Ubuntu...

[mylon]

Just did a fresh install of windows and dual-booted Ubuntu the other day finally.
I have a question for you linux users: How can i make a partition that's shared between Ubuntu and Win? For music and such.
I shrunk my Win partition to leave 50 gb of unallocated space. I then tried to format it to ntfs in GParted, but it won't let me.
I'm trying to follow this tutorial http://lifehacker.com/5403100/dual+boot ... ct-harmony and im not very knowledgeable.

Also, general Linux/Ubuntu if there isn't already one.

[SunkLo]

You should be able to format it as ntfs and mount it from ubuntu. You used to need an ntfs package for Ubuntu but they might have implemented it in the more recent versions.

[mylon]

that's what i thought.
the only option is "new". and when i click that i get this.

It is not possible to create more than 4 primary partitions
If you want more partitions you should first create an extended partition. Such a partition can contain other partitions. Because an extended partition is also a primary partition it might be necessary to remove a primary partition first.

[mylon]

ok "fixed". turns out my main windows partition is ntfs so i can just mount that drive and access all of my windows files from ubuntu when i want.

[tyger]

that's ok, then.

as it says, you can only have 4 primary partitions. that is independent of the operating system.

[particle-jim]

I honestly thought this thread was gunna be about cola...

[mylon]

I honestly thought this thread was gunna be about cola...

[SunkLo]

>sudo bring me a cola

[DustyBunzzz]

>sudo bring me a cola

[gorillabearbear]

they stopped selling ubuntu cola at the shops at my uni campus. Not happy.

[ghst]

Just upgraded to 11.10, pretty swish!

[mylon]

Do you have any suggestions on where to start learning about....ubuntu/linux?

[slothrop]

Just upgraded to 11.10, pretty swish!

I upgraded my work box to 11.04 a couple of weeks ago. Ugh. Don't know what else has changed under the covers but I'm not impressed by this Unity thing - getting a really smooth and usable user interface involves spending an absolute shitload of time making sure that everything's exactly how it intuitively should be and that all the little details work just right, not just copping a few high level features off a different user interface that's known for being usable...

[bjackman]

Do you have any suggestions on where to start learning about....ubuntu/linux?

regarding ubuntu, the Community Documentation and Ubuntu Forums are one of those things you probably just ignore, but is actually really good.

The Linux Documentation Project has a fucking ridiculous amount of stuff on there. Some really useful How-Tos and loads of articles that will help you learn about the technical aspect.

One thing I would say is that if you are just getting into the Linux world you should make a strong effort not to just use Ubuntu like you use Windows. For example, work on using Bash through the terminal instead of relying on GUIs. Once you're comfortable using the command line you will find you make such better use of a computer.
When you have mastered simple things like file manipulatio, you might want to start writing shell scripts for complicated tasks and aliases for common tasks.
(just yesterday this guy was telling me about how he was asked by his boss to re-organise a massive load of files that were in a bad directory structure in Windows. He was given 3 days for the job. When he told his linux-user friend, who was by no means an expert, she spent an hour working out how to do the job in a Bash script - which she ran under Cygwin, and then the job was done.)

Another thing is to try to really make use of the features the environment provides. Most linux environments have a multi-desktop facility, where you can have windows open as if on separate screens and switch between them from the keyboard. It's so much more convenient than fumbling around minimising and clicking on the start bar.

Also make a real effort to use keyboard shortcuts - computers are so much more bearable when you don't have to use the mouse! In Firefox ctrl+k puts your cursor in the search bar and ctrl+l puts it in the URL bar. Combine that with page-up/down, ctrl+tab / ctrl+shift+tab for switching tabs and you can really notice the difference in the welfare of your right hand!

Oh and one more thing - "man". Every program/command (and even some other things) has a built-in manual page in Linux. They aren't the most readable things but once you make an effort to get the hang of the format they are seriously useful. If you want to know what the "less" utility does, type "man less" and you will get a very detailed explaination of how to use it. Type "/" then your search term to search a man page, then hit N to jump to the next result.

So, that's a very long lecture from a fairly new and evangelical Linux user. I'm still using Ubuntu (or more precisely, Linux Mint, almost the same but with the main difference that it comes with more proprietary codecs and drivers, I think). I am starting to get the impression that Ubuntu is really too bloated and slow, but I'm sticking with it for now until I get some more expertise, simply because of the forums and documentation.

TL;DR lots of opinions and tips for new linux users.

edit: if you ever have any reason to remotely control computers, SSH is fucking sweet! It lets you securely log in to a computer far away just by typing ssh [username]@[ip]. It's really integrated into the linux architecture so it's trivial to set up and comes installed on most distributions.

[slothrop]

SSH -XY is even sweeter...

Out of interest, does anyone know of a sensible way of buying a notebook to run Linux on, such that stuff like wireless networking and audio will Just Work? I quite want something to hack around on, but am rather aware from past experience that there's a tendency to end up with something where random but essential bits of hardware don't have Linux support...

[bjackman]

SSH -XY is even sweeter...

Out of interest, does anyone know of a sensible way of buying a notebook to run Linux on, such that stuff like wireless networking and audio will Just Work? I quite want something to hack around on, but am rather aware from past experience that there's a tendency to end up with something where random but essential bits of hardware don't have Linux support...

what does Y do? i normally do -CX, C makes it compress the data so you can forward the X connection over a mediocre network. From the man page it sounds like Y makes the X connection more secure is that right?

As to your question, I bought an eeePC 701 (complete shit - 4Gb storage you can't upgrade - but v cheap) and Ubuntu Just Worked - you had to click a little icon in the bottom to "activate" the wireless driver, which required being plugged into an ethernet connection. It all worked fine; that was just because the driver was proprietary and they don't like including owned software by default.

Canonical maintain some lists of supported harware for Ubuntu (although they refer to it as the hardware being "ubuntu friendly" rather than ubuntu supporting the hardware - seems a bit arrogant.)

http://friendly.ubuntu.com/
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/switching/ ... dware.html

I would guess that if Ubuntu supports hardware then so do other distributions.

[ghst]

Took me a while of pissing around with my netbook to get it to dualboot nicely, but apart from the install everythings worked perfectly driver wise. Not too bad netbook either, 250gbhd, dual core amd with dedicated graphics chip...Lenovo s205. http://helms-deep.cable.nu/~rwh/blog/?p=177

[mylon]

i'm using the GRUB bootloader 'cause it's default, but sometimes nothing comes up and the screen just stays pink, until time's up and it starts ubuntu. is there a way to change the bootloader or fix this or make it so if it does that, it will start windows or...dunno