Xenophanez

Ubunto


There are two main methods for acquiring the Ubuntu installation media service or downloading the Ubuntu ISO image and burning it to a CD.
1. Have an Ubuntu CD shipped to you

Order the totally free (inc. shipping) Ubuntu 7.04 CDs via the Ubuntu ShipIt service. They may take a few weeks, even months, to arrive but it is a sensible choice for those who do not have a fast Internet connection or have a small usage cap.
Download and burn your own Ubuntu CD

Preferably, download and 'burn' your own copy of the CD (requires a fast internet connection and CD writer hardware) as follows:
Part 1 - Downloading the Ubuntu 'Image'

You can download an Ubuntu ISO (iso) image free of charge from the Ubuntu website.
If your PC has 256MB of RAM (or more) it is recommended that you use the latest Ubuntu 'Live' CD image. For systems with less than 256 MB, the Xubuntu 'Alternative' Installation CD image is recommended.
The 'alternative' installation CD is very much like the Windows XP install disk and is mainly text-based; whereas with the 'Live' CD you can test the operating system before installing it on your hard drive.
Part 2 - Verifying the checksum of the CD image

Once the download is complete, it is recommended to verify the checksum of the .iso image, so that you can be sure that the image has not been tampered with or corrupted during transfer.
A checksum program is needed to calculate the checksum of a file. If the resulting hexadecimal number (md5 hash) matches the number posted on the Ubuntu website then you can be sure that the file is clean and free of corruption.
Here is a step-by-step guide to verifying your downloaded Ubuntu using the program Winmd5sum:

1. Download winmd5sum
2. Open the program and select your downloaded .iso image by browsing your computer
3. Press 'calculate' (this may take some time)
4. Use the 'compare' feature to see if the md5 hash is the same as the one listed on the Ubuntu hashes list

Part 3 - 'Burning' the image to CD

1. Download and install CDBurnerXP Pro
2. Open CDBurnerXP Pro, then choose the first option to 'create a DATA CD/DVD or burn an ISO image'
3. Select 'File', then 'Write disk from an ISO file'
4. A new window will pop up, browse your computer for the Ubuntu CD image and select it
5. Select 'Finalize disk' then choose the slowest write speed possible to minimize errors
6. Select 'Write disk'
7. Once writing is finished (at ×1 should take around 15 minutes)the CD is ready to be used.

Installing Ubuntu

If you are planning on dual-booting Ubuntu with your current operating system it is recommended that you defragment your hard drive a few times before starting the Install. This can be done in Windows XP by selecting:
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System tools > Disk Defragmenter
When the program opens, select 'defragment' on each partition. This should be performed at least three or four times, per partition, depending on how long the system has been running without previous defragmentation. The Ubuntu operating system is very easy to install, this guide focuses on installing Ubuntu by using the Live CD. There are two main ways of installing Ubuntu: you can either do a clean install (no previous operating system) or you can dual-boot it to run side-by-side with another operating system such as Windows XP or Vista. The install is very similar for both but there will be some parts specific for a clean install and a dual-boot.
Install Procedure

1. First you need to make sure that the CD drive is the first boot device; this can be done by entering the BIOS (normally done by pressing delete on start up) and checking under boot priority CD/DVD is above the hard drive, if not change accordingly
2. Restart your PC with the Ubuntu CD in the drive
3. When the boot menu appears you should select the first option, which is 'Start or install Ubuntu'
4. After selecting this it may take some time to load but when it has you will have Ubuntu system running from the CD. This means you can test it out before installing permanently (note that Ubuntu will run relatively slowly from the CD compared to a hard disk drive)
5. Once you have tried Ubuntu from the live CD, you can select the 'install' icon on the desktop to start the installation
6. The first screen is language selection: you can choose the language for the rest of the install and for when you are running Ubuntu. After selecting your language, click 'forward'
7. The time-zone page will now load. First, click to zoom into your area and then select your nearest main city. After you have done this check that the time is set correctly. If it is not, you can correct this later.
8. After selecting 'forward' once again, you will come to the keyboard layout page where you should select your country and then the type of the keyboard you have. You can use the test box to try out characters such as £, $ and @ to make sure it is configured correctly
9. You then come to the 'hard drive partitioning' page

Wiping hard drive to install Ubuntu

This is by far the simplest option, all you need to do is select the second option, which should be erase entire disk. Select this and once again press forward.
Installing Ubuntu alongside another operating System (Dual-Booting)

If you feel that you know what you are doing, you can select manually edit partition table. You will need to create two new partitions; one for Ubuntu and the second to be used as swap space. Swap partition is used similarly to page files in Windows. The size of the swap partition should be 1.5-2 times the amount of physical RAM in your system; in systems with low amounts of RAM it's recommended to use even more swap space. In a dual boot system you can make the necessary partitions in few simple steps:

• Resize the Windows partition to make room for Ubuntu. You should have at least 5 GB of free space for Ubuntu and the swap partition.
• Right-click on the unpartitioned space, select "New", and then set the size to be the unpartitioned space subtracted by the size of the swap partition. Mount point should be "/", and file system "ext3"
• Make the swap partition similarly, this time letting it to fill the rest of the space and using "swap" as the file system.

Ubuntu will be able to access your Windows partition, so you can use it for storage space. There's also an ext3 driver available for Windows (Ext2 IFS For Windows), with which you can access your Ubuntu partition from Windows.
Guided partition editing

If you feel that a simpler option would be better for you, it would be easier (but not necessarily best) to use Ubuntu's Guided partition editing tool. This should be the first option in the Preparing the disk space menu. It will automatically choose a size for your new partition. You can change this if you wish and you feel you know what you are doing. After doing this select forward.
Continuing the Installation

1. If you are dual booting with Windows, next you will come to a migration menu where you can import files and settings such as email settings and your Internet bookmarks
2. On the next page you need to enter your name, your username, your password, and the computer name. Give as much or little info as you like, and remember to select a good password
3. After completing this page and selecting forward you will come to the last page, which will summarize what you are about to do. If you think you got it right and don't want to change any settings, select install. Installation may take several minutes
4. Once the installation complete you will be asked to restart, so that Ubuntu will start running from the hard drive.
5. At the end of shutting down you will be asked to remove the Ubuntu CD, after removing the CD press enter and it will continue rebooting.
6. If you set up Ubuntu alongside another operating system, the GRUB boot loader should load where you can select Ubuntu or Windows. There are also a few other options such as Memtest86 (that you can use to test your PC's memory for errors) and Ubuntu Recovery mode (that can be used for fixing Ubuntu if for some reason you can't log in). To get into Ubuntu select it from the menu and press enter
7. You should then come to the Ubuntu log-in screen, where you need to give the user name and password you entered on the account detail page to log into Ubuntu for the first time!