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Debian and Linux

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Unetbootin gives me an option to install the iso only in drive c. I installed xp there and c is the only option. I wanted to install linux on my good hd which is not c. What do i have to do? I do not mind installing on c, just the other hd is a lot bigger, newer and faster.

I downloaded ubuntu, and will install it instead of debian. From what i understood debian is more professional oriented. Any other reasons for choosing ubuntu?
 
ArisVer said:
Unetbootin gives me an option to install the iso only in drive c. I installed xp there and c is the only option. I wanted to install linux on my good hd which is not c. What do i have to do? I do not mind installing on c, just the other hd is a lot bigger, newer and faster.
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% sure I'm understanding correctly. Unetbootin is just a utility to make bootable USB drives. That has to be installed on a working computer, XP in this case before you can do anything. It isn't a part of the final install, just a useful application.

I downloaded ubuntu, and will install it instead of debian. From what i understood debian is more professional oriented. Any other reasons for choosing ubuntu?
Click to expand...
Ubuntu is setup better for first time users, and includes packages that Debian can't ship with(by default) due to philosophy. Ubuntu is just a shortcut to a working desktop for novice users. You won't be restricted from a powerful Linux system by using it. It'll provide you everything Debian does, just a bit easier at first. That isn't to say Debian is particularly difficult, just more so for a new user.

Also, by using Ubuntu, you'll have more choices for online support. It's the most popular Linux distro, so there's a lot of answers online. In addition to the Ubuntu specific advice you'll run across, you can also use tips from Debian since it's the base of Ubuntu. As someone new, you'll have more support resources.

Edit:
The net install version of Debian is particularly problematic for you since you need to tell it what to install, but you aren't currently familiar with a Linux desktop to know what you need.
 
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Unetbootin gives an option to install on usb or hard disk.
Makes an easy installation straight into a hard disk i think.

I am worried whether i need to download any drivers for a wifi card before the installation.

Also what desktop should i choose? There are four different desktops (in debian). I only need one in reality. I saw gnome and kde in rh7, but i do not know their differences. I was thinking to install kde.
 
I like Gnome. It's a matter of personal preference. Gnome is kind of similar to Windows, and may be less overwhelming at first. KDE has a ton of options, and it's a bit much at first. You can install other desktops after the fact. Don't feel as though you're locking yourself into anything.

Edit:
Unetbootin gives an option to install on usb or hard disk.
Makes an easy installation straight into a hard disk i think.
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with the frugal install method; I've never done it. The USB install works well, but if you go with the frugal install, just be careful of the drives you select.

Edit2:
for wifi drivers, just make sure you at least have access to the Windows drivers. You may need them for ndiswrapper if your card isn't supported by Linux.
 
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The proccess was simple. Unetbootin and the iso.
It installs on the hd and gives me a dual boot option. Looks like a fully functioning os but there is a desktop icon 'install ubuntu'. It gives me options to where shall i install, but i am waiting for my cousin to advice me on partitioning the hd since he is more familiar with linux. So i am still using wxp.

I tried to connect on the internet but i could not. My backup disk behaved stranged today and i had it removed (all my system info and drivers are in there). I can have access with another computer and download the drivers that i may need, and carry them with a usb. I thought the drivers of win and linux where different. And it may not be a driver issue, but setting the connection correctly.

Will keep you posted.
 
I am writing using Ubuntu Linux operating system.

I will make the full install later on.

Many thanks to Nothinman and lxskllr.
 
Glad you got it working :^)

Edit:
Here's some Ebooks that might help you get up to speed on Ubuntu. Instead of linking you around the web, I just zipped up my personal collection. They won't all be immediately useful, but may at some point. Take particular note of The Ubuntu Pocket Guide, and Getting Started With Ubuntu 10.04. They should be very useful to someone new. Don't worry about the Ubuntu version numbers. The vast majority of the information will be relevant, regardless of version.

http://ubuntuone.com/p/hN6/
 
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I'm writing from Ubuntu. From a hard disk load, on a dual boot option, ntfs and most likely loading into ram.

Last night my cousin came over. He is good on command line. We stayed 'till 5.
We tried a normal install with active internet connection. It did not work. We got a tab:

apt configuration problem
An attempt to configure apt to install additional packages from the cd failed.

