Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

[trigan]

I wrote this little tutorial on installing kubuntu, for users who don't have much experiance with linux, but want to move to linux. I hope this tutorial will help those guys comming from windows environment. I used a dual boot system.

Hi whoiam55,

Thank you for your help.

I have a computer with an empty NTFS formatted 25 GB hard drive and 1 GB of RAM and I am thinking of downloading Kubuntu 9.10 and installing it on the empty hard drive but I am new to Linux.

Your article uses a dual boot system but I will only be using Kubuntu on my computer.
Can you tell me whether there are any tutorials preferably with screenshots that will show a complete novice how to install the downloaded Kubuntu 9.1 as the sole operating system on a computer please ?

Thank you.

[0x00FE]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit: Found official howto install if you interested instead of mine
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...nstall/Kubuntu
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I'll try to make it easy as possible.

Note: I'm using Virtual Box, so ignore the edges in the snapshots.

To get your copy of Kubuntu Go to:
http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu

Burn the CD at preferably low speed "x8" for example.

Start up your computer & boot the CD
(Some computers should be configured from the BIOS to boot CD as a 1st option, some others use F12 key to decide which boot device to boot from. It all depends on the motherboard/computer vendor)

This screen should appear:
[img width=400 height=346]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot046.png[/img]

After choosing your language, select Install Kubuntu
[img width=400 height=346]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot047.png[/img]

Welcome screen appears, click next:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot048.jpg[/img]

Select your time location & click next:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot049.jpg[/img]

Select keyboard layout & next:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot050.jpg[/img]

The next one is a bit tricky, you either want to do it the easy way & select the entire drive or customize it.

Using the entire drive:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot051.jpg[/img]

*If you select entire drive you can skip the following manual configuration.

Or use advanced:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot052.jpg[/img]

Select the drive listed & click on "New Partition Table...":
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot054.jpg[/img]

Select "free space" and click add:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot055.jpg[/img]

You would want to add "SWAP" area for you computer to use when you're RAM is filled up, as far as I know, many recommended half the size of your RAM, since you got 1GB of ram, you would want to use "512" MB for RAM and the configuration in the following image, note use as "SWAP":
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot056.jpg[/img]

After proceeding, you would like to set a partition for your OS.
I personally recommend a partition for your "Documents and Settings" which is in Linux "/home"

I didn't want cover it in this demonstration because it might feel complicated, it is already feeling complicated for new guys to Linux when we set up the SWAP & some might consider going back to the entire drive thing : P
But I'll mention it without the snapshot.

Why the "/home"?
Imagine wanting to format your machine, if you were using Windows you'll have to backup all your files & reconfigure your system after installation.
In Linux you can format the OS partition without touching your "/home" partition, meaning your files & setting are safe.
Sounds cool? It is.

Since am using 8 GB for my Virtual Box I'll set up the OS partition, mounted as "/"

You got free space after setting the SWAP partition, so you click the free space & add:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot057.jpg[/img]

By default the size is set to what's left of the hard drive, you can either leave it as it is, or if you want to set up the "/home" partition, just set up whatever size you want for the OS (recommended above 5 GB & depending on applications you want to install in future).

Note that:
1 MB = 1024 KB
1 GB = 1024 MB
So 8 GB = 8 *1024 = 8192 MB

Use as, I still recommend EXT3 file system over EXT4, though EXT4 is set by default, it's your choice anyway.
Mount point is "/" which is the root directory.
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot058.jpg[/img]

If you want to setup a home directory, then do not use the whole space for the "/" & you would get some free space, select it then "add", & just select the mount point as "/home"

In my case I used the whole remaining for the root directory & my hard driver looks like this:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot059.jpg[/img]

Proceed to the next step & input your info:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot060.jpg[/img]

After that, system will verify your setting & you may proceed with installation:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot061.jpg[/img]

System installing:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot062.jpg[/img]

After install, it will ask for reboot, before rebooting it will ask to remove the CD drive & it will reboot the machine, after entering your username & password, system will log you in:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot063.jpg[/img]

Your desktop:
[img width=400 height=336]http://www.hadeed-power.com/kubuntuforums/images/kubuntu_9.10_step_by_step/snapshot064.jpg[/img]

Happy Kubuntuing ; )

Please if any of the administrators or users find this topic in need of editing or improvement please do so.
I wrote it in a hurry.

