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Re: Re-installing Ubuntu 11.10

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Aragorn

unread,
Feb 21, 2012, 3:58:18 AM2/21/12
to
On Tuesday 21 February 2012 09:17, Mel Bourne conveyed the following to
alt.comp.linux...

> Absolute Beginner.
>
> I installed from a CD Ubuntu 11.10 alongside Win XP (dual boot).
> The installer automatically created 2 new partitions for Ubuntu.
> All went well, I was able to download all updates for the operating
> system and (NVIDIA) driver. I also successfully changed the booting
> sequences.
>
> I then was trying setting up dual monitors which proved to be a
> futile exercise.
>
> Even after numerous reboots the monitors did not display anything
> but instead produced 'black screens' or 'Ubuntu default color'
> without any icons to click on.
>
> I mouse-clicked (left and right) all over the screens but no
> responses.

I don't know what was the cause of your problem here, but there is a
brief tutorial on how to set up dual monitors with Ubuntu, here...

http://tinyurl.com/27dfzj6

(http://preview.tinyurl.com/27dfzj6)

> So I decided to uninstall Ubuntu. In Windows (Desk Management) I
> manually deleted the 2 partitions created by Ubuntu and used
> Windows XP's disk management tool to restore the bootloader using
> the Windows XP install disk (fixboot and fixmbr).
>
> My (C) drive in Windows has now 2 partitions viz 46.76 GB NTFS
> for Win XP and 27.77 GB Free space.
>
> Since I wish to steer away from Windows and migrate gradually to
> Ubuntu (Linux), I naturally like to re-install Ubuntu 11.10 to
> the existing free space of my (C) drive creating the partition
> set up as previously.

Is there any particular reason why it must be Ubuntu? I'm just asking
because I have my personal objections to Ubuntu, so your preferences and
priorities may and possibly will differ.

Still, I would advise you to check out a few other distributions as
well. Mint for instance is an Ubuntu derivative and comes in many
different desktop environment flavors. Debian is the distribution that
both Ubuntu and Mint are derivatives of, and is more versatile than
Ubuntu.

openSUSE is a different kind of distribution - which uses the .rpm
package format - but is equally versatile. PCLinuxOS is a Mandriva
derivative which also uses .rpm packages, but in conjunction with
Debian's APT and Synaptic package management system, and it comes as an
installable live CD/DVD, so you can give it a test run before actually
installing it on your hard disk. CentOS is the free RedHat Linux
Enterprise - stay away from Fedora though, it's too unstable.

> Questions:
> What precautions and prerequisites need to be observed in order
> to re-install Ubuntu to the free space of my hard disk drive?

Nothing special. What you did earlier will still work.

> And can I be sure that only 2 partitions will be created on the
> free space by Ubuntu?

The automatic partitioning will create only two partitions, but if you
choose manual/expert partitioning, then you can create as many as you
like.

Personally I would recommend having at least "/home" live on its own
filesystem, so you then need three partitions instead of two, i.e. a
root partition (mounted as "/"), a swap partition (which does not
require a userspace mountpoint as it is mounted into the kernel
directly) and a separate partition mounted on "/home". This allows you
to safeguard your personal data if you ever decide to reinstall/upgrade
the operating system itself.

> (I had bad experiences with GP Parted and if it is possible would
> prefer doing without any partition editor software).

I have never used gparted myself, so I cannot give you any
recommendations there, other than that some of the distributions I've
mentioned higher up - e.g. PCLinuxOS - include their own partitioning
tools, which are quite userfriendly and have both expert and "normal"
modes, and are also capable of automatically creating a partitioning
layout for you (which you can either accept or decline).

> Thanks in advance for guidances.

The most important advice is probably that you should always create
backups of your important data before you embark on such an adventure on
your main computer. In addition to that, I would recommend making
backups, and you should also consider making backups. Oh, and just
before I forget: make backups.

Did I already mention that you should make backups? ;-)

--
= Aragorn =
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)

Mel Bourne

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Feb 21, 2012, 4:52:03 AM2/21/12
to
On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:58:18 +0100, Aragorn wrote:

> On Tuesday 21 February 2012 09:17, Mel Bourne conveyed the following to
> alt.comp.linux...
>
>> Absolute Beginner.
>>
>> I installed from a CD Ubuntu 11.10 alongside Win XP (dual boot).
>> The installer automatically created 2 new partitions for Ubuntu.
>> All went well, I was able to download all updates for the operating
>> system and (NVIDIA) driver. I also successfully changed the booting
>> sequences.
>>
>> I then was trying setting up dual monitors which proved to be a
>> futile exercise.
>>
>> Even after numerous reboots the monitors did not display anything
>> but instead produced 'black screens' or 'Ubuntu default color'
>> without any icons to click on.
>>
>> I mouse-clicked (left and right) all over the screens but no
>> responses.
>
> I don't know what was the cause of your problem here, but there is a
> brief tutorial on how to set up dual monitors with Ubuntu, here...
>
> http://tinyurl.com/27dfzj6
>
> (http://preview.tinyurl.com/27dfzj6)

Thanks for the links, I will go thru these documents carfully.
No particular reasons for using Ubuntu. I try Mint if I'm experiencing
problems with the next (Ubuntu) installation.

