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Checking Out Linux Ubuntu

4-4-2007

After my latest experience with Vista, I was curious about how much Linux had advanced since the last time I played around with it.  I had read about a user-friendly distro named Ubuntu (as far as I can tell, it's pronounced Uh-boon-too), that I thought would be a good one to give a try.


And here's how you can try it out for yourself...

I didn't want to actually go through the trouble of installing Linux to a dedicated machine, so I had two options.

Option 1: Use the LiveCD

This will let you run Linux right off the CD without changing anything on your system. 
  • Go to www.ubuntu.com and click "Download Now".
  • Most likely, you can leave the default download options, and choose to start the download.
  • Once you have downloaded the .ISO file, you need to use a program to burn this image to a CD.
  • Pop in the CD, and reboot your computer.
  • Hopefully, your machine will boot off the CD drive, and load the Linux Kernel. If not, you probably need to hit a special key during the boot process and choose to load the CD.
Now you can play around with Linux and check it out.  All you have to do is remove the CD and reboot your computer to go back to the old installation of Windows and nothing will have been changed on your system.

Option 2: Use Virtual Machine to Run Ubuntu

The other option is to install Ubuntu to a virtual machine.  This is a little more complicated, but will allow you more options when playing around with it, because unlike running from a LiveCD, you can save info to the hard drive for later, and you can install 3rd party software.

Here's how you do it:

  • Install VirtualPC 2007 (or you can use VMWare Server).  This is a free tool that can be downloaded from here.
  • Once that is installed, you should launch the app, and choose to create a new Virtual Machine.  Choose to adjust the recommended RAM, and add at least 256 MB.  And also be sure to create a new virtual hard disk.
  • Once the VM (Virtual Machine) is created, you can start it up by double clicking on it in the VPC console (above). 
  • Now you need to install Ubuntu. Use the directions above for downloading the ISO image, but instead of burning it to a CD, just save it to your hard drive.
  • Now from the VM window, choose the "CD" menu, and then click "Capture ISO Image...".  This will allow the VM to read directly from the ISO instead of burning it to a CD.
  • Restart the VM and it should boot into the install.
Now here's where I ran into a problem.  For some reason, Ubuntu couldn't figure out the appropriate display settings, and my window got all crazy.



After some troubleshooting, I found a way to fix this:

Step 1: Boot the VM with the Ubuntu ISO captured, press F6 (Other Options)
Step 2: Go near the end of the line and remove the word splash, then press Enter.
Step 3: After Ubuntu 6.10 boots, Press Crtl-Alt-F1 to get to a command line interface.
Step 4: Type in the following command to reset defaultdepth from 24 to 16:
sudo sed -e 's/DefaultDepth.*24/DefaultDepth 16/g' -i /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Step 5: Press Ctrl-Alt-F7 to return to the Ubunto Desktop.
Step 6: Press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to reload the Ubunto Desktop.

Now you should be good to install Ubuntu to the VM.




As far as my experience with Ubuntu goes, it really is a lot better than the last time I played with Linux.  It comes pre-installed with just about every app you could possibly want, including an open source alternative to MS Office (OpenOffice) that can read and save all your old MS Word docs.

The only thing that still keeps me from just going ahead and switching is the fact that I need some of my old programs that I still want to run.  Hopefully in the future there may be some cool Virtualization software that will allow me to run MS Windows programs on the Linux desktop. 

Until then...
-JP