Kubuntu as sole operating system

[trigan]

I have a couple of beginner’s questions which I need to be sure of before I start.

I am not very familiar with Linux but would like to install Kubuntu as the sole operating system on a second desktop computer that I have. I have an empty 25 GB NTFS Windows formatted hard drive and also 1 GB of RAM on this second computer.

I downloaded the kubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso file and I have also installed InfraRecorder program on my Windows XP computer.

When I successfully burn a Kubuntu CD using InfraRecorder, will this Kubuntu CD automatically install the Kubuntu on the hard drive even though there is no operating system on the computer ?
Will it automatically format my Windows formatted hard drive into Linux format ?

By the way, what is the Kubuntu 9.10 equivalent program of InfraRecorder ?

Thank you for your help.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

I am not very familiar with Linux but would like to install Kubuntu as the sole operating system on a second desktop computer that I have. I have an empty 25 GB NTFS Windows formatted hard drive and also 1 GB of RAM on this second computer.

That desktop *should* work fine. What video and sound chips are in it?

Kubuntu will capture the entire drive and reformat it using EXT3 or EXT4 (doesn't matter which) before it installs itself. It will overwrite the MBR with its own boot record, since you aren't dual booting.

I downloaded the kubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso file and I have also installed InfraRecorder program on my Windows XP computer.

Did you do an md5sum check of the iSO after you downloaded it? It should match the md5sum given on the mirror you downloaded from.
If the md5sum doesn't check then the download was bad.

When I successfully burn a Kubuntu CD using InfraRecorder,

Be sure to burn TAO (track at once) and under 10X.

will this Kubuntu CD automatically install the Kubuntu on the hard drive even though there is no operating system on the computer ?
Will it automatically format my Windows formatted hard drive into Linux format ?

Yes. Since you are not going to dual boot you can choose the first installation option - give Kubuntu the ENTIRE HD.

After you boot the LiveCD, but before you run it, do the option which checks the CD itself, to be sure it burned correctly. IF that comes back OK then proceed with the first option, "run the LiveCD". If not, reburn at a slower speed.

By the way, what is the Kubuntu 9.10 equivalent program of InfraRecorder ?

K3b (I've heard the "3b" stands for "burn, baby, burn", and burn it does. It is a WORLD CLASS burner, and VERY EASY to use. You'll love it!

Thank you for your help.

you're welcome!

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

I have an empty 25 GB NTFS Windows formatted hard drive

NTFS is Windows-only -- that's not gonna work. If you choose "entire disk" in the installer, I think it will reformat the whole thing to ext3, which will work.

[PaulP]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

Kubuntu like any Linux distribution can be installed either as a single operating system
or along with another operating system, on a partitioned hard drive (so called dual boot).

As I understand, your target computer ran some Windows in the past. Then it is
likely that the Kubuntu installation program will ask you confirmation before erasing the
previous boot sector and before formatting your drive (in the Linux Ext 3 format). I'm
not sure of this though, I haven't installed any OS but Linux in the past ten years.
Anyway, if these questions present to you, the answer is yes, since you apparently
want to dedicate this machine to Linux. Anyway, should you ever change your mind,
you will always be able to format back to Windows or whatever OS format.

As for InfraRecorder, well I had no opportunity to use it since its a Windows tool
but I guess the closest equivalent in Kubuntu is K3b (in you "multimedia" menu
once you have installed), although there are many tools available that perform
similar tasks. For the command line (when you'll become a real Linux user), you
have "mkisofs" which makes ISO CD/DVD images and "cdwriter" that burns those
down on disk.

I hope you'll enjoy as much as we all do (which is very much)!

[trigan]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

Thank you GreyGeek, dibl, paulp.

In answer to your questions or comments :
What video and sound chips are in it?

I have no idea.

Did you do an md5sum check of the iSO after you downloaded it?

Yes. I used a program called Hashcalc and the MD5 sum it calculated for the kubuntu 9.10 iso file I downloaded matched.

Be sure to burn TAO (track at once) and under 10X

InfraRecorder has a choice of 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x and maximum write speeds and Session at once write method. I will select 2x and play it safe.

After you boot the LiveCD, but before you run it, do the option which checks the CD itself, to be sure it burned correctly.

Do you mean that the LiveCD itself can check whether it has been burned correctly ?
If it cannot do this, does anyone know of a free Windows program that will do this ?

Unfortunately, the "Verify the disc after writing" option in InfraRecorder is disabled when burning an ISO image to CD-R. This option is currently only available when recording files (not disc images) from hard drive.

