What do I need to get ready to install Linux OS(Ubuntu in this case)

nitrousoxide52

I've decided that I wanted to try linux, I chose Ubuntu to begin with because it looks the easiest. After a while I'll probably change to gentoo.
What I want to know is what I need to do to get ready to install it.
What partitions I need etc.

Thanks in advance

EcPercy

Well we need to know what else you are planning. For instance; are you planning on dual booting windows? Do you need 3d support? (playing linux games)

If you are not going to dual boot windows then you can just burn the ubuntu cd and basically allow ubuntu to use the entire harddrive and it will pretty much do the rest.

It's hard to say what you will need. From looking at the hardware in your sig I am betting that ubuntu will locate all of the devices and install the necessary packages to run it.

Post more info and you will be able to get more in-depth responses.

nitrousoxide52

I guess I would want to play some games on linux.
And, yeah I do wanna dual boot with windows.

nitrousoxide52

Duranix

get ready for the fact that pretty much all your games wont work, and almost all your programs etc wont work either.

nitrousoxide52

Also when I used the live cd, to try it, I couldn't figure out how to connect to my home network with my router. I tried all the networks and stuff, and couldn't figure out how. How would I go about doing that once it's installed?

RIV@NVX

Is your network card wired or wireless? What is the chip used?

md5

To read more about how to setup networking under Linux, read through this networking guide (part of one of the installation guides I got further down).

All linux distributions include grub and/or lilo, the two most well known boot managers for linux. Once you have your linux distribution installed, grub will be installed in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of your hard drive, thereby allowing you to choose which OS to start from.

You will need to create some unpartitioned space on your hard drive, which depends on the size of your hard drive. Around 4GB should be ok, but you can do with 1-2GB as well (although not all packages will fit in 1GB...)

You can resize your Windows partition from the Ubuntu installer, through the popular DiskDrake partitioning program (which will run during the installation). The installer will take care of the required partitions for Linux, so you don't need to worry about those.
If you wish to resize your Windows partition through Windows, you can use a Windows utility to create some free (unpartitioned) space and let the Linux installer create the needed partitions in there. The most popular (although not free) tool for partitioning under Windows is undoubtedly Partition Magic - although there are some free alternatives out there, e.g. Ranish Partition Manager, the partition resizer and FIPS - although I've only used Partition Magic.

The installation is a pretty straightforward process, with the only "tricky" part being disk partitioning.

There are installation docs out there that can help you with the installation, e.g. here and here. The Inquirer has a Linux guide, but I don't recommend it, as this site's validity of articles is usually non-existant, so this guide could do you more harm than good.

As for tools, you might want to check our sticky thread on top of this forum for tools and drivers. Some of these tools work under Windows too, so you can get familiar with them and use the same tools in both OSes.

There IS a way of playing Windows games under Linux (the Cedega project), however this actually uses Windows DLLs to accomplish this. Still, it's much faster than VMWare or similar tools. Check the sticky thread

Good luck with your Linux experience, I hope I helped you a bit with this post

nitrousoxide52

It's actually a usb device, http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satel...VisitorWrapper

nitrousoxide52

Does anyone know where I can find any usb wireless adapter drivers for ubuntu?

RIV@NVX

If you are already running ubuntu, try
Because, from what I read at NdisWrapper wiki, it should work:
Of course, if you want, I can explain how to compile newer ndiswrapper (one in Ubuntu Hoary is quite out of date). But try this first.

I'm not sure about native Linux drivers for this device, but some in development exist at http://prism54.org/ and http://jbnote.free.fr/prism54usb/

nitrousoxide52

Well I don't even know how to compile at all , I'm that much of a noob, do I put that stuff that you wrote in the terminal? I think it would be best if you explained, would be good for a noob such as me

RIV@NVX

OK, let's assume it will work without compiling.
Simply open the Terminal and then type:
OR

Launch Synaptic and find the package "ndiswrapper-utils" (I think you can just type and selection will move). Install it.

Once it is installed, you can follow the instructions from here.

nitrousoxide52

I tried everything and it's still not working, it just never shows up in network connections, and never connects.

RIV@NVX

Does NdisWrapper say something like "device present, driver present"?

nitrousoxide52

It only says driver present, it doesn't say device present

RIV@NVX

What does it say when you type "lsusb" in console?

nitrousoxide52

I decided to just try again with everything, I reinstalled ubuntu, ndiswrapper, the whole shibang.
This time around, everything went right! It detected my connection and everything, I'm actually on it right now ! Thanks for your help!

RIV@NVX

Glad you got it sorted out! You can't say it "just worked", but it wasn't very far, right?