[trigan]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

Dear 0x00FE,

Very many thanks for your great effort. Much appreciated.

I have been thinking. I have 2 hard drives, one is 80 GB and the other 25 GB both empty and windows formatted. Suppose I connect the 80 GB hard drive as the master and the 25 GB as the slave to my computer, can you advise me on how to go about specifying partitons manually. Please feel free to tell me what you think.

Since I have 80 GB to play with, I think I will make the swap partition 1 GB.
I would also want to make the following partitions:
A partition for the Kubuntu itself plus any other Linux programs I download from the Internet. I am thinking of allocating 10 GB for this partition.
A partition for my documents. I think I will give this 7 GB.
A partition for videos that I download from the Internet. This will the rest of the drive minus the temporary file partition space.
A partition for temporary files. Am I correct in thinking that this will be useful when downloading hour long videos from the Internet ? Can you advise me on how many GB to allocate to this partition ?
I will want the slave drive to house my image files of each partition. I am thinking of using Clonezilla for this but I am still in the learning stage.

Can you tell me under what MOUNT POINTS to place each of these partitions and the slave drive please ?

Would you recommend creating any other partitions ?

Thank you.

[0x00FE]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

You are welcome Trigan

In my opinion, you do not need all those partitions.

If it was me, I would use the 25 GB hard drive as a master & the 80 GB as slave.

The 1st hard drive would have two partitions

1 GB - SWAP
24 GB - root - "/"

The 2nd hard drive would be the home directory

80 GB - home - "/home"

If you are using Firefox, the temporary file is usually stored in the same location as a *.part file.
You can configure other download applications to use whatever temporary directory you want i.e "torrents".

If you really want to to use other partitions, you can mount them under the "/home" directory.
For example, if you got the 80GB into 3 partitions, one as home & other 2 partitions.
the home would be mounted as "/home"
The other two as:
"/home/partition1"
"/home/partition2"

Note that in the OS you would see them as sub directories in the "/home" folder, but they are in fact different partitions.

Hope that helps.

[trigan]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

0x00FE, I will do as you advise and thanks again for your input.

I think I will create "/home/partition1" and "/home/partition2" since I understand I need to have a separate partition in my slave drive in which Clonezilla can store the image files of the / and /home partitions.

Just one thing. In the Create a new partition dialog box in the Kubuntu installation, will there be a "/home/partition1" and "/home/partition2" in the drop down menu ?

If I understand correctly the / partition will contain all programs that come with Kubuntu 9.10 and any Linux programs I download from the Internet. The /home will contain all my written documents, the "/home/partition1" will contain my downloaded videos and "/home/partition2" will contain my Clonezilla image files of / and /home partitions.

Q. So if I am correct in this, I should not need more than 5 GB for my documents. Can you give me an idea of how much space to allocate to the other 2 partitions in the 80 GB slave drive please since I am not sure how much space Clonezilla image files of the / and /home partitions will occupy ?

Yes I do use Firefox in my Windows XP computer and will install the Linux version when I have Kubuntu installed in my other computer.

Q. Do you know of a better internet browser than Firefox that works with Kubuntu ?

Since I am not that familiar with Linux, I would be very grateful if you can explain the following that you wrote in your last reply:

If you are using Firefox, the temporary file is usually stored in the same location as a *.part file.

Q. In what partition or mount point is the .part file located ?

You can configure other download applications to use whatever temporary directory you want i.e "torrents".

I take it you are referring to the KTorrent graphical client which I understand comes with Kubuntu 910
Suppose I want to download 3 hour long videos from an Internet site at the same time.
I will want to download them in /home/partition2.

Q. Does this mean that the Ktorrent program will automatically use the temporary directory in this partition ?

Thank you 0x00FE.

