I started writing this little guide for one person, and then realized that I knew several other people who I’d have to repeat it to. From there I figured I’d just post it up on the blog for anybody who was interested. Of course, there’s quite a few ways to do it, but if you want to know how I recommend it, then read on!

1. Blah blah blah, back up your stuff, blah blah. :P

2. Download the CD image file from
   ubuntu.com.

3. Don't just drag and drop the .iso file you just downloaded into the CD and click burn unless your burning program specifically says that it will create the CD from the file if you do this. Usually, you have to select “Create CD from image file” somewhere in the program you're using, select the file, and click okay. If you are using Windows, I recommend using the program ImgBurn. If you are using a Mac, then you should be able to Ctrl+Click the file and tell it to burn from the file if my memory serves me correctly. If you're already using Linux, then my favorite burner is K3b, or use Brasero if you want a GTK+ program.

4. After you've made your Ubuntu install CD, boot from it! When you get to a menu that asks what you want to do now that you've booted from the CD, tell it to start the Live CD! (Just hit enter in other words, or wait 30 seconds and it'll hit enter for you).

5. Since it's booting a fully usable Ubuntu environment so that you can try it out before you install, give it a few minutes to load everything up for you. Since it's all running from the CD, don't expect it to be lightning fast.

6. After you finish playing around and you're ready to install, click the icon on the desktop that says “Install.” It'll ask you a few questions, and they should actually all be obvious enough for you to answer on your own if you like. It can even automatically partition your hard drive for you to keep your Windows installation on the computer so that when you turn your computer on, your computer will ask you if you want to boot into Windows or Ubuntu.

7. If you want to manually partition your hard drive for performance reasons or something, then keep reading. If you want to just have Ubuntu automatically set this all up for you, then you're done.

8. Your first partition should be your current Windows partition. Assuming you want to keep it, just resize it so that it takes up half your hard disk space (or however much sounds good to you). Also, to make it really easy to access your Windows files from inside of Ubuntu, select the Windows partition, click edit, change the mount point to /windows and then click okay. Now that we're back to the partition table overview, make sure that the box next to your Windows partition that asks if you want to format the partition is unchecked since we don't want to format (in other words, erase) your Windows.

9. If you've got an old Linux installation, then you've got other partitions. It's likely that you just want to delete them and start fresh, but if you have a /home partition then you might want to keep it and use it. If that's the case, then select that partition, click edit, set the mount point to /home and click okay. And again, you don't want to format this partition since the whole point is that you're trying to keep your old documents and stuff. From this point on, be aware that this guide assumes that you want to freshly install linux.

10. Select the free space on the drive and make a new partition. Make it 100 MB big, set the mount point to /boot and make the filesystem type ext2. Click okay.

11. Select the free space on the drive and make a new partition. Make it 2048 MB big andmake the filesystem type swap. Don't worry about setting a mount point at all for this one. Click okay.

12. Select the free space on the drive and make a new partition. Make it as big as two-fifths of all the remaining space (use the calculator if you need to by going to Applications and then Accessories) but definitely at least 15 GB. Set the mount point to just / and then set the filesystem type to reiserfs.

13. Select the free space on the drive and make a new partition. This is where your documents and stuff will go. I'm having you put it on a separate partition for a few reasons, one of which being that you can keep this partition and all your documents if you decide to try another version of Linux or upgrade to a future version of Ubuntu down the road, and another reason being that if you do it my way you'll be using a high performance filesystem for your files while using a rock solid filesystem for the system files. But this is optional. If you'd prefer, then make your / partition take up all the rest of the hard drive space and you're all done. Anyway, this partition can take up the rest of the hard drive space. Set the mount point to /home and set the partition type to xfs.

14. Finish up with the installer and you're all done!

Want some bonus points? Here's some stuff to do after you install!

1. If the Restricted Device Manager pops up to tell you that you can get drivers, then do so! Click the little icon on your task bar to open it up. Click the "Administrative Mode" button, and then enable the drivers (probably a graphics card, maybe a wireless card too, whatever). Then restart.

2. Go to System, then Administration, and then Synaptic Package Manager.
3. Go to Settings, then Repositories. On the Ubuntu Software tab, at the very bottom uncheck "Cdrom with Ubuntu 7.10 'Gutsy Gibbon' since we don't want to ever need the CD again. In the Third-Party Software tab, check the first one there, which ends with the word "partner." You don't need the other one. Check out the other tabs and get yourself set up however you like. Click apply, and then click okay.
4. Go to Settings, then Preferences. On the General tab, mark the box next to "Consider recommend packages as dependencies." Check out the other tabs and set yourself up however you like, and then click apply and then okay.
5. Click Reload.
6. Now that we've got Synaptic set up to be extra awesome, search for these packages and mark them for installation if they haven't already been installed. Obviously, you should leave out the stuff inside the parenthesis.
   • emerald (theme manager for when you're using Compiz Fusion, which you'll want to do since it's just awesome)

   • subversion (a way of getting files and doing work collaboratively, used by lots of programs, namely Emerald)
   • compizconfig-settings-manager (gives you lots of control over Compiz Fusion, you'll want this)
   • gnome-compiz-manager (will help tie Compiz Fusion into your Gnome desktop in ways that makes this package worth having. if you're using Kubuntu, Xubuntu, or one of the other non-Gnome versions of Ubuntu then obviously you don't want this)
   • pidgin (you've already got pidgin installed actually if you're using regular Ubuntu, but this will show you a list of plugins you can get, too. for instance, the plugin-pack package includes a magic 8-ball and a dice roller... :P)
   • amarok (my favorite music player)
   • k3b (my favorite CD and DVD burner)
   • yakuake (if you aren't afraid of the command line, then this is the best way to have a terminal window ever. if you are afraid of the command line, then, well, I suggest you give it another shot since it's pretty fast way of doings things)

   That should be enough to get you started. Of course, you can always browse for more programs. There's actually a friendlier (read: prettier) tool for exploring available packages that you can use by going to Applications and then clicking Add/Remove, but do that later.

7. Click Mark All Upgrades, because we can.
8. Click Apply.
9. After it's done installing all of that, go to System, then Preferences, and click Appearance. Have fun.
10. If Compiz Fusion isn't working for you, then it might be because you need to install a package named xserver-xgl and then restart. Not a big deal.
11. If you want to have more emerald themes, then open a terminal (hit Alt+F2 and enter gnome-terminal) and type "svn ls https://svn.generation.no/emerald-themes" (without quotes) and then when it asks, accept it permanently. Then open up Emerald by going to System, then Preferences, then Emerald Theme Manager. Look for the Repositories tab and fetch non GPL'd themes. Presto! More options. You might need to press Alt+F2 and enter "emerald --replace" to get it to update the way things look.
12. Go to GetAutomatix.com and download the version of Automatix2 for your system and install it. Then, update your computer like we did before by going into Synaptic, clicking refresh, marking all upgrades, and clicking apply. Then you can use Automatix2 to get other things that you'll probably want, like the restricted extras package that will allow you to listen to proprietary media codecs and stuff and the flash plugin for Mozilla Firefox. There's quite a few good things it'll let you download, so have fun!
13. Show off your desktop as much as possible, but try not to look like a jerk. Then, get your friends to try Ubuntu. :D

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 4:26 pm and is filed under All Entries, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.