Using Ubuntu

[Mao_Zedong]

To start, I am planning on building a computer in the next few weeks, and I will be putting ubuntu on it to start to save some money. I want to run ubuntu on my laptop for a bit before I build my computer, so that I won'y need to deal with learning it later. 

 

I looked at the website, so I generally know how to install it, but I still have some questions.

Should I run it in a virtual machine, or is dual booting a better option?

If a virtual machine is better, which one should I use?

Should I use Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS or Ubuntu 15.04, and why?

Is there anything else I should know before trying this?

 

Thats basically it, so thanks for reading.

[Castdeath97]

What are you gonna do in it? If your laptop has enough cores and ram and you are planing to only do basic tasks use a virtual machine. And the LTS versions are for insuituions and organsiations that dont want to bother upgrading and want long term support, which I guess you need.

[Mao_Zedong]

Dual booting has better optimization than a virtual machine. That's a better choice

 

Get 14.04 LTS because it has long term support. It's more refined, not as buggy, will receive more updates, and is probably faster than 15.04 overall.

 

Anything else? Mmm, learning basic sudo commands for the terminal can't hurt. Other than that, you're good to go.

 

What are you gonna do in it? If your laptop has enough cores and ram and you are planing to only do basic tasks use a virtual machine. And the LTS versions are for insuituions and organsiations that dont want to bother upgrading and want long term support, which I guess you need.

It will be on a laptop with an intel 4210y CPU and 4gb ram. From these replies I will be using version 14.04. I will probably dual boot, as I want to use it decently heavily. 

[Taswell]

I Highly Recommend the Drop down Terminal Plugin

[Guest]

Dual-Boot! That way, you have the ability to recover stuff off of your Windows Partition if it corrupts! And you should use 15.04, it's newer.

[DaiGurenMK42]

Dual-Boot. It may seem confusing at first but it has become really simple recently. Use Linux Mint or Ubuntu Gnome version. I prefer Mint because it is simpler to understand and use while still having almost all of the Ubuntu repositories.

Dual-boot will use all of the computer, virtualmachine will lag if you do not have a powerful system and enough RAM.

[berserker]

as a former ubuntu user i recomend you to follow this guide rightaway after installing the image on your pc as a second boot on a different partition for obvious security causes

 

http://howtoubuntu.org/things-to-do-after-installing-ubuntu-14-04-trusty-tahr

 

 

plus, if you have to install programs use the terminal with the commands you can find on the interwebs as the store or software center is slow and untrustworthy ( at least for  my experience )

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

While a virtual machine is nice and all, you still have to deal with the overhead of Windows so the Ubuntu install can't use all the laptop's resources. 

On the other hand if you plan to keep the laptop on Windows afterwards, perhaps a virtual machine is more interesting than a dualboot because it's easier to revert back to normal.

 

Virtualbox is by far the most common VM program and I know that Ubuntu runs just fine in it, but it's from Oracle, a company whose products I'm reluctant to use due to the way they ruined OpenOffice.

[Mao_Zedong]

Ok so I tried to make a partition on my drive, but it only let me take out around 3gb, even though there were over 30gb available. Is there a way to fix this? I tried checking the drive for errors, but there weren't any.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

It may need to be defragmented, or perhaps there's a system restore file occupying that area of the hard drive. (those tend to do stuff like that, for some reason Windows likes to put them near the end of the disk)

 

Get Defraggler and see what's stopping you from shrinking it further.  The bit closest to the end is the culprit.

[Mao_Zedong]

It may need to be defragmented, or perhaps there's a system restore file occupying that area of the hard drive. 

 

Get Defraggler and see what's stopping you from shrinking it further.  The bit closest to the end is the culprit.

It is an ssd, and I heard that defragmenting an ssd will damage it. Should I still do it?

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

hmm ... it'll shorten the lifespan indeed.  Not that you're likely to ever run into the SSDs limitation, but it's something I'd like to avoid too.

 

I'm thinking more and more that it's system restore.  Try turning it off.

 

Right-click "my computer" and select "Properties"

In the blue area on the left, select "System Protection"

Select your C drive and press "configure"

Turn off system protection and delete all restore points (the "delete" button at the bottom)

Apply and close.

 

Now try to shrink the partition again.  If you want, you can re-activate system restore afterwards and create a restore point. 

[Mao_Zedong]

hmm ... it'll shorten the lifespan indeed.  Not that you're likely to ever run into the SSDs limitation, but it's something I'd like to avoid too.

 

I'm thinking more and more that it's system restore.  Try turning it off.

 

Right-click "my computer" and select "Properties"

In the blue area on the left, select "System Protection"

Select your C drive and press "configure"

Turn off system protection and delete all restore points (the "delete" button at the bottom)

Apply and close.

 

Now try to shrink the partition again.  If you want, you can re-activate system restore afterwards and create a restore point. 

I deleted most of the restore points, but it still only had 3000mb that could be taken out.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

You need to delete all of them, not just a few.  If you leave even one and that one is the one closest to what Windows considers to be the end of the drive, you'll not be able to shrink it any further than that.  So delete ALL restore points and try to resize again. 

 

If you still don't get enough space at that point, you'll either have to defrag or re-install Windows and get the partitioning done right during the installation.

[Mao_Zedong]

You need to delete all of them, not just a few.  If you leave even one and that one is the one closest to what Windows considers to be the end of the drive, you'll not be able to shrink it any further than that.  So delete ALL restore points and try to resize again. 

 

If you still don't get enough space at that point, you'll either have to defrag or re-install Windows and get the partitioning done right during the installation.

I tried all of that besides installing windows, but nothing worked. I also tried to take space from another partition and use that, but it wouldn't go into that partition. Do you know how to make it so it will combine into it?

[berserker]

in my case, i used a different hard drive just for ubuntu, if you have a spare one just use that!!!

ooor you could install it on a flash drive, although you would have performance limitations due to the speed of the usb !

[Neil]

You should do two things:

 

1. Not use Ubuntu. Use Debian. You'll thank me later. I could go into an explanation of why you should never use ubuntu, but I've done that way too many times on these forums...
2. Use a different hard drive instead of partitioning your existing one. You're going to run into problems booting into windows if you put it on the same drive as Windows, as GRUB will overwrite the bootloader, and then you'll come looking for help.

[Mao_Zedong]

 

You should do two things:

 

1. Not use Ubuntu. Use Debian. You'll thank me later. I could go into an explanation of why you should never use ubuntu, but I've done that way too many times on these forums...
2. Use a different hard drive instead of partitioning your existing one. You're going to run into problems booting into windows if you put it on the same drive as Windows, as GRUB will overwrite the bootloader, and then you'll come looking for help.

 

Well I already got ubuntu (at least mostly) working, so I'll keep it like this for a bit. I may look at other distros later, but ubuntu is fine for now.

 

This is a laptop, so I can't use a different drive. 

[Opcode]

If you use your laptop for only web surfing, media, messaging, emails and them types of tasks (pretty much everything but gaming) then I would just wipe the machine and install Ubuntu 15.04. Most people use laptops for such tasks and not gaming and that's one of the places where I think the Linux desktop shines.

[Vebb]

Happy dual-booting, just rember that you will not be able to remove ubuntu from that drive without completly formating the drive. You will not be allowed to format the Ubuntu partition from Windows and if you are. Then you will still have a very small partition with grub on, which is a pain in the ass. Therefore as I can't see you running any demanding apps on ubuntu you are better off sticking with windows or using a virtual machine. You could use a seperate pc, that would be the best option.