[skunk]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

Q. Does this mean that the Ktorrent program will automatically use the temporary directory in this partition ?

Not automatically. You will need to open the Ktorrent configuration dialog the first time and override the value of "Default save location"

[0x00FE]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

Just one thing. In the Create a new partition dialog box in the Kubuntu installation, will there be a "/home/partition1" and "/home/partition2" in the drop down menu ?

No, you will find

/opt
/var
/usr
/home
/etc
/

You can manually set any of then by the way without using the drop menu.
So when you want to set the other ones after home, just add the slash name of the partition.

If I understand correctly the / partition will contain all programs that come with Kubuntu 9.10 and any Linux programs I download from the Internet. The /home will contain all my written documents, the "/home/partition1" will contain my downloaded videos and "/home/partition2" will contain my Clonezilla image files of / and /home partitions.

Ok let me clarify a point here.
Suppose you have used the entire space for the root "/"
The other directories are within that same partition. So "/home" is within the same partition as well as the other programs & everything else.

As a part of the advanced installation you can choose the mount points I mentioned above to select which to go where. I've never tried to set any of them except the (root & home)
For example the "/usr" stores the programs executables, while some of the configurations might be in the "/home" and/or "/etc" directory.

Since you are migrating from Windows, imagine having the "My Documents" folder with all the video, music & documents in it. The problem there is it's on the same OS partition, if you decide to make it small, you'll end up sending some files on the larger partition. Specially that you would like to keep the installed programs in the "Program files" directory.

Note that the installation for programs that using "add/remove" in Kubuntu would be using the "/" partition.
If you downloading a Debian file for example you would have to download it to the "/home" directory for example then install. You won't be asked where to install those as they are going to be within the root "/"

Note am mentioning this taking in mind that you haven't assigned other mount points than "/", "/home" & other partitions which are just for storage.

Q. So if I am correct in this, I should not need more than 5 GB for my documents. Can you give me an idea of how much space to allocate to the other 2 partitions in the 80 GB slave drive please since I am not sure how much space Clonezilla image files of the / and /home partitions will occupy ?

Not really, it depends on your preferred choice, why do you really need your videos on another partition for example?

You can keep them in a folder within the home folder if you like. As a matter of fact the home folder has got by default folders named (Documents, Music, Videos ..)

If it was me I'd keep it as large as possible.
As for you're image partition, you have to put in mind that if you are going to backup a full partition with little empty space, you do realize you have to have the same size of it right?

Q. Do you know of a better internet browser than Firefox that works with Kubuntu ?

Konqueror is the default web browser for Kubuntu. Firefox is not installed by default, but in Ubuntu it is though.
But I still use Firefox. You can use Opera if you want & Google's Chrome web browser is in the development stage for Linux.

Q. In what partition or mount point is the .part file located ?

You can set Firefox to download the file in a certain location at all times, for example "/home/downloads"
Or you can let it ask you where to download the file, when download has started, the *.part file appears in the same location.
So if you are downloading the Linux image for Kubuntu 600 MB for example, the file is occupying the space in where it should be.
So if you downloading movies to the place you want them to be, the temporary file will take size from the same location where they should be.

Q. Does this mean that the Ktorrent program will automatically use the temporary directory in this partition ?

In KTorrent, Settings ---> General
Folder to store temporary files: /home/xirex/.kde/share/apps/ktorrent/
Where xirex is my username, of course you can change the directory to whatever you want.

As for doing a backup, I would prefer an external drive. Cause having an image of your partitions being on the same drive won't help you in case of a hardware drive failure.

[0x00FE]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

I've edited my 1st post
There is an official graphical installation guide if anyone is interested.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...nstall/Kubuntu

[trigan]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

Thank you skunk and 0x00FE.

Ok let me clarify a point here.
Suppose you have used the entire space for the root "/"
The other directories are within that same partition. So "/home" is within the same partition as well as the other programs & everything else.

So if I understand correctly, /home, "/home/partition1", "/home/partition2" are not partitions in the sense of Linux operating system partitions that GPARTED program can divide your hard drive into, but merely directories that branch from the / directory.

