Complete Transition

[Kubuntut]

Oki doki.

I run Vista and Kubuntu on dual boot. But I want to run just Kubuntu. What problems would I face switching over? Vista came installed on this laptop. I'm just worried about drivers etc.

Thanks!

[dibl]

Re: Complete Transition

You say you're worried about drivers -- why? Have you tested completely the Kubuntu system that you have now? You will not have any new problems with Kubuntu after you nuke Vista. But you need to verify that you can do everything you need to do with your existing Kubuntu installation.

[Kubuntut]

Re: Complete Transition

You say you're worried about drivers -- why? Have you tested completely the Kubuntu system that you have now? You will not have any new problems with Kubuntu after you nuke Vista. But you need to verify that you can do everything you need to do with your existing Kubuntu installation.

Good point >.> And yeah, I'm still working through what stuff I need. So far so good.

How do I nuke Vista anyway? Re-install Kubuntu using the entire HDD?

[Qqmike]

Re: Complete Transition

Use GParted Live CD to delete all partitions on that hard drive.
Then create new partitions for Kubuntu (root /, swap, /home).
Then install Kubuntu.



GParted (Live CD, USB, HD)
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
New Manual. New man page. See Documentation:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/documentation.php

[Kubuntut]

Re: Complete Transition

Use GParted Live CD to delete all partitions on that hard drive.
Then create new partitions for Kubuntu (root /, swap, /home).
Then install Kubuntu.



GParted (Live CD, USB, HD)
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
New Manual. New man page. See Documentation:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/documentation.php

Erm, ok, so let's see if I understand.

Make a LiveCD of GParted. Insert into system, reboot, and delete all partitions, making everything unalocated.

Make three partitions on the new blank hard drive.

Remove the GParted CD, insert the Kubuntu disc, reboot and install.

Correct?

[Telengard]

Re: Complete Transition

I have to wonder, why do you feel the need to nuke Vista at all. It may sound silly in the context of this forum, but I just wonder what your specific reasons are. The only reason I can think of, is maybe you really need 100% of your hard disk for Kubuntu.

Have you considered simply shrinking the Vista partition to make more room for Kubuntu? You can use GParted to shrink a partition almost as easily as you can delete it.

One more thing that is worth mentioning IMHO. Make sure to back up anything important on your hard disk before manipulating partitions.

Edit: I just found your other thread where you seem to be having difficulty shrinking the Vista partition. You may be able to shrink the Vista partition more if you disable pagefile.sys and hiberfile.sys. A quick Google search found the article How to Fix Shrinking Disk Space in Vista which seems to explain things well enough.

[Kubuntut]

Re: Complete Transition

Everything I've tried with shrinking the partitions has failed. But yes I will definately try and shrink the partition first. Thanks

And yeah. Everything is backed up. Several times >.>

[Telengard]

Re: Complete Transition

See my edit above. I was too slow

[GreyGeek]

Re: Complete Transition

I dual booted with VISTA on my new laptop (this one) and after I confirmed that all my stuff worked (USB, CDROM, battery, sound, sound recording with audacity, SecondLife voice, Skype, my webcam, etc......) I reinstalled Kubuntu 9.04 and gave it my entire HD. That was in February. I have had no problems since. In fact, Kubuntu 9.04 with KDE 4.2.4 is the best Linux desktop I have ever run in 11 years of running Linux.

[Kubuntut]

Re: Complete Transition

Thanks Telengard

To be honest I would rather have Vista on the laptop as well. As a safety net since I know how it works. But once I get comfortable with Kubuntu I may give it my whole hard drive. But for now, I'll keep it.

I'm a n00b when it comes to hardware so yeah. I'll scrape through with this ^^ I'll update as I go along with problems etc. Or I may just fall silent. In which case you know one of two things: 1) That my HDD blew up, taking out my house with it, or 2) It worked.

Anyway. Cheers

[GreyGeek]

Re: Complete Transition

Thanks Telengard

To be honest I would rather have Vista on the laptop as well. As a safety net since I know how it works. ....

A safety net?

Definitely not.

As a standby to run Windows programs for which there is not an equal or better Linux replacement? Definitely.

A better option would be to run XP Pro as a virtual guest under VMware Player, or VirtualBox.

[Kubuntut]

Re: Complete Transition

Well, ok, not a safety net. A place for Steam and WoW until I get them running through Wine. And if I come across a program I need Windows for. Yeah >.>

[dibl]

Re: Complete Transition

A place for Steam and WoW

Be careful about WOW on wine -- a guy borked his entire Kubuntu system the other day, running WOW on wine.

Here's the thing -- WOW and other graphics-intensive games will never run as well in Linux as they do on a native Windows installation, because they are written for Windows. But, if you can be content with kind of "average" video quality, you might want to consider running Windows XP, Vista, or Win 7 on a VMWare Player VM, and then run your Windows apps on that. It's not that hard to do. It looks like this:

http://www.kubuntuforums.net/index.p...o_show&ida=249

and you set it up like this:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3095339.0

[Kubuntut]

Re: Complete Transition

Ah ok. Thanks.

In that case I may keep the Vista partition for WoW. I will for now, at least. Then maybe use the VM later on.

[Telengard]

Disable pagefile.sys and hiberfile.sys in Vista to free disk space

Here's a HOWTO quickie. Perform the steps in Vista. Hope it helps.

First steps
_________________________________________________

• Close all unnecessary programs, including those in the system tray
• Back up all important data from your computer's internal hard disk to an external drive or to optical discs (e.g. DVD-R or USB hard disk).
• After back up is complete, disconnect any external drives (e.g. USB hard disk)
• Update your anti-virus program and definitions, then perform a full system scan. Remove all the viruses, trojans, spyware and malware you find
• Run chkdsk /f on all your computer's internal hard drives. You'll have to reboot to complete disk checking

Disable pagefile.sys
_________________________________________________

• Click Start, right-click Control Panel, click Open
• Click Classic view, right-click System, click Open
• Click [i]Advanced settings[i], when the UAC dialog appears click Continue
• Under Performance click Settings
• In the Performance Options dialog select the Advanced tab
• Under Virtual memory click change
• In the Virtual memory dialog un-check Automatically manage paging file size for all drives
• Select the C: drive
• Click No paging file
• Click [i]Set[i]
• Click the Ok button in each dialog until you are returned to the Control Panel window
• Reboot Vista

Delete hiberfile.sys
_________________________________________________
First, follow the steps to make hibernation unavailable in Microsoft article KB920730 How to disable and re-enable hibernation on a computer that is running Windows Vista. Then use the Disk Cleanup utility to delete hiberfile.sys as described below.

• Click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup
• Click Files from all users on this computer
• In the UAC dialog, click Continue
• Select C:, click Ok
• Check-mark Hibernation File Cleaner, click Ok
• Reboot Vista

Before Resizing the Partition
_________________________________________________
Fully defragment the C: drive.

After Resizing the Partition
_________________________________________________
In Vista, run chkdsk /f two times on the C: drive. This should force Vista to accept the changed size of the partition containing the C: drive. You'll have to reboot Vista each time to allow the disk check to run.

Other ways to free disk space
_________________________________________________

• Disable System Restore and delete restore points
• If your anit-virus program has a virus vault or jail then empty it
• Use the Disk Cleanup utility to clean other areas of the system
• Clean up all other Vista user accounts, if any
• Use an advanced disk cleaning tool, such as CCleaner to clean unneeded files in all your applications
• Uninstall obsolete and unneeded programs

You will want to keep this list of steps handy. If you intend to continue using Vista later then you will need to reverse the steps because at this point Vista is not configured for optimum performance.