Ubuntu

Ubuntu, Vista, and Acer

Asked by neoteotihuacan

Hi,
   I ran Ubuntu back a few years ago, replacing a hand me down Windows ME with the joyous Breezy Badger. It was easy to destroy Windows in favor of its new master. Recently, however, I have purchased an Acer Extensa 4630Z which comes with Vista (and interestingly, no Windows CD). Well, Vista is a different creature for me...been using Linux for a few years now. I'm looking to dual-OS, maybe hang on to Vista simply for gameplay and use the Linux for everything else.
   I wanted to boot from a live CD first, just to see. Trouble is, I can't. Nothing I do, or Google, adequately explains how to cover even this. There is no load time with this puppy. Even though its not a gamer's computer, it starts and stops fast, with no load or code screens.

So, my question is, either how do I do it...or where can I get the info? For the Live boot and the dual-OS install? Can I alter Vista BIOS from inside Windows? Or, hell, is Ubuntu even a good choice for this machine?

Kyle

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nhasian (nhasian) said : 		#1

you can install ubuntu one of two ways. if you insert the Ubuntu disk while windows is running, you can install Ubuntu inside of windows using WUBI. its really neat with a few clicks of a button and your up and running in ubuntu. later if you dont like it you can use the add/remove programs to remove it. the downside is that it will be installed on Vista's NTFS partition which will bring down the performance slightly.

alternatively you can shrink Vista's parition from within Vista. then boot off the Ubuntu CD and install to the new unpartitioned space you've created.

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nhasian (nhasian) said : 		#2

in vista when you click on the vista logo in the bottom left, dont press the red square to shut down. i think that just puts in sleep mode. click on the other option to really reboot the computer. you should see the BIOS post screen. if it boots the cd from there great. if not you will need to enter the bios (usually by press DEL, or F2, or F10 or something) BEFORE windows loads. once you see the windows screen its gone too far and you have to reboot again to gain access to the bios. once inside the bios you need to tell it to boot from the CDROM before booting from the hard disk.

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Thien Pham (thiengom) said : 		#3

Hi guy,

The two answers are great, may this help you solved your problem. But the most thing you should do is to back up your system first when try a new thing.

Good luck,
Thien Pham

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neoteotihuacan (owamux) said : 		#4

Yo.
I got the Live CD to start, had to temporarily disable the way this laptop starts up, allowing me into the BIOS (I guess that means that normally "off" is actually "Standby"). But, now, at "Detecting Hardware to Find CD-ROM Drives" I am hung up at 95%..."Starting PC card services". I tried it a few times and it will sit for 15 minutes or until I realize that a brand new laptop shouldn't hang up like that. Looking in System Configuration for Vista I can see nothing that corresponds, BUT a few items are Greek to me. So, is this a system config setting? Is it possible Ubuntu startup doesnt know what to look for on CD-ROM devices?

And I am backed-up DVD style, ready to deal with partition when the time comes.

Kyle

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nhasian (nhasian) said : 		#5

this page has more information on installing ubuntu on your model of laptop:

http://tech.bluesmoon.info/2008/12/installing-linux-on-acer-extensa-4630z.html

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