[kcihtred2]

i have my computer, (see siggy for details), with a TEW-443PI wireless card in it from trendnet, and a TEW-452BRP router from trendnet. I want to get 20gb of my hard drive to a linux boot, the only problem is i dont no what linux to choose or how to do a dual boot.

[mphenterprises]

Hi KCihtred2. I cannot answer you first question. I can only make a suggestion. As you can see by my signature, I am running Ubuntu in a parallel workstation. I will explain more on that in a moment. So far, Ubuntu has bern pretty good.

In relation to your second question, I have two suggestions for you. Now, if you truly want to do a dual boot system, I would advise review this article at apc.com. I look to this site whenever I want to set up any dual boot or multiple boot configuration.

If you only want to try Ubuntu and see if it works for you, try doing what I have done and running Ubuntu via a parallel workstation. Click on this link to learn more about Virtual Machine.

[kcihtred2]

ok, i did a little research and my wireless card is NOT supported, but i have an old wireless b card that can hook up, but what im worried about is whether you can have 2 wireless cards in a system at once? at that 2 different ones and does the WMP11v4 work with ubuntu?

[gearGE]

Windows Media Player 11 working under linux?-) This is new!-) Well, technically it is posible to run some of Windows software under linux, with the help of a program called Wine (read this article on PCWorld for some extra info). What it does is not exectly virtualization, but something more on the line of creating a win32 like bubble inside linux, in whitch some Windows apps can run. There are reports about alot of Windows software working quite comfortable inside Wine (even somewhat new games). I personally am runing Apple iTunes with Wine here, without any nasty problams. As for WMP working on linux, I don't think that will ever be possible (not with Wine, no). But with linux, you don't actually need that media player. There are alot of really good media players for linux out there. You just have to start with the right linux. Ubuntu is really good (recognized all of my hardware automatically:-). But in default some media file formats are not supported, thus you won't be able to open some media files untill you install extra codecs (that are not freely available;-). Why not start streight with Mandriva Linux (read this article on Wikipedia) it seems to be most user friendly to date.

[smax013]

gearGE said:

Windows Media Player 11 working under linux?-) This is new!-) Well, technically it is posible to run some of Windows software under linux, with the help of a program called Wine (read this article on PCWorld for some extra info). What it does is not exectly virtualization, but something more on the line of creating a win32 like bubble inside linux, in whitch some Windows apps can run. There are reports about alot of Windows software working quite comfortable inside Wine (even somewhat new games). I personally am runing Apple iTunes with Wine here, without any nasty problams. As for WMP working on linux, I don't think that will ever be possible (not with Wine, no). But with linux, you don't actually need that media player. There are alot of really good media players for linux out there. You just have to start with the right linux. Ubuntu is really good (recognized all of my hardware automatically:-). But in default some media file formats are not supported, thus you won't be able to open some media files untill you install extra codecs (that are not freely available;-). Why not start streight with Mandriva Linux (read this article on Wikipedia) it seems to be most user friendly to date.

I believe the OP was referring to a wireless adapter when referring to a WMP11v4 NOT Windoze Media Player.

[kcihtred2]

well anyways if someone could please send me a copy of a file to make my TEW-443PI wireless card work, and an installation guide, i would be in your debt. If not then the WMP11v4. Also how do you make it boot into ubuntu? cause it will only boot to xp when i start up with the disk in the drive.

[mphenterprises]

Hi KCihtred. Once the installation of Ubuntu is complete, you should have a dual boot configuration. Take the Ubuntu CD out of the drive and restart the computer. You should now be able to choose which Operating System you would like to use. I provided a link to a very good step by step guide in my initial post.

[kcihtred2]

i cant get it to install because i dont no how to partition the hard drive

[smax013]

kcihtred2 said:

i cant get it to install because i dont no how to partition the hard drive

I use Partition Magic (now owned by Symantec, but they have not yet managed to destroy it). Or you could look at Acronis Disk Director. Unfortunately, each costs money. Partition Magic will let you do non-destructive partitioning, but you should still back up before you re-partition (partitioning is a "dangerous" disk operation even if it will supposedly be non-destructive). I believe Disk Director is non-destructive as well, but I don't know for sure.



If you want try free options, then you can take a look at this site. GParted Live CD is typically thought of as a good free option, I believe.

[mphenterprises]

Okay, that makes all the difference. :-) Smax and I would definitely agree that the easiest and most effective way to partition a hard drive is to use Partition Magic. Yes, it is $70 but it is money well spent, in my opinion.

Windows has a built in Disk Management utility that would allow you to management the existing partitions. However, there is no tool to create new partitions.

The only other option is to use the GParted Live CD that should have come with your Ubuntu CD. If not, you can download the GParted Live CD.

[gearGE]

> Windows has a built in Disk Management utility that would allow you to management the existing partitions. However, there is no tool to create new partitions.
[/quote]

Not exectly! The Disk Management utility in Windows can create new partitions. It gives you the ability to create 4 Primary partitionos or up to 3 Primary partitionos and an Extended partition (that itselfe can hold any other partitions you might need). But you are limited to useing FAT* and NTFS filesystems or not formating at all. And if you only have a C: drive in your systam this tool won't be of any help as it has no ability to resize existing partitions. It also lacks many other abilities that are only found in third party software, but it is anough for a beginer working under Windows (or dual booting:-)

[mphenterprises]

Hi Gear. Welcome to PCWorld. :-)




If you could, please provide some steps as to how one would create partitions using the default Windows Disk Management utility. This question came up once. Someone could not find how to use that utility to create separate partitions. I have that application open now and I still cannot see how to create a partition.

This would clear up a lot of confusion and potentially save people money.

