Ubuntu only hard drive?

Linux Support
1

Ok, complete newbie to Linux.

Just had a hard drive die on me, boo hoo I know.

I am going to put a new hard drive in and I want to know if I can boot Ubuntu straight away without having any form of windows on it. I have seen a few videos where people start partitioning their hard drives so they can have windows and linux.
Is there any need for windows at all or can I just go ahead and just have Ubuntu??

Any help and advice would be great.

2

Nope… No need for Windows at all… get yourself an Ubuntu LiveCD ISO image, and burn it to a CD/DVD, boot from it and when you get to the desktop, click the “Install Ubuntu” icon… answer the questions, and when asked, tell it to use the whole drive.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) can be downloaded here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
but if you have any problems booting to the LiveCD (ie. you don’t get to a desktop)
get the previous version, which seems to work better on some hardware.
Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) can be downloaded here:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/9.10/
remember to get the Intel x86 version if you have a 32bit CPU, or the AMD64 version if you have a 64bit CPU (even if it’s an Intel 64bit CPU)… if you are unsure of your CPU architecture… get the Intel x86 version (32bit but will run on a 64bit CPU too)

3

I know Ubuntu is today the most popular Linux distribution, but not the only one: You have a look also in one my current favorites: Scientific Linux or Kubuntu (based on the KDE-Desktop, perhaps for someone coming from Win more familiar):

http://www.scientificlinux.org/

4

Mmm, I’m afraid I’m not a fan of KDE … Qt tries to Mirror M$ way too much and to it’s detriment … IMHO, one of the reasons why most of the popular distro’s have standardised on GNOME.

5

I see the debate “KDE vs. Gnome” in some respect as a debate about articles of faith: I use both, I am quite happy with both, except for some of the “features” introduced with KDE4 and for my part I am happy to stay with KDE3 as long as possible.

Ubuntu does not hinder you to install KDE, neither Kubuntu to install Gnome.

6

Why would KDE be more familiar to people coming from Windows… Linux Mint… Best of both Worlds :slight_smile:

7

Well, Ubuntu seems to be the most popular, so when I come across a problem there will be more people I can turn to for help. At least that would be theory at the moment.
NixiePixel on youtube had nothing what so ever to do with my decision.

I’ve made my CD and I’ll give it a go when the new hard drive comes. We’ll see if I get to a desktop or not.
Going for a Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue SATA 3.5" Internal Hard Drive. Any thoughts on the hard drive?
Had a seagate barracuda 3.5" SATA before, but was told by an IT guy to avoid seagate.

8

About Sata: There were some problems with Sata-HDD prior the 2.6.19-Kernel (published Nov. 2007). With all Kernels since there shouldn’t be a problem.

HDD - I had difficulties (HDD-crashs) with both, but HDD are anyway “wear and tear” and therefore I would not give here any recommendations.

9

I don’t know why he would try put you off Seagate drives, unless he was referring to the firmware bug in a batch of Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 and ES.2 SATA drives, but this also affected a batch of Maxtor Diamondmax 22 drives.

These drives were manufactured in late 2008, so check the date of manufacture, or update the firmware before failure.

More info…
http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6367
and

10

Ok, installed the Hard Drive fine.

But bottled it when it came to having Ubuntu only, without knowing anything about it first.
So I put windows 7 on first as my fall back.
I then installed Ubuntu and have given half of my hard drive to windows and half to ubuntu.

So far so good. Looks good and feels quick. Not sure if it just in my head though.

I just have two queries

  1. I’ve installed Ktorrent and I am not getting the speeds I used to get with Utorrent. I do realise that it may just be the actual torrent I am trying to download, but was wondering if you guys new of ways to speed it up at all?

  2. Is it quite a simple job changing the amount of space each os has? At the moment its split down the middle, but I’m very sure I’ll want to give a lot more to my ubuntu side.
    Pretty sure I have already seen an app for this, but thought I’d ask anyway so see what comes back.

On the whole, I’m loving Ubuntu and am advising friends to get involved.

11

Try installing Transmission from the package manager… not as pretty as Ktorrent, but definitely quicker

Transmission “should” have been installed by default in Ubuntu

Applications->Internet->Transmission Bittorrent Client

As long as you’re using the GRUB bootloader…
Use Gparted to resize the partitions, but as with all partition operations there is always a small chance of data corruption, so backup important data first… just in case.

