Migrating to Linux (Ubuntu?)

artificer · ‎11-08-2007

for those who like arial, the nearest equivalent i've found is luxi sans. the letters are a fraction closer than in arial, but it is a comfortable, easy-on-the-eye font to use.

MickKi · ‎30-09-2007

Errr, if you like arial, what's wrong with using . . . arial?

alanf · ‎17-10-2007

The aim of Linux is to use open source software that can be circulated freely. Arial font is copyright.

waldron · ‎28-07-2007

Quote from: MickKi
Perhaps the current version of Ubuntu is not suitable for your hardware.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. The hardware is quite recent, and runs Vista without any problems. It has a 2.2Mhz processor, 4Gb RAM and a 200Gb drive. It ran Gutsy successfully, and I was starting to get used to the 'non-MS' software (eg OpenOffice).
I now have a liveCD version of Ubuntu (8.04.1) but have not yet loaded it. I was following this thread to try to benefit from the experience of others.
Please don't think I am 'anti Linux'. Quite the opposite in fact. It had been my intention to move away from Windows. Unfortunately I gave up, and have installed Vista instead.

Heloman · ‎30-07-2007

Waldron.
Don't be put off by all the techies here . I don't understand half of what they are talking about, and I use Linux exclusively!
When I first tried Linux, and not knowing anything about partitioning, I bought an external USB HD and used that for the various distros.
They will all recognise your Windows installation on the internal drive and include it in the boot menu.
As is normal, I was advised to start with Ubuntu. Never got on with it. I've been using PCLinux OS for two years now and although I regularly try the latest versions of other distros, only Mepis 7.0 has come close to seducing me away from PCLOS.
I've never failed to install a distro satisfactorily first time .
I have never used Command Line and never needed to. I'm far too old to learn things like that and with a modern OS there should be no need for a home user to know such techie things. That's where PCLOS is better that others.
Also it will boot into root (admin in Windows), which has great advantages although all the Linux techies will suck their teeth when I say that....
WiFi was the only problem I had, but I eventually found the answer. Not difficult when you know how, but there is a dearth of help on this subject.
I'm the original computer Dummy. Never even touched one 'til I was given one as a retirement present. Now I wouldn't go back to Windows even if I could afford to buy it

waldron · ‎28-07-2007

Heloman.
Thanks for the reassurance. Its good to know another 'non-techie' has been successful with Linux (I've been retired ten years).
I have to use Wifi unfortunately, and my external drive is eSata.
But maybe I will give PCLOS a try.

VileReynard · ‎01-09-2007

eSATA external drives seem to be quite popular!
AFAIK the electrical characteristics etc of eSATA are identical to ordinary internal SATA.
One of my two internal drives is SATA and it works OK in Ubuntu.
I also made sure that my PC's wifi adaptors have native support in Ubuntu.
You can check this kind of thing using a live CD (no install needed)

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

Santiago · ‎10-08-2007

Update on my Linux apprenticeship.
I have re-installed XP and Ubuntu on my play about laptop.
Ubuntu is set up on three partitions / /home and swap
I got the full grub menu at start up showing both Windows and Ubuntu.
I could boot into Ubuntu but not into Windows, I just get "Starting Up...." and nothing happens
I am getting frustrated by this now as I can't seem to get this figured out.
I have used the supergrub disc and Windows won't boot from there either.
I ran the repair on XP disc and did fixmbr. When I rebooted nothing would boot. I used Supergrub to get back into Ubuntu and reinstalled gruB .
I still cannot get into windows but can get into Ubuntu.
Last time this happened I formatted the drive and reinstalled , but I need to know how to do this before I load Linux on my main machines.
I am looking on the forums and googling but not geeting very far, maybe you guys have some ideas?
The grub root is on (hd0,5)
Here is my grub menu.lst file.