I just want to learn and get used of the Linuxs system. Once I'm more
confident and familiar I ditch Windows for good.

>> Questions:
>> What precautions and prerequisites need to be observed in order
>> to re-install Ubuntu to the free space of my hard disk drive?
>
> Nothing special. What you did earlier will still work.

Well, earlier my hard drive wasn't partitioned! I used the recommended
Automatic partition resizing option, Ubuntu installer created the
partitions itself.

Since I have now a 'free space partition' will Ubuntu installer recognise
this (the free space partition) and install itself to the free space?
(I am concerned that the Ubuntu installer may create 2 more partitions).
Thanks for response!

Aragorn

unread,
Feb 21, 2012, 5:25:51 AM2/21/12
to
On Tuesday 21 February 2012 10:52, Mel Bourne conveyed the following to
alt.comp.os.linux...

> On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:58:18 +0100, Aragorn wrote:
>
>> On Tuesday 21 February 2012 09:17, Mel Bourne conveyed the following
>> to alt.comp.linux...
>>
>>> Absolute Beginner.
>>>
>>> I installed from a CD Ubuntu 11.10 alongside Win XP (dual boot).
>>> The installer automatically created 2 new partitions for Ubuntu.
>>> All went well, I was able to download all updates for the operating
>>> system and (NVIDIA) driver. I also successfully changed the booting
>>> sequences.
>>>
>>> I then was trying setting up dual monitors which proved to be a
>>> futile exercise.
>>>
>>> Even after numerous reboots the monitors did not display anything
>>> but instead produced 'black screens' or 'Ubuntu default color'
>>> without any icons to click on.
>>>
>>> I mouse-clicked (left and right) all over the screens but no
>>> responses.
>>
>> I don't know what was the cause of your problem here, but there is a
>> brief tutorial on how to set up dual monitors with Ubuntu, here...
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/27dfzj6
>>
>> (http://preview.tinyurl.com/27dfzj6)
>
> Thanks for the links, I will go thru these documents carfully.

It's one link, actually. The second one is just a courtesy link for in
the event that people mistrust the poster, given that TinyURL is a
redirector and that one never knows in advance what it points to. The
second link tells you what it points to without opening the quoted link.
;-)
Well, Ubuntu is non-standard in many ways. For one, it has a special
graphical interface called Unity, developed by Canonical. Unity was
originally intended to be a GUI for netbooks, but then Canonical started
pushing it for regular desktop workstations as well.

Furthermore, Ubuntu uses Upstart instead of a traditional SysV init
system and will soon be switching to Wayland as the display server,
whereas most other distributions still prefer sticking to an X11 display
server. Wayland is faster because it runs in the kernel, but at the
same time, the more things run in the kernel, the more risks there are
for system stability. And in addition to that, Wayland does not support
network transparency, while X11 does.

In overall, Mint appears to be garnering more favor than Ubuntu these
days, and even Distrowatch seems to confirm this.

> I just want to learn and get used of the Linuxs system. Once I'm more
> confident and familiar I ditch Windows for good.

Do bear in mind that GNU/Linux is a UNIX-style operating system, and
that the whole paradigm of UNIX is entirely juxtaposed to that of
Microsoft Windows. Weaning yourself off from the Microsoft Think (tm)
should be your first priority.

Therefore, it is probably best that you go with a more general purpose
distribution than with something so "branded" as Ubuntu. Of course,
there are variants of Ubuntu with a different graphical user interface -
e.g. Xubuntu (with XFCE) or Lubuntu (with LXDE) - and nothing stops you
from installing the packages of such an alternative desktop environment
even on Ubuntu proper, but as a beginner you would probably want
something more versatile "out of the box".

>>> Questions:
>>> What precautions and prerequisites need to be observed in order
>>> to re-install Ubuntu to the free space of my hard disk drive?
>>
>> Nothing special. What you did earlier will still work.
>
> Well, earlier my hard drive wasn't partitioned! I used the recommended
> Automatic partition resizing option, Ubuntu installer created the
> partitions itself.
>
> Since I have now a 'free space partition' will Ubuntu installer
> recognise this (the free space partition) and install itself to the
> free space? (I am concerned that the Ubuntu installer may create 2
> more partitions).

