good way to partition?

i found a tutorial that said it good to just use the vista disk management tool to resize your partition, leaving "unallocated space" and then in the ubuntu installer, use the "guided: use largest continuous space" link and it would partition and format the unallocated space. Is that a good way?

 

Not really, it'd be better if you booted into the Ubuntu LiveCD and used GParted to re-size your other partitions and then use the installer to use ""guided: use largest continuous space". Although some people prefer to do it manually.

 

Like me, I feel I have more control when I do the manual way.

 

how would i do it the manual way? the only time ive used ubuntu is through wubi.

 

While your in the LiveCD, go to Partion Editor.
Shrink your windows partition by about 10GBs.
Create a new ext3 partion.
In the installer, give it a mount point of "/".

 

When installing it just select the last option "Manual" and you can do it manually. It allows you to make more than just an ext3 partition and a swap partition in case you want to make one for your /home folder and others as well.

 

yeah i prefer the manual way seeing as it allows me to select what file system i want to use (reiser normally) if I want swap space (which I wont want if I'm using an ssd).
Something for people to try out though is to use the alternate install cd. Then install as normal but format the filesystem to xfs, which is widely known as the fastest filesystem. Be aware though that you will need to install the lilo boot loader instead of grub. Lilo is only available on the alternate install cd.

 

hmmm. I don't understand the whole concept. It's the only overwhelming part of installation

 

dude106, either way will work. I'd suggest whichever method makes the most sense to you at this point, and seems easiest. You can change the sizing later when you've got a better grip on partitioning in general.

There are several partitioning tools which work well and are totally free. GParted is a good one, and QTParted is another. In case you're interested, each is available with Knoppix, as well as a bazillion other tools that come with that distro. Knoppix review.

 

This may help.

 

if you find it hard then just use the guided automatic way of installing. What this does is automatically formats the partition to a specified filesystem (ext3 normally), and assigns a set amount of swap space (pagefile on windows), with all folders necessary for the os installed on the same partition/drive. The manual way allows you to make further partitions, change the specified filesystem, change the amount of swap space, and change where individual ubuntu folders are located.
hope this helped!

 

I do it that way (in Vista, that is), then install Linux on the free space, creating my own partitions.

 

in your opinion, i shouldn't use the guided method(allowing it to install on the largest free continuous space) and use manual? or will both work? The manual process seems a little overwhelming for me.

 

I quote from my above post which should clear things up for you. Both guided and manual ways of installing ubuntu will work, but as you said guided is easier so just use that !

 

thanks for the help i'll give it a shot on the guided way.

 

The Ubuntu guys have made the guided installation extremely easy as of 8.04. I used it and it worked great.

 

i did it, and it worked great, quick question. In the grub bootloader, it has windows vista listed twice. I hope this does not mean that it is installed twice on my comp. Could one be for safe mode? any help would be nice.

 

If you just added Ubuntu then no you won't have two Vista installations. If you want to post /boot/grub/menu.lst we can help you edit it.

 

ok i'll get it

 

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=8a49f8ba-8d9c-4df5-b6a5-8d1fa946aca2 ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,4)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=8a49f8ba-8d9c-4df5-b6a5-8d1fa946aca2 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=8a49f8ba-8d9c-4df5-b6a5-8d1fa946aca2 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04, memtest86+
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

 

That's weird, it does look like it thinks there are two installations. Have you tried booting into either one? Could you also post the output of df –h and fdisk -l ?

 

where would i find those?

 

update, the second windows vista, is actually my recovery manager, from the recovery partition that was on my harddrive.

 

I used GParted live cd version. Only con is it's just a waaay to slooow. It shrank 10 GB from 70 GB partition 3,5 hours !!!

 

Ah, ok that makes sense. Those I posted were just CLI commands. You can edit your Grub menu to reflect that the one Vista is actually your recovery so you will know if you need it in the future.