Ubuntu/Dual Boot, and Trim questions

I'm getting ready to split my RAID 0 setup. I will use one SSD for games, and the other for Win7/Apps, but also want to have a linux partition to mess with. I'm new to Linux and was looking for something that would utilize trim to keep the drive at speed. Does the newest Ubuntu offer that? Ubuntu 11.04? I have 10.04, but figured may as well go with the latest if it enables TRIM. Thanks. This will be a big learning curve for me Also should I go with the 32bit or 64bit version?

One of the reasons I chose Ubuntu is because it's the most user friendly from what I've heard. Also I think it might be the easiest to work with my current hardware. It'll be on my M17x R2 (Sig). If there are other suggestions for better Linux distros, feel free to throw in some input.

 

You need 2.6.33 or later on whatever distro. You can install a newer kernel on an older distro.

10.10 or 11.04 will support TRIM out of the box since they come by default with newer kernels. 32 or 64 bit is your own call. If you are new to linux 32 bit is more friendly and less complex.

 

Ok, Thanks. What does 64 bit offer over 32bit?

 

The main reason to use 32 bit is to get around some headaches with adobe flash. As you may already know adobe has really crappy 64 bit support for flash, and their 64-bit flash player on linux is dead. One Year Later: Adobe Abandons 64-bit Linux Again - O'Reilly Broadcast

This isn't a huge problem though. You can use 32 bit firefox on 64 bit linux, use an older version of flash, or there are alternative flash players.

There are more reasons to use 64 bit than I can easily count - using the x86_64 instruction set has tons of advantages.

 

OK, got it. Tried 11.04 32 and 64bit and both booted of USB with a black screen. Guessing GPU driver issue. Going to try 10.10. I know 10.04 works, as I generally use it to do secure erases on my ssds.

 

Then you are another advertisement victim.

Easy answer: Mint is more user friendly than Ubuntu.
Correct answer: "user friendly" is a very bad term because every user has different needs. For example for me Debian is the most user friendly distro because it fits my needs best. Anotherone will prefer Gentoo for exactly the same reason. And the 3rd one will say it's Slackware. The only person who can tell what is the most user friendly distro for you is - surprise - you!
Anyone who tells you what to use without knowing your needs can't even make an educated guess.

Seems already to have proven wrong.

Unless you are using >4GB of RAM the biggest advantage of amd64 over i386 is that amd64 supports MMX and the SSE CPU extensions which might improve the performance in tasks like Video de-/encoding.

 

OK so I tried Mint 11 on a USB and it works. I like the layout. Changed the task bar to the top, and feel there are more options. Once I actually split the raid array, and install and get Win 7 set, I think it'll be a challenge to get everything working on Mint. I use a USB DAC (Nuforce uDAC2) for audio, and I'm assuming there is a way to get that working? Thanks guys

One thing I liked about Linux was the ability to have four desktops, and make them like a cube, is there anyway to do that with mint? Sorry for the n00bish questions, just new to it all.

 

There are contradicting statements about that. According to [1] it didn't work well over half a year ago, but according to [2] it works without problems. I'm not sure but it might be that the reviews in [2] just mixed up uDAC1 and 2.

[1] [all variants] Nuforce Udac USB DAC (soundcard) - Ubuntu Forums
[2] Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: NuForce Icon uDAC2-HP (Black) Headphone Amp and USB DAC (24bit/96kHz)

That's a feature of compiz which Mint doesn't use by default afaik. Install the package compiz, restart your X-server and watch out for some menu entry that says something like compiz configuration (maybe it works even without further configuration).
Sorry I can't give you more detailed info since I've never actually uses compiz.

 

Ok, so I finally installed Linux Mint as a dual boot, on a seperate partition. I Opted not to create a swap partition, because I store everything on my 1TB Storage drive on my system. All music, docs, photos, ect. I use one SSD for Apps/Win7/Mint and the other SSD for Games.

My next question is, is there a way to have Win 7 load by default and only when I choose, open into Mint? Or a way to have it give you choices, and then time default to Win 7?

 

Also, what is the difference between installing mint alongside windows, and on a separate partition? Does it install inside my same windows partition? So essentially if I create an image backup, Linux is coming with it and I can't pick and choose?

 

You can edit grub to make it boot whateverOSyouwant by default. I don't use Mint so I don't know the specific, but it should be in some kind of "boot configuration" or something like that. Google will definitely help.

Mint alongside windows is just similar to wubi i.e. it installs mint as another program inside windows. Google wubi to find out more.

 

I wrote a detailed post here about how to have it boot to windows by default: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/586636-problems-seagate-momentus-500gb-hd-7200-4-a.html#post7606125

Here's instructions for having it save your last choice: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lin...ing-dedicated-laptop-buttons.html#post7560089

 

Thanks guys, I was able to find the boot file (grub?) and was able to cut and paste the Windows os boot instructions at the top of the list, so when it times out, Win 7 boots and not Mint now that I put the Win 7 load instructions on top of the list. Still confused on a lot, but steadily learning, only had to reinstall several times so far

 

Hope you don't might if I post my question here, don't want to start a new topic.
I have two OS installed. Windows 7 (main) and Ubuntu 11.04 (just to fool around). After I installed Ubuntu, on computer start up Grub would show up, until I restored W7 boot loader as my main. I used easyBCD to add Ubuntu to W7 boot list. And now I have following: on computer start up W7 boot loader comes up first with two options W7 and Linux, if I choose W7, it loads directly, if I choose Linux, Grub boot loader shows up next and I need one more time to choose Linux. It's not that a big deal to press Enter one more time, but is there a way to remove/hide Grub, so that every time I would choose Ubuntu from W7 boot loader it would load directly.

P.S. I don't accept answers like "use Grub instead W7 loader", I want to make everything complicated.
P.S.S. I'm still new to Linux world and I'm still learning it, so please don't punch me too hard

 

PS: I almost bought a Suzuki DR650 once

 

@killkenny1 it's not the best of ideas to do that, you can set the grub timeout to 1 or 2 seconds (or 0 if you are crazy), but linux isn't like windows where you only have one kernel.

What happens if you need to edit the boot command line to recover your system, debug something, or just mess around with different options or kernels?

 

Why is it that when I mess with Compiz settings, I lose the "X" in the corner of windows, and have to use "File" to close out the windows. How do I get this part of the upper right corner of my windows back? It's kinda annoying, and I'm too n00b to figure it out

 

Don't think it's gonna happen soon. I'm still at n00b lvl with Linux.

Anyways I ditched for some time learning this exciting new OS, since exams are on their way and unfortunately don't have much time...

 

If you lose your title bar (at least that is what I can understand from what you're saying) - it means gtk-window-decorator crashed which happens to me not so often but when it does, I just open a terminal and type:

Code:

gtk-window-decorator --replace &

This should fix your problem and your title bar should be back on all the windows. Give it a shot next time it happens and let me know.

If you ask me why it happens in the first place - some of the compiz plugins are experimental and are quite buggy. compiz itself was quite buggy 3 to 4 yrs back. Now it has sort of become stable - but opensource software receives regular patches and updates - so can't help it when a feature goes into regression.