Yes, it will use the free space. Generally, the partitioning tools in
distribution installers pull some "magic" in order to identify existing
operating systems by way of the partition table entries.

A partition table entry always has a field for the type of partition
[*], which generally corresponds to the filesystem on the partition, but
this need not necessarily be the case. So if there is empty space and
the installer finds an existing installation - or Windows - then it will
leave those alone and it will use the empty space.


[*] A Linux-native filesystem will have partition type "83". This is
for filesystems that the Linux kernel has native support for, i.e.
filesystems that the system itself can be installed on. At present,
this comprises of the following filesystem types: ext2, ext3, ext4,
reiserfs, xfs, jfs, and btrfs (with kernels that support this).
Type "82" is reserved for "Linux swap". Other types may correspond
to msdos/vfat (FAT/FAT32), HPFS/NTFS (OS/2 and NT-based Windows),
Solaris, et al.

Note: UNIX systems in general do not care whether a partition is
primary or logical, but unless you have a GPT hard disk, you can
only have 4 primary partitions as per hardware design - the legacy
BIOS boot code checks for that - and if you need more partitions,
then one of the primary partitions has to be an extended partition
container with logical partitions in it. You can also use logical
volume management instead, but that's a bit more complicated to set
up for a newbie. It is however more flexible, because LVM volumes
can be enlarged easily, and they also offer snapshot functionality.

Norman Peelman

unread,
Feb 21, 2012, 6:24:05 AM2/21/12
to
On 02/21/2012 03:17 AM, Mel Bourne wrote:
> Absolute Beginner.
>
> I installed from a CD Ubuntu 11.10 alongside Win XP (dual boot).
> The installer automatically created 2 new partitions for Ubuntu.
> All went well, I was able to download all updates for the operating system
> and (NVIDIA) driver. I also successfully changed the booting sequences.
>
> I then was trying setting up dual monitors which proved to be a
> futile exercise.
>
> Even after numerous reboots the monitors did not display anything
> but instead produced 'black screens' or 'Ubuntu default color'
> without any icons to click on.
>
> I mouse-clicked (left and right) all over the screens but no responses.
>
> So I decided to uninstall Ubuntu. In Windows (Desk Management) I
> manually deleted the 2 partitions created by Ubuntu and used
> Windows XP's disk management tool to restore the bootloader using
> the Windows XP install disk (fixboot and fixmbr).
>
> My (C) drive in Windows has now 2 partitions viz 46.76 GB NTFS
> for Win XP and 27.77 GB Free space.
>
> Since I wish to steer away from Windows and migrate gradually to
> Ubuntu (Linux), I naturally like to re-install Ubuntu 11.10 to
> the existing free space of my (C) drive creating the partition
> set up as previously.
>
> Questions:
> What precautions and prerequisites need to be observed in order
> to re-install Ubuntu to the free space of my hard disk drive?
> And can I be sure that only 2 partitions will be created on the
> free space by Ubuntu?
>
> (I had bad experiences with GP Parted and if it is possible would prefer
> doing without any partition editor software).
>
> Thanks in advance for guidances.

More info is required. What did you 'try' to do to get dual monitors
working (asking as I stare into my dual monitor setup)? It would have
been much easier if you had asked first but now we have to start all over.

GParted will ask you about where to install - choose the empty
space. Ubuntu will make the same partitions again. After
installing/updating use the nvidia settings manager (run as root) to
enable the dual screens and save (need to be root for the save to work).


--
Norman
Registered Linux user #461062
AMD64X2 6400+ Ubuntu 10.04 64bit

J G Miller

unread,
Feb 21, 2012, 9:54:40 AM2/21/12
to
Op dinsdag, 21 februari, 2012 om 09:58:18u +0100, schreef Aragorn:

> I have my personal objections to Ubuntu

If you have not already seen this article,
you may well find it interesting.


<http://dehype.ORG/2012/ubuntu-design/>

"Ubuntu: you’re doing it wrong"

Fabian A. Scherschel

February 20th, 2012

Aragorn

unread,
Feb 21, 2012, 10:29:38 AM2/21/12
to
On Tuesday 21 February 2012 15:54, J G Miller conveyed the following to
alt.comp.os.linux...
I hadn't seen this article yet, no, but I've read it and I've just
forwarded it via e-mail to one of my friends who simply cannot
understand why I don't like Ubuntu. ;-)

Mel Bourne

unread,
Feb 21, 2012, 11:39:31 PM2/21/12
to
So, I select "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows XP"?

Sorry for being such a drag.
Thanks again for your very useful and informative post.

Mel Bourne

unread,
Feb 21, 2012, 11:46:11 PM2/21/12
to
Well, on Windows the multiple display mode is configured independendly from
each other (Dualview).