12

Ok resizing partitions, not 100% sure, but I’ll give it a go anyway.

I have unmounted the NTFS drive with windows on it so I can resize it.
I can’t seem to do the same with the ubuntu side.

At the moment its in the process of shrinking the NTFS drive to 100Gb. I hope that after the resize I’ll be able to extend the ubuntu side.
After watching a video on youtube I am thinking that because its in an extended partition that I wont be able to extend it.
Will I have to delete it and then reinstall ubuntu in the 400Gb free space or should I be able to extend the extended partition?

13

Run Gparted from your Ubuntu LiveCD to resize the Linux partition (or both)

You should be able to resize an extended partition with Gparted, just resize the extended partition… move all the data to the beginning of the extended partition… then extend the partition “inside” the extended partition.

ie. resize the extended partition to take up the unpartitioned space… move the Linux partition (contained inside the extended partition) to the left (beginning), then grow the (right side of the) Linux partition.

If you’re unsure what I mean… post back.

Or… boot from the LiveCD… start Gparted… delete all partitions “inside” the extended partition… delete the extended partition… re-install Ubuntu and tell it to use the free space.

14

My solution was a little different.

After resizing the windows partition I couldn’t run windows. So I went through the reinstall and it still didn’t work.
So I reinstalled Ubuntu and told it to erase the whole drive and start again. This time no windows.
Basically ending up where I planned to, but just took the scenic route.

Thanks for the help

15

Heh… Sometimes the scenic route gets you to where you SHOULD be going quicker :wink:

16

Better late than pregnant :slight_smile:

Only downside I’ve come across is that I can’t seem to get my windows media remote to work with rhythmbox or VLC.
I like being able to play, pause and even hibernate from my bed.
Would kind of like ubuntu to pick up the drivers when I plug it in, but it looks like I’ll actually have to do something.

17

Search the Synaptic package manager for lirc (infra red remote control support) and any plugins required by rythmbox (maybe gmpc-plugins) and gnome-lirc-properties

or see:
http://www.hackourlives.com/control-rhythmbox-using-ir-remote-lirc-support-rhythmbox/
or
http://www.hackourlives.com/setup-windows-media-center-remote-for-mythtv-and-xbmc/

18

Seems simple, but I can’t create a new file to call rhythmbox to copy the text in.
Do I have to change the permissions of the folder?

19

OK…

  1. make sure your remote isn’t plugged in… open a terminal and enter:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install lirc mythbuntu-lirc-generator
mythbuntu-lircrc-generator

(hit enter after each line, and password if requested)

  1. Click on your “home” directory… the nautilus file manager will open

  2. in nautilus, click the “View” icon, and select “Show hidden files” (or hit Crtl+H)

  3. inside your home directory, look for a directory called .lirc and open it

  4. inside the .lirc directory, right-click and select Create Document->Empty File, and name it rhythmbox

  5. open the rhythmbox document you just created and “copy and paste” this into it (ignoring the word “Quote”)

# edit the "button =" part for each entry according to your remote, and stick # this stuff in ~/.lircrc

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Play
repeat = 1
config = play
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Pause
repeat = 0
config = pause
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Play_Pause
repeat = 1
config = playpause
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Stop
repeat = 1
config = stop
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Clear
repeat = 1
config = shuffle
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Enter
repeat = 1
config = repeat
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Skip
repeat = 1
config = next
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Replay
repeat = 1
config = previous
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Forward
repeat = 1
config = seek_forward
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Rewind
repeat = 1
config = seek_backward
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = VolUp
repeat = 1
config = volume_up
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = VolDown
repeat = 1
config = volume_down
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = Mute
repeat = 1
config = mute
end

begin
prog = Rhythmbox
remote = *
button = DVD
repeat = 1
config = quit
end


(save and quit)

  1. open a terminal and enter:
gedit ~/.lircrc

(hit enter… gedit will open)
add the line (ignoring the word “Quote”)

include ~/.lirc/rhythmbox
[b](save and quit)[/b]

8.) open Rhythbox, and navigate to Edit → Plugins, put a tick in the LIRC box and click Close

  1. Plug in your remote control

  2. Now restart your Rhythmbox and you should be able to control Rhythmbox using your IR remote.

20

Tried that, still nothing.
Even when I put in irw it doesn’t come up with anything.

Tried the instructions from you tube too
LIRC Part 1 – Linux Infra-red Remote Control - Linux Mint 8