R61 + Ubuntu-Studio? Good Idea?

I want to dual boot linux and XP on my laptop (maybe thinking about even triple booting OSX). Right now I just have Xp setup (super clean, very dry install without any extra crap) and totally setup for video and photo editing (I have the NVS 140, which seems to be good enough for now). Im a film major, and since I have been looking to install Ubuntu anyways I thought Ubuntu-Studio might be a good idea. Which verison should I go with, standard Ubuntu or studio? Should I go with xubunto instead to put the lightest load possible on my system?

Finally, since I already have Xp installed (and I dont really want to go about installing it all again), whats the best way to throw Ubuntu on here (no live CD please)? Do I need to create a new partition, or can I just install it straight away? Thanks!

 

I'm generally a fan of regular Ubuntu. The easiest way to install is FROM the LiveCD. It should guide you through everything you need to install it. After installation, be sure to install the nvidia-glx-new package to enable 3d acceleration on your video card.

 

there was also a tutorial on this forum that guides you through it.

 

I believe that tutorial is for general ubuntu, not the alternate 64 bit studio edition.

 

I believe Ubuntu Studio (as far as I'm aware) is Ubuntu with ALOT of multimedia apps added for video/audio editing/encoding and a different theme. The tutorial should still be relevant as nothing has fundamentally changed.

 

"Finally, since I already have Xp installed (and I dont really want to go about installing it all again), whats the best way to throw Ubuntu on here (no live CD please)? Do I need to create a new partition, or can I just install it straight away? Thanks!"

Well you will need a new partition. The live CD takes care of that.
It doesn't affect your XP install other than going through the Grub menu on boot up to select the OS. I would go for the standard Ubuntu installation and then add whatever else you may want very easily.

 

Alright, I researched a lot more on using Linux and NTFS compatiblity and I think Im going to use the partition program included with Ubuntu to break my laptop into 4 partitions:

1. A few gigs for XP, as much as I basically need for itself and a few games
2. A partition for the /home directory of Ubuntu
3. A partition for all data (in NTFS format, since Ubuntu can read NTFS fairly well). I thought about doing this in ENT3 and then using FS-driver to have XP be able to read the data section, but I want maximum speed for games in xp.
4. A 2 gig swap file partition

Sound good? I thought about doing a 5th partition (another 1.5-2 gigs) for XP's paging file, but I wasnt sure if it was really needed....I have it done on my desktop because I have a raptor, but since this is a laptop with a decently "slow" HD I dont think it will really make a difference.

 

This is what I did:
--- 15Gb for XP's OS and utilities
---5Gb for Ubuntu's root
---512Mb for swap (to be increased to 2Gb so I can hibernate)
---The rest as a shared /home Ext3 partition

I see you've heard of Fs-Drive. But as far as I know, there isn't much speed loss at all. So you get all the benefits of a Ext3 with none of the drawbacks

Here's a good place to learn about partition strategies: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partitioning

As for Ubuntu Studio, I'm sure the install will be generally the same as the normal Ubuntu.

 

First off your missing the the system partition for Ubuntu.

Why don't you keep all your XP data together (i.e, partition after you allocate space for XP and game files) Maybe I don't understand what you mean but it doesn't make much sense to me to move all your game files to a separate partition and then run them in XP, why not just keep it together if your only goint to use the files in XP in the first place.

As for a separate partition paging file for XP, Unless you have under 1GB RAM, the page file doesn't really do much for the system. I don't hibernate so I disabled the paging file completely from my system. paging file memory is slower than RAM memory.

I would create:
1. A partition for Windows and gaming with an extra 10-20GB for any extra game additions
2. A Ubuntu system partition of around 10-15GB (EXT3)
3. A SWAP file of 2GB
4. An ubuntu /home directory to keep all other files (EXT3)

If you do decide to use fs driver I'd recommend to only read from EXT3 and not write. It is more safe to write to Windows in Ubuntu.

 

You can use Wubi to install Ubuntu just like an extra program within Windows. It's a dual boot system and the only downside is that the sleep function won't work in Ubuntu. Keep in mind that battery life is really crap in Linux expect to lose an hour or more.

 

Am I the only kid who gets better battery life with Linux?
With powertop and frequency scaling I was always outrunning my classmates.

Wubi is a pretty good option to, i forgot about it completely. There might be a slight performance hit due to wubi's filesystem compared to ext3, but I'm not 100% sure on this.

 

I get pretty good battery life under Linux, but then again, I've never booted this laptop into Windows.

On average I get around 3 hours to a charge, which, given the desktop-replacement nature of this laptop I think is pretty good.

 

I get about 4 hours or so in both.. And my laptop is plugged in most of the time, anyway.