Both my monitors were connected during installation of Ubuntu 11.10. After
completion, the primary monitor displayed Ubuntu's default screen with
icons shown vertically on the left hand side as I look on to my monitor
setup.

The other (secondary) monitor also functioned but only displayed the Ubuntu
default color scheme with no icons displayed. I updated the operating sytem
as recommended and also was prompted to download the latest driver of
NVIDIA. All went well but I was not able using the secondary monitor as the
screen turned 'white' and the mouse pointer converted to an 'x'.

I opened the NVIDIA control panel and enabled the second monitor and did a
few other things I forget :-( (I remeber clicking on an X-Cinema button or
something like that) resulting in the complete disappearance of icons on
the Ubuntu screen. I did numerous reboots but the situation did not improve
- the screens were either 'black' or displayed the Ubuntu color scheme
without any icons displayed.

> It would have been much easier if you had asked first but now we have
> to start all over.

Yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing :-)

I hope that my next attempt installing Ubuntu is going to be more
successful.

> GParted will ask you about where to install - choose the empty space.

As I mentioned in my post I would not like using an partition editor.

> Ubuntu will make the same partitions again. After installing/updating use
> the nvidia settings manager (run as root) to enable the dual screens and
> save (need to be root for the save to work).

Thanks for your post.

Aragorn

unread,
Feb 22, 2012, 1:15:34 PM2/22/12
to
On Wednesday 22 February 2012 05:39, Mel Bourne conveyed the following
to alt.comp.os.linux...

> On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:25:51 +0100, Aragorn wrote:
>
>> [Mel Bourne wrote:]
>>
>>> Since I have now a 'free space partition' will Ubuntu installer
>>> recognise this (the free space partition) and install itself to the
>>> free space? (I am concerned that the Ubuntu installer may create 2
>>> more partitions).
>>
>> Yes, it will use the free space.
>
> So, I select "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows XP"?

Yes, that is correct. It will also make your Windows partition(s)
available from within GNU/Linux, usually under the "/mnt" directory -
something like "/mnt/win_c", or something similar.

Aragorn

unread,
Feb 22, 2012, 1:20:11 PM2/22/12
to
> I opened the NVIDIA control panel and enabled the second monitor and
> did a few other things I forget :-( (I remeber clicking on an X-Cinema
> button or something like that) resulting in the complete disappearance
> of icons on the Ubuntu screen.

You mean Xinerama. Xinerama is useful for dual monitor support, but
when you're using the proprietary nVidia driver, you should _not_ be
using Xinerama. The proprietary nVidia driver has its own multi-monitor
set-up, called TwinView.

> I did numerous reboots but the situation did not improve - the screens
> were either 'black' or displayed the Ubuntu color scheme without any
> icons displayed.

That is usually the consequence of the virtual desktop being set to a
higher resolution than the physical monitor is set to. The icons are
there, but they are out of your physical view. ;-)

Mel Bourne

unread,
Feb 22, 2012, 11:08:03 PM2/22/12
to
On Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:20:11 +0100, Aragorn wrote:

>> I opened the NVIDIA control panel and enabled the second monitor and
>> did a few other things I forget :-( (I remeber clicking on an X-Cinema
>> button or something like that) resulting in the complete disappearance
>> of icons on the Ubuntu screen.
>
> You mean Xinerama. Xinerama is useful for dual monitor support, but
> when you're using the proprietary nVidia driver, you should _not_ be
> using Xinerama. The proprietary nVidia driver has its own multi-monitor
> set-up, called TwinView.

I'll be heeding your advise, thanks

>> I did numerous reboots but the situation did not improve - the screens
>> were either 'black' or displayed the Ubuntu color scheme without any
>> icons displayed.
>
> That is usually the consequence of the virtual desktop being set to a
> higher resolution than the physical monitor is set to. The icons are
> there, but they are out of your physical view. ;-)

My primary monitor is a 32" LCD TV, I would've thought seeing at least a
fraction of something... Anyway, I am now ready to re-install Ubuntu wish
me luck :-) ...and thanks for your valuable input!

Jack Falstaff

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May 13, 2012, 10:27:29 PM5/13/12
to
On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:58:18 +0100, Aragorn
<str...@telenet.be.invalid> wrote:

>Is there any particular reason why it must be Ubuntu?

why not ubuntu?

J.F

J G Miller

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May 14, 2012, 7:30:10 AM5/14/12
to
On Sunday, May 13th, 2012, at 23:27:29h -0300, Jack Falstaff wrote:

> why not ubuntu?

Because Ubuntu has moved towards a cellphone desktop interface
and is in the process of jettisoning X11.

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