Thank you all for your support.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

..
What video and sound chips are in it?
....

Once you run the LiveCD you can open a Konsole (Menu --> System --> Konsole) and issue

lspci

The output of that command will tell you what your hardware is. For even MORE details you can, in a Konsole, issue

lshw (corrected typo -- thanks VINNY!)

........
InfraRecorder has a choice of 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x and maximum write speeds and Session at once write method. I will select 2x and play it safe.

Either 4 or 8 should work but if you have the patience then 2 will be great!

.....
Do you mean that the LiveCD itself can check whether it has been burned correctly ?

Yes! 8) You'll see it listed as one of the options below the first option, which is to run Kubuntu as a LiveCD without touching your harddrive or hardware. AFTER you test the LiveCD and it reports back that it is OK, then run the first option and see how your hardware works. Things yhou will want to test are the sound, accelerated video, and USB ports. Did Kubuntu's startup sound play when your desktop appeared? If it did, can you switch the sound to earphones by merely plugging them in, and automatically switch back to the internal speaks by unplugging the earphones. Can you enable desktop effects (Menu --> Settings --> System Settings --> General Tab --> Desktop Effects)?
When you plug in a USB stick does the device notifier notify you and popup a dialog with options? Etc, etc. etc...

.......
Thank you all for your support.

That's what the Linux community is all about! 8)

[vinnywright]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

..
What video and sound chips are in it?
....

Once you run the LiveCD you can open a Konsole (Menu --> System --> Konsole) and issue

lspci

The output of that command will tell you what your hardware is. For even MORE details you can, in a Konsole, issue

lswh

AAA I think that last one is a typeO as should be lshw and it complans about not being run as superuser so sudo lshw would probebley be better......

VINNY

[trigan]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

Do you mean that the LiveCD itself can check whether it has been burned correctly ?

Yes! You'll see it listed as one of the options below the first option, which is to run Kubuntu as a LiveCD without touching your harddrive or hardware. AFTER you test the LiveCD and it reports back that it is OK, then run the first option and see how your hardware works. Things yhou will want to test are the sound, accelerated video, and USB ports. Did Kubuntu's startup sound play when your desktop appeared? If it did, can you switch the sound to earphones by merely plugging them in, and automatically switch back to the internal speaks by unplugging the earphones. Can you enable desktop effects (Menu --> Settings --> System Settings --> General Tab --> Desktop Effects)?
When you plug in a USB stick does the device notifier notify you and popup a dialog with options? Etc, etc. etc...

I did this but I had to right click on the left corner icon and choose Traditional Menu before I could get to the Konsole !!

I heard the startup and shutdown sound.
Desktop effects worked only after I changed the compositing type to X- something.

But when I plugged my USB external hard drive, the Device Notifier did not notify me at all and the icon at the bottom did not indicate that I had plugged any new input device. I tried all 4 USB ports in vain.

What is the equivalent of MY COMPUTER FOLDER in Kubuntu and how do I get there ? This would at least tell me whether it is at all listed in this folder.

I typed LSHW in lower case in the Konsole and all the hardware including the USB ports seems to be associated with nVidia corporation.

So what do you suggest I do at this point ? Carry on install Kubuntu despite this USB fault ?

Thank you.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

If your usb sticks don't automatically notify you when you insert them it is probably because the application "usbmount" wasn't installed. Open up KPackageKit or Synaptic and install it.

Or, you can open a Konsole and enter:

sudo apt-get install usbmount

If you don't have the Synaptic package manager installed you should install it:

sudo apt-get install synaptic

It is a nicer package manager than KPackageKit, IMO.

Run

lspci | grep Display

in a Konsole and paste the results in your next msg on this thread. There are a LOT of nVidia chips out there.

The "equivalent" of MyComputer is probably Systemsettings:
KMenu --> Settings --> Settings

When your KDE desktop appeared you had what appears to be a translucent block on your desktop. That is called the "Folder View" plasmoid widget, but it is set to the "Desktop" setting. When you hoover your mouse over it a dialog panel appears on the closest boarder and one of the icons on it is a wrench, which you click to change the settings of the widget from Desktop view to Folder view. In the Folder View an icon of a desktop appears, along with icons of all the subdirectories and files underneath you home account. In the Desktop view it is a surface onto which you can drop or create icons representing links to apps, services, files, etc....

I chose not to use the Folder view widget and deleted it by clicking on the "X" in the popup dialog. It can easily be returned by right clicking on the desktop and choosing "+ Widgets" and in the Plasmoid dialog double clicking on the Folder view icon.

