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New Laptop

HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

‎24-08-2011 6:00 PM

I must admit that I don't like any of the Linux burning programs  Cry
I use Nero Linux 3 and have done for many years  Lips_are_sealed Embarrassed
It a pity that Nero Linus isn't included in the bundled s/w that comes with drives as it would be nice  Sad I am looking into buying a blu-ray burner for data backup and so far the Linux programs don't seem to support them but Nero does (I may have to shell the £18 for a new copy though  >:(). All the input seems to be in ripping movies not burning things  Crazy
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MisterW
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Re: New Laptop

‎24-08-2011 6:47 PM

Quote
It a pity that Nero Linus isn't included in the bundled s/w that comes with drives as it would be nice

Strangely, I got a copy of Nero Linux 3 Essentials bundled with a LiteOn portable DVD drive. Never tried it though as I've always used k3b.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

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colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

‎05-09-2011 4:51 PM

Hi folks!
Had a bit of time to play, successfully got the boot order sorted so that the dvd is on top in anticipation that Mint 11 is available as a Live  CD. It seems that once I have got the extra partitons to suit the linux system it may be required to muck about with MBR and grub(2?) to be able to boot in to either OS as rquired. Am I right or is it set up automatically?
Got Avast/Malwarebyte & Spybot S&D all installed fairly easily which should make fairly bullet-proof.
Grin Grin

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MisterW
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Re: New Laptop

‎05-09-2011 5:15 PM

Quote
Am I right or is it set up automatically?

When you install Mint it will detect the other OS's already there and install and configure grub automatically.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

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colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

‎05-09-2011 5:31 PM

Thanks MisterW,
I had hoped that would be the case. I have now found out that Mint 11 does come as a Live dvd or a Live CD, with some omissions to keep it less than 700MB. Progress maintained!
Grin Grin
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RichardB
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Re: New Laptop

‎06-09-2011 12:26 PM

Hi
I had an issue installing dual boot Windows Vista / Linux on a friends HP laptop.
Every time Vista was booted up the HP Windows utility "HP protect tools" overwrote the disk Master Boot Record (MBR) with a clean copy of the Windows only MBR.
This removed grub (the programme that provides the option to choose the OS to boot) and Windows Vista would auto start.
I assume that "HP protect tools" implements an MBR anti virus protection mechanism.
I had to remove "HP protect tools" from the Vista installation & replace grub on the MBR to achieve a reliable dual boot installation.
Richard
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colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

‎06-09-2011 12:36 PM

I do not kow now if Win7 has this feature. Must have a look when I have time. I hope that the Mint 11 live dvd is available on disk and not an enormous download! Any ideas?
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shutter
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Re: New Laptop

‎06-09-2011 1:25 PM

From my downloads folder
Linuxmint-11-gnome-dvd-32bit.iso    887,800kb
and don`t forget to also download  B43 installer package ( to get your wireless working! ! !)...
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colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

‎07-09-2011 9:41 AM

Thank Shutter I will check when I have a go. I am not into Wireless yet, although my router Belkin N is, all a bit in the future..
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shutter
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Re: New Laptop

‎07-09-2011 4:20 PM

Download it and install it.... you never know when you might need it on a laptop.... (all Wyevale garden centers have FREE WIFI  so if you`re travelling you can get a cup of coffee and check your route, ferry time, etc... ). (and probably Mcdoolands too! ! ! )..
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colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

‎09-09-2011 1:48 PM

Sound advice, Thanks!
Progress not a lot further, other projects (like agriculture while weather holds!) taking up wakeing hours. Progress on the net is painfully slow today. MBS did not even start!!!  all connections pityfully slow.
Thought that might have been the bug that jojo reported!! But not so.
  Cry
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KenA
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Re: New Laptop

‎12-09-2011 7:41 PM

I've done option 3 from the original post recently and had no problems.  Here's the steps:
1. Boot from the CD of the distro you want to use, e.g. Ubuntu or Mint, and make sure it works ok on your hardware.
2. Use a "system rescue cd" (sysresccd.org) to boot, and use gparted to shrink the main NTFS partition to half the size, leaving unpartitioned space.  (I used the sysresccd because I had it, perhaps the Ubuntu distro CD has gparted on it).
3. Boot again from Ubuntu (or Mint), and install in the free space, side-by-side with Windows
When you boot, you will get a grub menu allowing you to select various options.  I like to put Windows first, and then grub puts the Ubuntu options afterwards, and mark Ubuntu as default.  The command to do this are:
Change the order of OS listed:
sudo mv /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober /etc/grub.d/05_os-prober
Change default selection:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
and set GRUB_DEFAULT=0 to 1
Then always
sudo update-grub
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ejs
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Re: New Laptop

‎12-09-2011 9:28 PM

When I used gparted to resize the partitions on my laptop (before installing Fedora back in 2009), I hit the "now Windows won't boot" issue.
The usual issue I seem to get when doing any repartitioning is that the current program objects about where exactly the partitions start or how they are aligned, and if you ask gparted to resize a partition, it does a move+resize, and moves and resizes the partition to as close as it can get it to the requested size.
The Vista rescue CD then utterly failed to fix it automatically, either being unable to find a Windows installation or being unable to find any problem with it. I ended up fixing it in Linux with dd and a hex editor.
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colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

‎17-09-2011 12:56 PM

Thanks KenA and others.
Glad that option 3 worked. I hope to have a go shortly. I would expect that the Mint 11 Live disks would have gparted on them. All the magazine loading steps seem to use gparted as a matter of course. Because my Win7, which has not a lot put in it apart fom AV etc., takes less than 100Gb, I am assuming that 250GB will be adequate which will leave the other 250Gb for Mint11. Seeing that Mint11 is available 32bit and 64bit variants, which is likely to be better from the hardware compatibility point of view? I gather that Win7 64bit, which is what I have, can cause compatibility problems although In fact I have not found any so far.
When I get to the specifying the Linux partitions, I anticipate giving / about 50 Gb, Swap 1 GB & 100Gb for Home, leaving elbow room for any later adjustments. My Ubuntu back-ups are all in ext3 files so I assume that there is no need to use ext4 for any of the new Linux partitions ( I am not a heavy user..no massive music or video files anywhere).
Views please???
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ejs
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Re: New Laptop

‎17-09-2011 2:51 PM

Quote from: colintivy
Seeing that Mint11 is available 32bit and 64bit variants, which is likely to be better from the hardware compatibility point of view?

64bit is generally better. Regarding hardware compatibility, there will be minimal difference, since almost all drivers are built from source.
Quote from: colintivy
I anticipate giving / about 50 Gb, Swap 1 GB & 100Gb for Home

If you want to use suspend to disk, the swap partition should be at least as big as the amount of RAM, because that's where the RAM is saved to when you hibernate.
Fedora Live CDs allow you to install packages from the repository (temporarily, if you have enough RAM).
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