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)    smiley = 8 in brackets (eight)
    
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default		0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout		10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title		Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root		(hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader	+1
#
# title		Linux
# root		(hd0,1)
# kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=5d64478e-4b2e-4c06-a74f-1a06d77a03fa ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,5)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
##      lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root		(hd0,5)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=5d64478e-4b2e-4c06-a74f-1a06d77a03fa ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

title		Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,5)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=5d64478e-4b2e-4c06-a74f-1a06d77a03fa ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title		Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root		(hd0,5)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title		Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title		Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

VileReynard · ‎01-09-2007

The only one that matters is the stanza:-

Quote
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

(Any lines that start with # are comments and are ignored).
I hope you are fairly well up on disk partitioning - DOS experience helps

(hd0,0) says that Windows is loaded on the first partition of your first disk (numbering starts at zero).
Your Linux boot partition is loaded onto (hd0,5) - this is equivalent to /dev/sda6 (that numbering again)
Linux calls your first partion in the extended partition /dev/sda5,
your second partition in the extended partition is /dev/sda6
What is your actual partition layout?
The command df -T will do this.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

MickKi · ‎30-09-2007

Santiago,
Please select all your grub text in your message and then click on the # editting button to turn the formatting into "code" so that it doesn't take that much real estate and it is more readable.
The fixmbr command from the WinXP installation CD should have replaced the boot code in the MBR with the MSWindows equivalent. That should by default boot up the first partition in which your WinXP resides.
Have you run it correctly?

fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0

If it doesn't work something is wrong with the WinXP installation. It could be that the partition boot sector has been messed up (it only takes one wrong key press and you may have installed grub into the first partition's boot sector?)
In that case you will need to run the command fixboot with the WinXP installation CD. That'll repair the MSWindows partition:

fixboot c:

Assuming that your WinXP partition has been named as c:\ which is the default.
Once you get your WinXP booting properly all on its own, reinstall the grub boot code in the MBR (only). Look at a previous post of mine in this thread to see how to do this.
Finally, edit your grub's menu.lst file to make sure that it does not try to read WinXP's boot sector (and fail):

title      Microsoft Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify      (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader   +1

EDIT: Note the change on the second line above. Grub will not try to verify the MSWindows partition boot code.

Santiago · ‎10-08-2007

Thanks Mick I will have go

Santiago · ‎10-08-2007

@ Axisofevil
Myactual partition layout by the command df -T
Filesystem Type 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6    ext3 14543616 2950516 10860136 22% /
varrun    tmpfs 517668 104    517564    1% /var/run
varlock    tmpfs 517668 0    517668    0% /var/lock
udev    tmpfs 517668 60    517608    1% /dev
devshm    tmpfs 517668 48    517620   1% /dev/shm
lrm    tmpfs 517668 39760 477908    8% /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/volatile
/dev/sda7    ext3 17404528 1454492 15072892 9% /home
gvfs-fuse-daemon
fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon 14543616 2950516 10860136 22% /home/Santiago/.gvfs

Santiago · ‎10-08-2007

MickKi
I did what you said and I am still not getting windows to boot.
Is there a plan B?
I am going for walk now and have think about this.

VileReynard · ‎01-09-2007

Your Plan B would be to re-instate Linux.
If still on Ubuntu, try "System/Administration/Partition Editor" - don't update anything!
Explore to find out where your Windows partition is.
You might have to try mounting it, so that you can explore it's contents.
If you cannot find any Windows files, it must be presumed dead (in my opinion anyway)

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

MickKi · ‎30-09-2007

I would instead suggest that your plan B is to reinstall MSWindows - see below as to why. However, first make sure that the WinXP Installation CD does not take over and reformat the whole disk - it has a tendency to do that.

Instead point it to install WinXP in the first partition where your current WinXP is supposed to reside.
My thinking is that if both the MBR and the MSWindows boot partition sector have been restored to the default MSWindows boot code, then the only other thing that could be borked is the WinXP data itself - something may have been corrupted. Did you ever boot this OS up after installation? Perhaps you resized it since and something was messed up then?
When it's all sorted then reinstall GRUB in the MBR as I suggested above.
HTH.