You can also open a menu up to an application and instead of left mouse clicking on it to run it you can right mouse click on the apps menu option and chose either "add to desktop" or "add to panel", or do both. Classic Windows desktop layout

Trigan, just about ALL of your management tools are found in Systemsettings. In Linux EVERYTHING is a file, including appllications, devices, sockets, etc...

HERE is a web page which describes files, permissions, etc.

The initial user created when you installed Kubuntu is given (in Kubuntu and Debian based distros) sole access to root capabilities using the application "sudo". Others cannot use sudo unless the initial user gives them sudo access rights, which is a topic for another time. The initial user also has a group created which is given their name.

Using groups is one way a sys admin can easily configure a bunch of users without having to edit each of them and add a multitude of device, service and group permissions. She can create a group with any name she chooses and give that group all the rights she wants it to have. Then when she opens the group's user dialog she adds the users to that group, which gives them the permissions she gave that group.

[trigan]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

Thank you GreyGeek for your detailed reply. It will come in handy in the future.

I succeeded in getting Device Notifier to recognize my external hard drive when I plugged it in. Before clicking on Try Kubuntu without any change to your computer, this time, I decided to test for errors and test memory.

There were errors found in 3 files reported.
And after 1 hour, the memory test was still going on, so I decided to quit and reboot.
When Kubuntu came up, I plugged in the external hard drive and although it was windows formatted, its contents showed up and it was recognized by the Device Notifier.

I clicked on a wav file in my external drive. Amarok opened up and showed the wav file but it refused to play it even though I clicked on the play icon.
I then clicked on a video file with .flv extension which youtube videos have. Dragon opened up and showed the name of the youtube video but did not play the video. I also tried to find the exact amount of RAM that this computer I am using has in system settings and elsewhere but was not able to.

[skunk]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

I succeeded in getting Device Notifier to recognize my external hard drive when I plugged it in. Before clicking on Try Kubuntu without any change to your computer, this time, I decided to test for errors and test memory.

There were errors found in 3 files reported.

Thats 3 more than acceptable. I would burn a new CD before spending any more time.

[skunk]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

I clicked on a wav file in my external drive. Amarok opened up and showed the wav file but it refused to play it even though I clicked on the play icon.
I then clicked on a video file with .flv extension which youtube videos have. Dragon opened up and showed the name of the youtube video but did not play the video.

Install "kubuntu-restricted-extras" and then try again

I also tried to find the exact amount of RAM that this computer I am using has in system settings and elsewhere but was not able to.

Install "kinfocenter"

[trigan]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

Thank you skunk.

I am going to use a Verbatim CD-R which I have read are the most compatible with CDRW drives to make a new bootable Kubuntu CD.

In case it makes a difference, I stress that the USB external hard drive which I plugged in when the Kubuntu session was on, is windows formatted in the NTFS file system. And despite this and to my surprise, Kubuntu not only listed down the files in this expansion drive as it called it, but even opened up the wav and flv files in it when I clicked on them.

Regarding installing "kubuntu-restricted-extras" and "kinfocenter", can I install these while in the “Try Kubuntu without any change to your computer” mode or do I have to install Kubuntu into my hard drive first ?

Could you tell me how to install these from the Kubuntu desktop please ?

Thank you.

[skunk]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

Regarding installing "kubuntu-restricted-extras" and "kinfocenter", can I install these while in the “Try Kubuntu without any change to your computer” mode or do I have to install Kubuntu into my hard drive first ?

Could you tell me how to install these from the Kubuntu desktop please ?

You can install new software while running the LiveCD but the changes will obviously be lost when you restart.

K -> System Settings -> Add and Remove Software

Type "kubuntu-restricted-extras" into the field, hit enter, then click on the arrow in the Action column to select the package for installation. Then click the Apply button in the bottom right hand corner. Enter you password when requested.

Repeat for "kinfocenter"

[trigan]

Re: Kubuntu as sole operating system

Thank you skunk.

The Verbatim CD-R on which I made a new bootable Kubuntu CD is certified with no errors. It did the trick. But I did use the Allow overburning function in InfraRecorder and reduced the write speed to just 1x.

I tried to install kinfocenter but it failed to install the program and its library. It did not ask me for my password at all. It told me to check the internet connection. Now I know that the internet connection in both broadband and dial-up work on my other working computer but I am not sure on this computer.

Is there a way that I can check both the broad band and dial-up connectivity on the as yet not working computer in the “Try Kubuntu without any change to your computer” mode ?