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I am thinking about installing Ubuntu linux, and I didn't know what I
needed. I have an Emachine T5026, and running XP. I don't know what I
need to dual boot (eg, BootMagic) I have PartitionMagic 8.0, but It
doesn't have BootMagic. Anyone have any suggestions of what to do?
(it's not like I can't fiddle with it, I have a backup every 2 weeks!)

chevysrock39@gmail.com wrote:

> I am thinking about installing Ubuntu linux, and I didn't know what I
> needed. I have an Emachine T5026, and running XP. I don't know what I
> need to dual boot (eg, BootMagic) I have PartitionMagic 8.0, but It
> doesn't have BootMagic. Anyone have any suggestions of what to do?

Grub is a perfectly good boot loader that can give you a choice of OSs to
boot to. It comes with Ubuntu.

--
David Dorward <http://blog.dorward.me.uk/> <http://dorward.me.uk/>
Home is where the ~/.bashrc is

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:38:47 -0800, chevysrock39 wrote:

> I am thinking about installing Ubuntu linux, and I didn't know what I
> needed. I have an Emachine T5026, and running XP. I don't know what I
> need to dual boot (eg, BootMagic) I have PartitionMagic 8.0, but It
> doesn't have BootMagic. Anyone have any suggestions of what to do?
> (it's not like I can't fiddle with it, I have a backup every 2 weeks!)
>
Caveat: I haven't setup Ubuntu. I have seen the online documentation for
that distribution, and it is very good. You should review their specific
instructions beforehand- so you'll know what to expect. My advice below
is generally applicable to any GNU/Linux distribution.

Because you have a current backup and PartitionMagic, you can use that
to prepare for the Ubuntu install. Ubuntu includes partition resizing
as part of its install, but if you are familiar with PartitionMagic
you can use that. Also, if your computer has a floppy drive, you can
make a Windows boot floppy now as a fallback position.

The first step is planning. Assuming your system has a single ide hard disc,
the space is allocated between the OSs. Here is a table which is a starting
point:

Partition Used for Size or % Comments
--------- ----------- ---------- ---------------------
MBR boot loader 512 bytes Use grub
1 Windows ? Windows likes to be on part. 1
2 Ubuntu Swap ? size relative to RAM (1x - 2x)
3 Ubuntu root ? probably 4-8G minimum

Here is one solution for an 80G disc:

Partition Used for Size or %
--------- ----------- ----------
MBR boot loader 512 bytes
1 Windows 8G
2 Ubuntu Swap 1200M
3 Ubuntu Root 71G

Use your plan and PartitionMagic to resize your exisiting Windows partition.
This works by consolidating unused space. If your disc doesn't have enough
free space, then you might need another disc, etc. Assuming there is enough
free space for the swap and root partitions, then you can proceed.

PartitionMagic has done its job when your disc has a single partition and a
free block (unallocated space) at the end which will be used by the Ubuntu
install.

The next step is to plan how your system will boot in its final configuration.
I recommend grub because it is a very flexible boot loader. I wrote about
grub here:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....1c5ebd5c18911?

Grub can be installed either at the MBR or on a linux partition. For me, it
has been easiest to install grub at the MBR, (YMMV). You will indicate your
choice for the bootloader as part of the install.

With your plans set, boot the Ubuntu setup CD. You should be up and running
in no time.

--
Douglas Mayne

I am not too experienced with PartitionMagic, I just got it to make a
separate partition for docs. What is a Swap partition? (feeling
stoopid) I feel like a 2 year old, who can't do anything on his own.
Please help, instructions for this are like a foreign language!

<chevysrock39@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1138229812.518408.140300@g47g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>I am not too experienced with PartitionMagic, I just got it to make a
> separate partition for docs. What is a Swap partition? (feeling
> stoopid) I feel like a 2 year old, who can't do anything on his own.
> Please help, instructions for this are like a foreign language!

First, Google is really your friend for this sort of question.

Second: a "swap" partition is a place where, if you run out of memory to
hold programs and data you are actually using, you can write them to much
slower but generally vastly less expensive disk and pull them back into
faster RAM when you need them again. Swap allows a machine with only a
modest amount of RAM, such as 256 Meg on a typical low-end machine, to
handle a bunch of different large programs at the same time, such as a
suspended copy of Firefox, a PostgreSQL database you're not usually using,
somebody's copy of Emacs editing a huge file, etc., etc.

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:56:52 -0800, chevysrock39 wrote:

> I am not too experienced with PartitionMagic, I just got it to make a
> separate partition for docs. What is a Swap partition? (feeling
> stoopid) I feel like a 2 year old, who can't do anything on his own.
> Please help, instructions for this are like a foreign language!
>
Lucky for you, the internet has been invented. Anything you don't know
can be researched at the tip of your fingers. For example, your
initial post indicated you had selected Ubuntu linux. I don't know much
about that distribution, but I could find out easily enough by looking
through the website:
http://www.ubuntu.com/

Also, this is a nice article; note, all of the hyperlinks for related
concepts as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Linux

With all of the resources and documentation that is out there, my
initial post was as much spoon feeding I'm going to do. You will need
to do more research to find out where you need more help.

That is one approach. The other approach is to throw caution to the wind.
Your initial post hinted you weren't too worried about destroying your
system. Going further along that route, you could just go ahead and
install Ubuntu, and see if you can follow along well enough to see what
the install will do automatically for you. This approach assumes that
if you totally hose your system that you have at least the expertise to
put it back.

--
Douglas Mayne

chevysrock39@gmail.com wrote:
> I am not too experienced with PartitionMagic, I just got it to make a
> separate partition for docs. What is a Swap partition? (feeling
> stoopid) I feel like a 2 year old, who can't do anything on his own.
> Please help, instructions for this are like a foreign language!

one thing to be aware of;
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....1e13ea7?hl=en&