ubuntu

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Installing Ubuntu

Notes
Booting Ubuntu
Starting the Install
Dealing with Partitioning
Finishing the Actual Installation

Notes

This page is about installing Ubuntu but has a focus on setting up a dual-boot between Ubuntu and Windows. Before setting up a dual-boot, it's highly advised you

• Back up everything that's important to you. You don't want to be 99.99% sure that your data will remain intact. You want to be 100% sure.
• Defragment Windows
• Read about partition planning
• Use the Desktop CD as a live CD (without installing) for at least two weeks

There are also other tutorials out there. This one assumes you are using the Desktop CD. If you are using the Alternate CD, you'd be better off with this tutorial instead. While both tutorials have screenshots, if you still feel lost, you may want to check out some of the online videos about setting up dual-boots.

Booting Ubuntu

Now that you've obtained the Desktop CD (either through a purchase, ShipIt, or downloading and burning), you'll need to reboot your computer to use Ubuntu.

Your computer's BIOS must be set to boot from CD first; otherwise, Windows will just load up again. To get into the BIOS settings, you usually have to press one of these keys during boot-up: Escape, F1, F2, F12, or Delete. Usually your computer will tell you.

Once your BIOS is configured to boot from CD first, if you have Ubuntu in the drive, you should see this screen. If you're super-paranoid and want to check the disk one more time, select Check CD for defects. The checking process takes about 10 minutes.

Otherwise (if you're not super-paranoid), just select the default option: Start Ubuntu. As I said earlier, this will not harm any of the data on your computer or affect your Windows installation in any way. Start Ubuntu will boot up a live session that runs off the CD and your computer's RAM.

If you see a black screen with a little white text at first, don't panic. It's perfectly normal.

After that, you should see a progress bar that tells you everything that's happening. You may notice (depending on what your computer's specifications are) that Ubuntu runs a little more slowly than your regular Windows installation. That's because it is a live session. Once Ubuntu is installed to your hard drive, it will run more quickly.

Starting the Installation

During the live session, if you decide you like Ubuntu enough to install it, click the Install icon on the desktop.

Answer the questions as best you can. I know they're tough, but...

Like here. I got this wrong. I answered New York...

I got this one right, though. Go me!

You'll be prompted to enter one user at first. Later on, once you have Ubuntu installed, you can add more users.

Dealing with Partitioning

You'll then be presented with three options. This first option is ideal for users who want to set up a dual-boot (where you can choose whether you want to use Windows or Ubuntu each time you boot up your computer) but know very little about setting one up. Ubuntu will automatically shrink your Windows partition and create a new Ubuntu partition out of the free space.

The second option is ideal for people who do not want Windows any more and just want to erase it and replace it completely with Ubuntu.

The third option is ideal for people who know a little bit about partitioning and mounting of partitions.

If you select the third option, you'll get this progress bar.

Then, Ubuntu will show you your partition table—what partitions you have and what filesystems they use. If you right-click on a partition, you can choose to resize it or delete it. In any empty space you create, you can right-click on the empty space and create a new partition. The partitioning program the Ubuntu installer invokes is called GParted. You can see how it works at the GParted homepage.

For more information on how to plan your partitions, read this

After you click Forward, you'll be taken to a place where you can decide which partitions to use or reformat and then use, and where to mount these partitions. If these last few screenshots confuse you, you clearly need to use either the first or second option.

You can select mount points by clicking on the Mount Point drop-down menu list and selecting the appropriate folder. The / mount point is where your main Ubuntu installation will go. If you want to have a separate partition where your settings and files live, you should mount it at /home

Note, as in this example, you can also type in a mount point manually. Here I have typed in /documents as a mount point for a partition where I keep my files.

swap is the partition that, in a way, adds additional memory to your computer. It isn't as speedy as RAM, but it can be accessed if your RAM is maxed out. I've generally seen recommendations for swap being either 1.5 or 2 times the size of your computer's RAM.

Note: if, for some reason, you don't want to mount a particular partition... well, tough luck! The Ubuntu installer forces you to mount every partition. Otherwise you get this warning. You can always remove it from the /etc/fstab file later. Worry about that after you've gotten Ubuntu installed.

So to get around this, I mounted my Windows partition at /windows.

Finishing the Actual Installation

Regardless of which option you choose (resize and use free space, erase entire hard drive, manually edit partition table), you will eventually come to a screen that summarizes your installation choices before you finally decide to commit your changes. If you look over this screen and see that you want to change certain options, press the Back button to make those changes. When you've finally settled on committing changes, click Install.

Depending on how fast your computer is, the installation can take anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour. On my 766 MHz processor with 128 MB of RAM computer, it took around 45 minutes to get through all the way. Learn more about Ubuntu on older computers

Yup. Keep waiting. Notice how when the files are copying, you'll get a time estimate on when it's completed. That time estimate is for how long it takes to copy the installation files—it's not a time estimate for the completion of the entire installation.

See? When the time remaining estimate goes away, there's still about 18% of the installation you have left to wait for.

The Grub boot loader detects whether or not you have Windows installed and then attempts to add Windows to the boot menu if it's installed so that you can choose which operating system you want to boot into.

When the installation finishes, you'll get this message. That's it. You now have Ubuntu installed on your computer! The next tutorial will show you what to do after you've installed Ubuntu.

Page updated 12/22/2007

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