View Full Version : help me install ubuntu!!
ok, i know ubuntu is meant to be reaaallly easy to install but im having problems!! i have 34gb of free disk space, so i installed ubuntu so it dual booted with xp, but now when im inside ubuntu, when it comes to installing updates for it, i get the message "the upgrade needs a total of 319M free space on disk '/'. Please free at least an additional 272M of disk space on '/'. Empty your trash and remove temporary packages of former installations using 'sudo apt-get clean'."
so im assuming the partition that ubuntu chose is too small? cos i have 34gb free space!! can anyone help please? n00b, so if i need to manually repartition, il need a guide....
jonbanjo
23-07-2009, 12:48 PM
You say you have 34GB of free space but do you know how the disk is partitioned? I'm not familiar with the Ubuntu install but it will have a / (root) and a swap partition. It may also have for exampe /home as a separate partition. Then, I'd guess there will be free space reserved for Windows.
I think on Ubuntu, you would be able to run gparted to have a look at how the disk(s) are partitioned and what space is on which partition.
the disk was partitioned wrong! have spent the whole evening fixing it, mainly because the stoooopid cd was then corrupted, so ubuntu did not have gparted and windows died. but no worries, am on the right track now, and have found an amzing little guide if anyone is interested
http://books.google.com/books?id=kHLlJzI6L20C&printsec=frontcover
thanks again
jonbanjo
23-07-2009, 06:24 PM
Glad you sorted it.
ubuntu seems amaaaaaaaazing.... :O
It can be very useful from time to time and has certainly come on since the early days.
It can be very useful from time to time and has certainly come on since the early days.
i am just very impressed at the themes they have at the moment, i know its just eye candy but for a free product, it really looks good. i need to get used to installing software, it seems relatively straight forward....
candtalan
24-07-2009, 07:53 PM
When installing software follow the rule - 'It is easy'.
Avoid any complicated stuff particularly if it mentions compiling!
When online use either
a) Applications>Add/Remove> [choose what to 'Show']
then search or browse
or
b) System>Administration>SynapticPackageManager
then search
Be aware that the repositories available at initial install are not the only ones available.
See
System>Administration>Software Sources>[choose]
Also that for legal reasons the CDs do not contain many multimedia codecs. In europe this is easily fixed please see:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
Not least, the place to go for ace discussion and support is
http://ubuntuforums.org/
i am just very impressed at the themes they have at the moment, i know its just eye candy but for a free product, it really looks good. i need to get used to installing software, it seems relatively straight forward....
It really is if (as candtalan says) you stick to using the Synaptics Package Manager to install your software.
There are a number of packages I might suggest you search for using the Synaptics Manager:
JAVA - with this you can run any java application you might come across.
VLC - VLC media player. It is a media player released under the GNU license so you can use it freely. Very good for media playback.
DOSBOX - depending if you like old DOS games, but if you do you can run them within Ubuntu using DOSBOX
VIRTUALBOX-OSE - VirtualBox allows you to emulate any operating system that you have an ISO image for.
WINE - This is a Windows emulator and allows you to run windows applications from with Ubuntu. It can offer a windows desktop if needed.
There are tons more free packages available - you just need to search for them in the Synaptics Package Manager
cheers guys, although i think iv hit a snag....iv got vlc player, but it reaally slows down when playing any type of videos...i reckon its cos my 4770 card isnt supported :( oh weell, will just have to keep the videos for XP. although i like the idea of this wine stuff!! fiddling round with LaTex is a problem, trying to install that, although il follow your recomendations and give it another go :D
johnckeen
25-07-2009, 06:55 PM
wine is very good but if you have alot of games on Steam then you will have problems unless they have fixed it.
hmmm i think with my gfx card being unsupported, id better not play games in ubuntu...although il use wine for iplayer it they dont have it for linux! how can you find progmrams once they are installed?! i installed latex but it doesnt come up ibn the drop down menus....
There is a certain amount of guessing you sometimes have to do with software once it is installed within Ubuntu (or at least I do :D). Typically, installed software will put a link within the drop down menus under APPLICATIONS, although not always.
As many apps end up in the USR folder you can try typing the program name in a BASH Terminal. So if you installed Star Fighter from the repositories then you click on APPLICATIONS menu then ACCESSORIES then TERMINAL (I always end up draging-and-dropping the terminal to the top bar for easy access).
Once the terminal opens you then just type 'starfighter' (minus the quotes) and press ENTER.
If you find that works then you can create a Launcher icon which will enable you to have a handy icon to launch the game. To do this right click on your desktop, click on Create Launcher. In the Name field put whatever you want to call the game. In the Command field put the path and name of the program you want to launch. In case of ones which launch just by typing their names just put the name. You can fill out the Comment field if you wish. Click on OK.