[smax013]

mphenterprises said:

Hi Gear. Welcome to PCWorld. :-)




If you could, please provide some steps as to how one would create partitions using the default Windows Disk Management utility. This question came up once. Someone could not find how to use that utility to create separate partitions. I have that application open now and I still cannot see how to create a partition.

This would clear up a lot of confusion and potentially save people money.

When in Computer Management, select Help Topics from the Help menu. Then look under "Disk Management" > "How To ..." > "Manage basic volumes". You will find help docs for "Create a partition or logical drive", "Delete a partition or logical drive", and "Extend a basic volume". I will note that the disadvantage of the built-in partitioning ability, I believe, is that it is all destructive partitioning. In otherwords, if you don't have a backup, your data goes "bye bye". The advantage of Partition Magic, and the like, is that in theory you can mess with partitions and NOT kill your files (but you should still backup to be on the safe side...the advantage is that you don't have to restore stuff).

[mphenterprises]

Hi Smax. Yes, you and I have always been in agreement that Partition Magic is, by far, the best partitioning application.

You are correct, it is a "kill and then rebuild" technique with the Disk Management utility. I hoped that Gear knew of a way to circumvent that situation. All in all, for the original poster's situation, I am almost positive the GParted Live CD should work for him.

[smax013]

mphenterprises said:

Hi Smax. Yes, you and I have always been in agreement that Partition Magic is, by far, the best partitioning application.

You are correct, it is a "kill and then rebuild" technique with the Disk Management utility. I hoped that Gear knew of a way to circumvent that situation. All in all, for the original poster's situation, I am almost positive the GParted Live CD should work for him.

I am not sure I would make a blanket statement that Partition Magic is the best...it is certainly better than what comes built into Windoze XP (haven't used Vista yet to know if they "improved" things or not). But, as I have never used other partition programs, such as Acronis' Disk Director suite, I don't feel that I am in a position to say whether or not Partition Magic is better or not. All I know is that I use Partition Magic and it works rather well for my uses. ;-)

[mphenterprises]

LOL




"...Partition Magic is, by far, one of the better partitioning applications."




Better? :D

[smax013]

mphenterprises said:

LOL




"...Partition Magic is, by far, one of the better partitioning applications."





Better? :D

Sure! ;-)

[kcihtred2]

now to use the gparted software, do i burn the gparted.iso to a disk? insert it and do what it says and then use the ubuntu software?

[mphenterprises]

Hi KCihtred. Okay, here is what I did. Before I install Ubuntu, I download and, yes, burned the .iso to a CD. I already had the Ubuntu CD; however, I was not familar with Linux so I had created a separate partition using Partition Magic.

I inserted the Ubuntu CD and kept the GParted Live CD handy in case I needed it. I followed the on-screen instructions provided with the Ubuntu CD. During this time, I was able to configure the allocated hard drive space (in my case, virtual hard drive space.). Once completed, the process prompted me to take the Ubuntu CD out of the CD drive and restart the computer. Once I did that, I was able to successfully open Ubuntu without the CD in the CD drive and without having to use the GParted Live CD.

So, my theory is that for those that do not have the actual Linux version Operating System CD, GParted is the way to create the partition. Then, once you have downloaded Ubuntu from the website, you can install Ubuntu as normal.

My theory is obviously just that since I have never actually used the GParted Live CD but I am pretty confident that is what would happen.

[smax013]

mphenterprises said:

Hi KCihtred. Okay, here is what I did. Before I install Ubuntu, I download and, yes, burned the .iso to a CD. I already had the Ubuntu CD; however, I was not familar with Linux so I had created a separate partition using Partition Magic.

I inserted the Ubuntu CD and kept the GParted Live CD handy in case I needed it. I followed the on-screen instructions provided with the Ubuntu CD. During this time, I was able to configure the allocated hard drive space (in my case, virtual hard drive space.). Once completed, the process prompted me to take the Ubuntu CD out of the CD drive and restart the computer. Once I did that, I was able to successfully open Ubuntu without the CD in the CD drive and without having to use the GParted Live CD.

So, my theory is that for those that do not have the actual Linux version Operating System CD, GParted is the way to create the partition. Then, once you have downloaded Ubuntu from the website, you can install Ubuntu as normal.

My theory is obviously just that since I have never actually used the GParted Live CD but I am pretty confident that is what would happen.

I think MPH is on point. You some how need to re-partition the drive to have a partition space that can be formatted using the Linux format and then install the Linux OS on. In his case, since he was using a virtual machine by way of WMWare, he should not have needed ANY partition software as he likely created a virtual drive (basically a big file that acts as a hard drive for the virtual machine...kind of a hard drive within a hard drive/partition) image. In your case, if you are creating a dual boot, then you need to set aside drive space formatted for Linux. Then you can run the Linux installation to install it on the drive space/partition. That is where the GParted Live CD comes into play. You should be able to boot off the GParted Live CD. This will then boot into the GParted partitioning software (I assume) and allow you to adjust your partition scheme so that you have a partition to use for Linux. It should also allow you to format it in the appropriate Linux format. Then you should be able to boot into the Linux installation CD and install Linux on that partition.



Now, while I believe GParted is a non-destructive partition software program, I still STRONGLY encourage you to backup you hard drive. Partitioning in a naturally "dangerous" hard drive activity and while the program should in theory not harm any of your data, Mr. Murphy of Murphy's Law does like to make house calls at the oddest times. So, it is a good idea to be prepared for him to show up and backup your data before doing any partitioning! That way if he does show up, you just welcome him warmly, shake his hand, and then laugh at him as you restore your data from your backup (actually, that might not be a good idea...he could decide to have "monkeyed" with your backup system so that it did not work properly...so just smile while you restore...and maybe give him a cookie or two just to be on the safe side). :-)