[Tutorial] : How To Install Ubuntu Like A Pro !

So you have decided to give Ubuntu a try which is a good start indeed. We are going to use latest version of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex for this tutorial. But before we go on installing this amazing OS we have to understand disk partitioning which is very important. Make a single mistake and your data is gone. Worry not, If you understand the partitioning basics and follow the instructions, the installation will be a breeze.
Disk Partitioning :
Disk partition is nothing but a separate division of the hard-disk space and the process of creating one is called as Disk Partitioning. It can be done via Partition editors such as Acronis Disk Directory, Gparted, Parted Magic to name a few ones. The soul purpose of doing so is to have better organization of the available disk space. The reasons/advantages of Partitioning could be :

•     Separation of multiple operating systems.
•      If one partition file system gets corrupted others are still intact, which improves data security.
•     Better organization of data files. e.g. different partitions for movies, music, applications, backups etc.
•      It improves disk performance for certain file systems such as NTFS.

There are two types of partitioning decided by the type of partition table structure the disk has. Those are MBR ( Master Boot Record ) and GUID partition tables. BIOS uses MBR and is seen in PCs. I am not going into details of GUID/ GPT partiton as its most commonly used in Macintoshes.

MBR partitioned disk can be divided into the following three types of partitions.

1. Primary Partition :
   Operating systems such as DOS, Windows XP, Windows NT etc. need to be installed in a Primary Partition. Primary partition can have only one file system. A disk can have maximum of 4 such partitions. This limitation is to honour the MBR table scheme which can have maximum of 4 entries.
2. Extended Partition :
   This is Primary partition which can be divided into sub partitions called as logical partitions. By using this kind of partition we can have more than 4 partitions on the disk which would be impossible with primary partitions otherwise. A disk can have maximum of one extended partition.
3. Logical Partition :
   Extended partition can be divided into logical partitions and we can have as many logical partitions as we require. Windows Vista and all types of Linux distributions can be installed in logical partitions.

In short, a disk can have ‘ maximum of 4 primary partitions ‘ or ‘ 3 primary partitions and one extended partition which can be subdivided further’. ( This is not necessary but its a guidline to follow this rule to have maximum compatibility with other OS.)
 Partition types may sound a little confusing but its easy to understand visually.


As you can see, the 8 GB disk is partitioned into 3 primary partitions and one extended partition which is further divided into 4 logical partitions. Notice the uniform light sky blue colour around the extended partition.
You might be wondering why this stuff was so important to understand. Good question, because different users can have different partitions structures viz.

• Entire disk as one primary partition.
• One primary partition for operating system and the rest as an extended partition.
• Two primary partitions and one extended partition.
• Or any combinations of the above ones.

Ubuntu installation :
Things you will need / Requirements :

• CD/DVD drive
• Ubuntu installation media (CD/DVD)
• a UPS backup ( in case you have power cut during disk partitioning its likely to have data loss )
• A computer ( Desktop/ Laptop ) with at-least 256 MB of RAM.

1. Make sure the computer is set to boot from the CD. It can be checked from within the BIOS which can be accessed by pressing any one of the following keys according to the system, "Del", "F1", "F2","F8", "F12" when computer starts. Once inside the BIOS setup screen, find "Boot sequence" or any other instruction having the same meaning. Most likely this setting would be inside "Advanced BIOS features" menu. After finding the setting make appropriate changes to boot computer from CD.
2. Insert ubuntu installation media and boot from it. After booting select the desired language on the first screen. If you want to try Ubuntu without installing it, select "Try Ubuntu…." else select "Install Ubuntu". I am assuming that you chose " Try Ubuntu…" for this tutorial.


Before you begin installation, make sure you check CD for defects by choosing the respective menu or if you are feeling exceptionally brave today, skip it.








3. Let it boot to the desktop.
4. Ubuntu needs at-least 2 partitions viz ext2 or ext3 and a swap partition. I advice to make these partitions inside extended partitions. I am assuming that the disk has 2 primary partitions as in the picture. We have to make seperate extended partition and make 2 logical partitions inside it. Ubuntu needs minimum 4 GB of disk space and thumb of rule for swap partition size double the system RAM ( 2 GB is more than sufficient for swap) .

Guidline for selecting swap partition size :

Available RAM (MB)	SWAP Area (GB)
256	3
512	3
1024	2
2048	2

Above table can be used for Desktop usage with no major multimedia work involved. In future, if you feel that swap partition is too small you may increase it.
At the top panel, Select   System >> Administration >> Partition Editor.  ( If you have skipped the Partitioning Basics section at the start of the article, kindly read it ! )

 ( IGNORE THE PARTITION SIZES FROM THE PICTURES. ALL OPERATIONS WERE PERFORMED INSIDE VIRTUAL MACHINE. ) 

I am assuming that user has only 2 primary partitions.

Right click the rightmost partition >> Resize/ Move. Move cursor over the right edge as shown in the picture ( Notice cursor changes to hand tool ). Click and drag it towards left to make space for ubuntu and swap partitions. "Free size.." would be the space for ubuntu+swap partitions. Make sure its at-least 8GB.

Unallocated space should be created after following the above steps. Right click the unnallocated space and select "New". Select the "Create as" to "Extended Partition".


Now right click the extended partition we just created and select "New". Create a partition for Ubuntu with Filesystem "ext3" and another partition for swap with filesystem "linux-swap". If there is any free space left at the end you may create another logical partition in there. Close the "partition editor".







The partitioning I have covered in above steps is very crude as users can have different partition schemes, so I suggest if you are unsure about anything, post a comment and I will be happy to help you out.
5. "Install" from the desktop. Few steps after this should be self explanatory.
 





6. MOST IMPORTANT! Select "Manual". On the next screen we see the disk structure which has already a ubuntu ext3 partition and a swap partition. Select "ext3" partition and "Edit partition". Select the fields as in the picture.






The above step selects the filesystem mount point for the Ubuntu.
7. "Forward" >> "Forward" >> "Install". The setup should finish within 15 minutes. At the end you will be given option either to reboot or keep using the live cd. Make sure you remove the installation media before system reboot.



8. After reboot, you will be greeted by a very dull screen something like in the picture below. Its called as "GRUB bootloader menu" and can be customized. I will add that how-to later.



I currently have a quadboot setup, XP, Vista, Ubuntu and Mac OS X on a single hard disk. So far i have no problems using any of these. So dont be scared to try Ubuntu, it wont make  Windows install unusable. Actually on the above screen you get to choose which OS to boot. By default Ubuntu will boot after detault timeout, if you need how to set up XP for default boot, just reply here.
I wrote this tutorial for my college`s newly formed "Linux Group". Any suggestions to improve this tutorial are welcome.
Happy Ubuntu !