As an example for Star Fighter I might put:
Name: Star Fighter (game)
Command: starfighter
Comment: The Star Fighter game
Remember though that the Command is case sensitive and that most commands are in lower case. So to launch Star Fighter you must have 'starfighter' (not with quotes though) - not 'STARFIGHTER' or 'StarFighter'.
hehe yeh, guessing has got me only so far. im not used to not being able to search out the .exe file. suddenly a few more files appeared in the application tab, im sure it was only after a few restarts!! didnt realise you can drag and drop in the terminal, thats a nice addition. having real problems witth installing the new catalyst drivers though...downloaded it from ati website, followed their guide so uninstalled the old one, but when it came to installing the file, apprantly ubuntu doesnt recognise .run files!! hopefully when i get this sorted i can work on the video issues im having :D
EDIT holy moley i think i fixed it! installed the newest driver with the help from a wiki guide, and videos seem to work on full screen with vlc....very slow to load, and for a few seconds the picture has white blurry bits on it, but its better than nothing!!
naotom
27-07-2009, 06:34 AM
it should recognise a .run
you just need to make it executable first ... chmod +x whateverthefileis.run
thanks, i found a guide in wikipedia to install the run...im so used to windows 'one click' installations...now iv found some nice games to play with too, haha! i didnt realise they made total annihilation into 3D :D
im so used to windows 'one click' installations
And soon enough, you'll be used to Linux "one click" installations.
The problem you've got at the moment is that the software supplier chose to deliver in a format that can't be installed with one click; this is most certainly not normal.
Vic.
yaaa, not the best thing to start off on. i got this program on it now called playonlinux, its meant to help install windows specific games :D im not hopeful, but would like to see if COD 5 works on it, apprantly COD 2 does work perfectly. and im sure i have lego star wars knocking around somewhere too....
beside the inability to play a lot of good games, ubuntu seems perfect :D lots of fantastic programs, good looking, not too hard to get the hang of...i wish the was a folding at home GPU support on linux :(
CPU Folding: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FoldingAtHome
GPU Folding: http://rampantspeculation.com/forums/showthread.php?p=41014
The GPU Folding is dependant on you having an nVidia GPU I believe. I haven't tried it myself so can't really say if it works or not. Anyhoo, good luck with it if you feel you want to try it :).
Mike
i have an ati card :( i think they are devloping a gpu core for linux soon though, thanks mike. this latex thing is driving me mad though, iv installed tex-live so many times, but cant seem to find it anywhere, when i use the tab button in the terminal, the name doesnt even come up!!
EDIT turns out it needed another program to use it called Kile. so all installed and everything ok. i dont see why everyone doesnt just switch to linux and the world would be a happier place!!
i have an ati card :( i think they are devloping a gpu core for linux soon though, thanks mike. this latex thing is driving me mad though, iv installed tex-live so many times, but cant seem to find it anywhere, when i use the tab button in the terminal, the name doesnt even come up!!
EDIT turns out it needed another program to use it called Kile. so all installed and everything ok. i dont see why everyone doesnt just switch to linux and the world would be a happier place!!
No worries. I'm a bit surprised that an ATI version isn't already available given the popularity of folding.
will be upgrading my 32bit ubuntu to 64bit....but i have loads of lovely programs, themes, colours, favourites etc installed already :( any way to transfer this onto 64 bit? i have dual booted at the moement, so will be writing over the 32bit version and keeping xp!
jonbanjo
14-08-2009, 10:42 AM
I'd hoped you would get a reply from one of the Ubuntu users. I can't answer your question but fwiw, here is my 2d worth.
I've tried upgrading OpenSuse a couple of times but I found myself with long lists of problems that the software manager could not handle and had to be resolved manually. To be honest, I hadn't a clue what half the stuff was. I did follow through once but wasn't happy with the installation. As a result, if I'm moving to a new version of my distribution, I will always use a clean install.
Although it's unlikely (unless you did install some to your home) to help with any of your programs, personal settings as well as data are stored in the /home structure, often in hidden files or folders.
I think I read that by default, Ubuntu just creates one partition but a number of Linux users will have /home as a separate partition.. I'd imagine the manual partition setup on Ubuntu would allow the reuse of an existing /home partition without formatting it. Alternatively, one could back the entire /home structure up before installation.
Personally, I tend to collect a lot of junk and like to use the new installation as a fresh start. Being so disorganised, I install to a "new" disk, keeping the old one in the system. I copy the obvious stuff over straight a way and anything else that over the next couple of months find I actually do want/use over as and when. I can't see anyway this would class as a recommended method but it works for my chaos.
promedia
14-08-2009, 11:12 AM
OpenSuSE is fine...
You can take any distribution of Linux, if you have installed proprietory software that is not supported by the distrbutor and is dependant on old versions of libraries, thus when you upgrade certain libraries on system update, other software might not work because of how they are written for version specific libraries/Linux builds.
Regardless of distribution, all have that problem because there is no guarantee of formal standards for backwards or forward compatability support. It's not intended to work like that.
You usually end up having to install the later version of that package to get it to work - if they have caught up with upgraded libraries. Doing kernel updates and other things, usually will not make any problems it's generally core library dependancy updates that prevent other software working.