We also got a different error on another attempt, which i did not write.
After a few attempts to do a normal installation on a hard disk, and him helping me in some packages that were needed (he downloaded from terminal) and a few attempts to make a bootable usb stick (the files were written on usb but i could not boot from it), we stopped. From what he said some files that were needed did not installed. And he did set up his system once using grub. We think that the install from internet is not complete. Another thought was that, if we actually burned a cd and worked from there, we could have made it. Either way we failed.
So i am downloading some other os now and i will try some more.

Ubuntu looks okay. To my surprise there were no drivers needed. Everything looks to be working correctly. Looks faster than windows but we needed to kill some applications yesterday. It also looks very stable. It makes me wonder what a normal installation on a hard disk feels.
 
I generally avoid immediate updates during install. Sometimes I do that, but it always makes me a little uneasy. I don't quite trust the process. I prefer starting from a known baseline, then updating from there. Anyway, if you're looking at other Linux distros, here's a short list of ones to try...

Debian? - I'm not sure this would be best for you, but if you got it going, it's like an Ubuntu minimal install, and you can customize it as you like. It doesn't do nearly as much hand holding as Ubuntu, so you'd likely have issues setting it up.

Mint - basically the same as Ubuntu. A few things moved around, but I think it'll be diverging more into the future with Ubuntu's big changes.

OpenSuSE - The Win7 of Linux. It has everything, and the kitchen sink. Kind of bloated, but a nice O/S

Mandriva - Noob friendly, with a nice setup. Uncertain future.Worth a try.

Puppy - Very light distro, mainly for older computers. It does a lot with minimal resources, and looks polished for it's small footprint.

SliTaz - Ultralight distro. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it except for doorstop computers, but you should check it out. The whole O/S is smaller than most email clients, and it will easily fit on a USB drive. Amazing amount of polish for it's tiny size, and it makes a great portable O/S. It's worth trying to see what can be done with almost nothing.
 
The Ebooks will be usefull.

I went to distrowatch.com and i am downloading some iso, mint, suse, puppy just to name a few. Hopefully one of these would work properly on netinstall. I may need to install a cdr/dvdr and burn some images for a more normal approach.

One thing i did not like about ubuntu is that it does not log you as an administrator and some applications need that. From what i've seen yesterday you can run a sudo command for that but i cannot do that.

I am logging off now, and will post next day.
 
ArisVer said:
One thing i did not like about ubuntu is that it does not log you as an administrator and some applications need that. From what i've seen yesterday you can run a sudo command for that but i cannot do that.
Click to expand...

Having restricted rights is essential for security. Of any single thing you can do with a computer, restricting user rights is the most effective for security. Even MS finally realized it, and started enabling split rights in Windows.

You can run as root in Linux, but it's HIGHLY unrecommended. That's like taking your motorcycle out in snow storm during rush hour traffic. Almost all distros have rights segregation by default. There's some special purpose releases that default to root, but they're in no way meant to be a daily driver O/S.
 
ArisVer said:
The Ebooks will be usefull.

I went to distrowatch.com and i am downloading some iso, mint, suse, puppy just to name a few. Hopefully one of these would work properly on netinstall. I may need to install a cdr/dvdr and burn some images for a more normal approach.

One thing i did not like about ubuntu is that it does not log you as an administrator and some applications need that. From what i've seen yesterday you can run a sudo command for that but i cannot do that.

I am logging off now, and will post next day.
Click to expand...

You can give the root account a password in Ubuntu if you like, but it's still a terrible idea to login as root for your day to day activities. You can do anything you need as your regular user with su and sudo.
 
Installed in the hard disk. Web installation worked. Looks very nice. A little slow compared to Ubuntu but works okay. Difficult to navigate (for a beginner) and has many applications. I got lost looking for a memory program. Has it got one? The .iso file was 1.4GB and during installation it downloaded some extra files. I was going for Ubuntu but the web install did not work. Linux Mint looks better and it also looks stable. I work with it for about an hour now. I will try the other versions i downloaded (the dual boot windows disk) and then erase the disk and try to install Ubuntu (which was also stable on par with windows) in that disk for a backup system. I am quite happy to had this working finally and your advice needs many thanks.
 
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