As for doing a backup, I would prefer an external drive. Cause having an image of your partitions being on the same drive won't help you in case of a hardware drive failure.

This is the reason why I am thinking of having my /home directory in the 25 GB master drive and leave the 80 GB slave drive soley for clonezilla image file of the master drive and my videos.

The reason why it is undesirable to have my videos stored in any Linux directory is that videos take up lots of storage space and that means that it will take much more time for Clonezilla program to create an image file. I am talking about 2 hours. Not only that but it is totally unnecessary to make a backup of the videos.

But I realize that I will need to download my videos in a Linux directory so what if I use GPARTED to divide the 80 GB slave drive into 2 Linux operating system partitions. One will be 25 GB for my clonezilla image file and the other will be 55 GB for downloading my videos into. I will have a Linux directory called have /home/videos in this 60 GB Linux partition.

Is this possible ?

Clonezilla is able to make image files of Linux operating system partitions. So I should be able to make an image file of all my Linux directories with the exception of the /home/videos directory which I do not need to backup.

The videos I download have the .FLV extension. Is there a program that comes with Kubuntu or that I can download that will play these ?

Thank you.

[linxuser]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

.flv plays on my ubuntu 9.10 install with totem video player and vlc media player so it should be do-able in kubuntu too

needed to install additional packages but the player's did most of 'em.

for .flv in totem I had to seach synaptic package manager for Sorenson and install packages.

[Guest]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

OK, Newbie here and don't know what I am doing wrong or if i explain it right. i have not had problems booting from the disk and go all the way to rebooting at the end and get the start page. The big problem comes at that point. Instead of icons where they are supposed to be, I have very thin lines running across the bottom of the screen. After some experimenting, I found I can click on where the icons are supposed to be I can get the windows for things like the preference windows and things like that. some of the windows come up with the same small lines and i cant figure out which window it is. i get the feeling it is a graphics problem but the program seems to have down loaded properly and burned properly too. I have copied ubuntu and fedora the same way and don't get the problem with either of them. Any suggestions would be great. I had an earlier version of Kubuntu and it worked fine until i missed the updates and somehow it didn't work properly after that. Being a newbie has certain disadvantages. Thanks to all that can help

[dibl]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

Probably the first thing to do is test some boot options and figure out which one works best. Look at FAQ #2 in the FAQs in my signature.

[aiiee]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

Any install post should feature the following ( from kubuntuguide.org/Karmic):

Installing Kubuntu

Warning: Kubuntu Desktop edition installer no longer allows a custom installation of GRUB, and it now uses GRUB2, which allows very little customization. DO NOT USE the Karmic Koala Desktop edition if you use a boot partition, use multiple OS (more than 2), or chainload bootloaders. The Kubuntu installer will overwrite your Master Boot Record and you will later be forced to recreate it. This is a serious flaw in Karmic Koala. Use the Ubuntu Server edition instead (and then later add the kubuntu-desktop).

The Kubuntu Server edition installer does not have this problem, and, in general, I recommend its use instead (adding a kubuntu-desktop to the server afterwards).

Unless you like being frustrated for hours of course

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

"Warning: Kubuntu Desktop edition installer no longer allows a custom installation of GRUB, and it now uses GRUB2, which allows very little customization. DO NOT USE the Karmic Koala Desktop edition if you use a boot partition, use multiple OS (more than 2), or chainload bootloaders. The Kubuntu installer will overwrite your Master Boot Record and you will later be forced to recreate it. This is a serious flaw in Karmic Koala. Use the Ubuntu Server edition instead (and then later add the kubuntu-desktop)."

What? News to me. I've done everything this paragraph says you can't do, as have many other dual-boot/multi-disk users here. Who the hell is writing the kubuntuguide these days? (It IS true that GRUB 2 MAY have some glitches in it still, as it is being debugged and phased in fully, but basically it works fine if you know how to manage it properly.) (I'll leave this discussion to others and I don't have time to follow it. Nothing else meant by that.)

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing Kubuntu, step by step

Reply #72 here:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...pic=3106368.60