Category Archives: Linux
Geek Friday: Running Ubuntu on Windows 7 Using VirtualBox
I like Linux. However, due to various reasons, I spend the majority of my time in Windows 7. It can be a pain to reboot in order to switch because there are some processes I just plain need running the majority of the time (Skype, for example).
I was reading about Windows 8, and some were advising running it in a virtual machine (VM). That sounded like a great idea to me, but for running Ubuntu rather than Windows 8. I pondered why I hadn’t thought of it before.
Actually, I know why. It is bound to suck down the memory, and, sure enough, in the end it did. But, it is possible to do!
Ubuntu Linux 12.04 "Precise Pangolin" Released; How Windows Users Can Get the Best Out of Linux
Ubuntu has released 12.0.4, which is, according to Lifehacker article "First Look at Ubuntu Linux 12.04 ‘Precise Pangolin’", more of a polishing up of the old more than anything else.
What in the world is a “pangolin”? According to Wikipedia, it is a scaly anteater. Aren’t you glad you asked?
Ubuntu is perhaps one of the most popular flavors of Linux, a version of Unix originally written for the Intel-based PCs. It doesn’t take a geek to set it up and run it. While I’m not convinced the average user would be able to install it any easier than Windows 7, I think most could with minimal coaching.
Geek Friday: User-Friendly Application for Ubuntu Grub Settings
I previously covered a little bit about editing the grub boot program for Ubuntu systems in “Windows XP Recovery Partition 4: Install Clonezilla”. That’s all fine and well if you can remember where the files are and aren’t in the habit of forgetting to run update-grub2. You would think there would be a program for this, right?
Well, it turns out there is! The How-To Geek site did an article on “How To Easily Change Your Dual-Booting PC’s Default OS” in which they use StartUp-Manager to manipulate the grub menu to select time-out, default OS and other options. The article covers the basics quite well, but the program documentation also covers removing options for recovery mode and memtest86+. Sounds like the tool for me! I’ll have to try this out next time I find a need to play with grub, which admittedly isn’t every day.
What’s the best laptop for running Ubuntu Linux? (TechRepublic.com)
Well, with all this talk of Windows, Ubuntu and Clonezilla, perhaps some of my fellow geeks would like to check out (if they haven’t already) the article on TechRepublic.com on which laptop is the best to run Ubuntu on. Users were solicited for what they run Ubuntu on.
Windows XP Recovery Partition 3: Install Ubuntu
Using Clonezilla in order to maintain a recovery partition for Windows XP requires a way to boot it up. Of course, the CD is bootable, but if the idea is to get away from a “rescue disk” and replace it with a rescue partition, then it needs to boot from the hard drive. Not only that, but you also need a way to be able to do general maintenance, including managing your backup files.
As stated in previous articles, you should have at least an 80 GB hard drive, as it will take a minimum of 10 GB to install Ubuntu, Clonezilla and have room for the backup. If you are creating an image preloaded with MS Office or the alternative OpenOffice, then you will probably only have room for one image file.
If you do not make the recovery partition large enough, you will almost surely corrupt it, necessitating doing some steps over.
Prerequisites for this step are that you have followed all the previous instructions and have an Ubuntu CD.
The steps below are mostly self-explanatory. I will try to keep it fairly high level.
1. Boot up, choose language, choose Install Ubuntu.
2. Change appropriate settings.
3. At step 4 of 6, choose Specify partitions manually (advanced). Click on Forward.
4. Click on /dev/sda1 and then Change. On New partition size … subtract 10 GB (or whatever the size of your new partition is going to be). Click on Continue.
5. Click on free space | Add. Mount point should be “/”. Click on OK. Ensure the checkbox under Format is checked for the new partition.
6. Click on Forward. Click on Continue because you are not going to create a swap space (obviously, you would want a swap space if you were going to actually use it for other purposes).
7. Give a generic login. I chose to use “owner” for login and “password” for password. Select Login automatically. Click on Forward. Click on Forward.
8. Review and click on Install.
You will now have 2 generic installations: Windows XP on hda1 (or sda1) and Ubuntu on hda2 (or sda2). Also good is that Ubuntu installs the GRUB loader so you can select between them.
If you haven’t played much with Linux and you feel adventurous, you might want to explore Ubuntu for a while to get use to moving around in it. If you are creating this for someone else, I really advise you to take the time and learn the system.
