Installing Ubuntu on a Separate Partition

Ey guys, I just recently upgraded my hard drive and have a good 300GB of space and have dedicated about 20-25GB to Ubuntu and have left that space unpartitioned. Meanwhile I have been setting up XP to the way I like it. Now I think I am ready to take the plunge and make my ubuntu boot CD to put onto that partition.

So all I have to do is boot from the CD and it will do everything automatically? I have heard that I need to make many partitions for the swap and the actual OS, etc. do I need to worry about that? Also, will I be needing any drivers? If so, where do I install them from? I am new to Ubuntu and the installation/setup process and would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks!

 

Making a separate partition ahead of time certainly won't hurt, but with Ubuntu is not really necessary. Ubuntu, during the install process, will ask whether you want to use the entire disc, or free space on that part of the disc already in use by XP (or other OS). It will be a guided install either way unless you prefer to do it manually (as in you've already made a partition space for Ubuntu). A slider appears which lets you resize the partition however you like.

You may need drivers, but likely everything will work right away. In my case, I used the nVidia drivers which are offered within about two minutes after install is complete (a pop-up of sorts at the top of the screen appears). Am not sure how ATI drivers work, but probably the same way.

Ubuntu is a very simple system to get up and running; it will probably take about 30 minutes. The install isn't quite automatic, but very close. Be careful when you adjust the partition size for Windows is the only caution that I'd advise. Just read the on screen instructions and don't read into them more than what's there - they're that easy.

 

Alright man thanks for the help!

 

ubuntuforums.org

no disrespect to the linux gurus here, but ubuntuforums has everything you would ever need regarding anything ubuntu.

 

I usually set up the necessary partitions in advance with systemrescuecd which seems to operate a little bit faster on large drives for whatever reason.

But then yeah, you may need to walk through a tutorial on how to manually partition the drives/assign the mount point during the install process.

 

i wouldnt worry about swap too much with 2gb of ram (i dont have swap space at all)

if you have vista, I recommend using the vista computer management utility to resize the partitions ahead of time (its easier with the graphical interface rather than text mode on the ubuntu installer, plus it wont screw up your vista partition by accident)

as for drivers, usually the only one anyone needs to worry about is a video driver. For this, get envy, it has both nvidia and ati drivers and it installs them for you.

the installer is fairly straight forward so you shouldnt have many problems (other than possibly partitioning, that can be tricky).

 

With Ubuntu you don't need ENVY. You can install your gpu driver with the restricted drivers manager. That way apt will be kept in the loop in terms of keeping all your dependencies straight.

I also recommend this guide once everything is up and running.

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Hardy