However, you can try and keep old copies of libraries and use:
export @LD_LIBRARY_PATH='/path/to/old/libs/that/work'
./application.ext
and then it might just work without having to install a later version. :)
Ubuntu generally seems to have a totally automated installation process that you have no control over. Even the distribution it is derived from - Debian - is better than that. Mint has had some huge thumbs up from my friends, infact one said "It's a completed version of Ubuntu".
Yeah backing up is a bit of a problem sometimes, short of making an entire image of the disk and putting it on another HDD I usually end up just backing up files that I do/would use and forget the rest - if I haven't used it regularly I probably wont use it at all ever again :D
Settings are not that much of a problem, I can do those again.
Hope that helps.
Jim,
jonbanjo
14-08-2009, 11:22 AM
OpenSuSE is fine...
It wasn't for me. Thinking further, and I can't remember the order of events on the current installation, what I used from the packman repository was perhaps the biggest single reason for the long lists of "can't update this" type messages" I had.
hey thanks guys, i got my computer just how i like it, but because im installing more ram i have to upgrade to the 64 bit version. you arwe right jon, even after a few months of using ubuntu iv prob al;ready cluttered up the system, so a fresh install may do me good...the propriety drivers can be a pain though. havnt teried any other linux packages yet, i thought id better gety the hang of the easiest one first before moving on....
EDIT mint? never heard of it, will have a look!
jonbanjo
14-08-2009, 02:13 PM
hey thanks guys, i got my computer just how i like it, but because im installing more ram i have to upgrade to the 64 bit version
Have a read through this first:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=855511
hey thanks guys, i got my computer just how i like it, but because im installing more ram i have to upgrade to the 64 bit version.
No you don't. you're not running Windows now...
If you want >4GB with a 32-bit OS, just install the PAE kernel.
you arwe right jon, even after a few months of using ubuntu iv prob al;ready cluttered up the system, so a fresh install may do me good.
As long as you've installed everything through the package manager, you can find out exactly what you've got installed, what you've changed since installation, etc. You don't need to re-install all the time - just be careful to avoid unpackaged software installations. If you read a web page that says "just copy this to /usr/bin", stop reading that web page...
the propriety drivers can be a pain though.
Yes, they are.Try to avoid them if you can.
havnt teried any other linux packages yet, i thought id better gety the hang of the easiest one first before moving on.
Some of us would question whether you have indeed tried the "easiest one"; I find Ubuntu harder to deal with than certain other distros - but that's because I trained on RedHat variants.
EDIT mint? never heard of it, will have a look!
Mint is quite good, if you like that sort of thing.
Vic.
i had a look at that thread, one post said the 64bit actually uses more memory, so is only worth installing if yo have 8gb of mem...i will only have 6gb! this PAE kernel thing...is it something to do with a server kernel? got a bit confused by that. if it is, do i have to manually update my system after using it? and will my system run as normal? i will avoid unpacked installations, thanks vic!
EDIT i have a 64bit processor (Athlon X2) so would 64bit OS make it...work better? (for want of a better term...)
jonbanjo
14-08-2009, 04:12 PM
this PAE kernel thing...is it something to do with a server kernel?
No. To use the extra memory, a kernel needs to be compiled with PAE support. With Ubuntu, it appears their 32bit desktop distribution does not have this. The kernel for their server distribution has been compiled with the needed support so using that provides an easy method of installing a suitable (apparently with a couple of reservations) kernel.
one post said the 64bit actually uses more memory
Fractionally.
When you store a pointer in memory, a 32-bit OS will store 32 bits, and a 64-bit OS will store 64 bits. This means the 64-bit version uses a little more.
But if you're looking for a 64-bit OS, the extra overhead isn't going to be noticeable.
so is only worth installing if yo have 8gb of mem...i will only have 6gb!
Depends if you need 64-bit functionality.
I only have one box that runs 64-bit - I need that to test virtualisation (you can't virtualise a 64-bit guest on a 32-bit host...). Everything else I run is 32-bit - because that's enougfh for what I want to do.
One of my customers is exclusively 64-bit - because he has data structures that cannot be navigated by a 32-bit kernel of any flavour.
this PAE kernel thing...is it something to do with a server kernel?
It's a specific build of the kernel. The phrase "server kernel" doesn't mean a whole lot in Linux terms - the kernels are very similar for most builds. But look for the term "PAE" - that's the bit that means it can deal with large memory spaces. On some distros, this might be termed "hugemem".
got a bit confused by that. if it is, do i have to manually update my system after using it?
Probably not. The package manager will generally add new kernels to your grub config as the default kernel. You only have to reboot to pick up the new kernel (and in some circumstances, even that can be avoided).
and will my system run as normal?
Yep.
EDIT i have a 64bit processor (Athlon X2) so would 64bit OS make it...work better? (for want of a better term...)
Depends on what you want to do with your machine. For most things, a PAE kernel would probably be a better bet.
Vic.
thanks again, will use the PAE kernel once i get my memory through. once it is all set up, i hope to do some folding on VM things (got an ati card so no can do at the moment!)
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