Ram, 40 GB HDD (Total 4 Partitions: c:\ XP Pro with SP2, f:\ Suse Linux 9.3). File System: Fat32

I wish to install ubuntu on f: where right now suse is installed. My queries are:

1. How should I uninstall suse and install ubuntu?
Please explain this procedure in detail (like file system, swap option,
partition, etc.)

2. How should the formating for f: be done (whether necessary)?

3. I do not want to harm Win XP installation in any way.

4. I want XP to decide boot options and not Grub or let Grub set XP as default boot option.

5. Ubuntu should auto mount other drives

6. Ubuntu should boot by default with a GUI (KDE or something like that) giving me root/admin level access


Kindly help...

[mehulved]

1&2) Just insert the Ubuntu cd and go on with the installation. Select manual partitioning and use the same partition you used for Suse. It will be formatted and can be used for Ubuntu now.
3)XP installation will not be harmed in any way till you do not format that partition. Since you seem to have prior experience with partitioning, it won't be a problem.
4) It is better to use GRUB as your boot loader rather than ntldr. To make XP as default selection just make the following change in /boot/grub/menu.lst

default  x

Here x is the number. x= postition of windows entry in grub - 1.
Usually for ubuntu x will be 3.
5) Ubuntu will automatically mount other drives usually
6) GUI is enabled by default. Why do you want a root level access? Give me one good reason. Forget that Macro**** mentality of always using root/admin access. It is a big security risk. sudo can give you the required root level access.

[Akshay]

In manual partitioning, what file sys should i select (suse provided with numerous file system which i have never heard abt except fat and ntfs which didnt work)

Regarding mounting of other drives, ubuntu live didnt mount automatically (which i guess is a precautionery measure). Even suse cudnt mount other drives automatically

I want root level access coz i cudnt mount drives in suse unless i had root level access. Also i want to access/modify some documents using linux.

[mehulved]

You should make 1 swap partition that is double the size of your RAM to the maximum of 1GB. AFAIK, swap partition of more than 1GB doesn't give any performance advantage unless you are gonna use memory hogging applications.
RAMx2<=swap<1GB
For other partition select either ext3 or reiserfs.
Do not use root level access. IMO it is totally worthless to use root level access as it raises unnecessary security risk.
By disks, do you mean cd/dvd/floppy drives. Yeah they aren't automatically mounted. But, AFAIK ubuntu mounts hard drive partitions automatically.

[Akshay]

I installed ubuntu with swap of 427 MB (set as default by ubuntu and I didnt change as I thot it was too technical). I faced no prb. with cdroms and DVD's though ubuntu didnt recognise Video DVD's.

I mounted c:\ on \media\windows using mount command with vfat option (this was provided in help file). But I cudnt mount d: and e:. How do i do that?

I put in Digit DVD/CD to install some linux s/w. I tried DVD Ripper provided in May 06 issue but failed to install it. I could extract the files to /media/windows/dvdrip but cudnt do anything after that... Same with other applications...

[mehulved]

How much RAM does your machine possess?
For mounting d and e drives you will have to make 2 more mount points like one you made for c drive i.e. /media/windows/ for eg. /media/windows_d for d drive and /media/window_e for e drive.
Cna you give me the exact file name of the software? If it ends in .tar.gz or .tar.bz2, it can be a source file. FIrst it had to be unzipped and untarred usng following command

tar xzvf <filename>  //for .tar.gz files
tar xvjpf <filename>  /for .tar.bz2 files

Then you will need to compile it. For compiling veiw the readme file in the folder you extracted. To do that you will have to install gcc which isn't installed by default in ubuntu.
Ubuntu is based on debian. So, the native installer file is .deb files. To install a downloaded .deb file use the following command

sudo dpkg -i <filename>

Also, you can download files from internet using the following command

sudo apt-get install <program name>

[Akshay]

I have 768 MB Ram installed.

The s.w ends in tar.gz. Is there no readymade s.w to install the file without going to the xterminal?

Regarding sudo dpkg -i <filename>, do I have to put in the installation cd of ubuntu?

[mehulved]

Well it's the classic linux way of installing softwares and it is most recommended way if you're really wanting to learn linux to compile distros from the source.
Or you can do is download the program from net using this command

sudo apt-get install <name of the program>

You can't use dpkg in this case as it's not a .deb file.
I'd rather suggest you learn installing from source. Once untarred, there will be a README file that will guide you how to go about installing the software.