Should I try it?

I've been thinking about testing out Linux Ubuntu for the fun of it. But I'm concerned I don't have enough HD space and Ram.

Currently I have WinXP Pro.
PIII 1Ghz. 512 Megs of Ram.
With a little over 7 Gigs of space left on my hard drive.

I did some research and learned about Wubu. You can have both XP and Ubuntu on the same HD without any partitioning.

I just don't want to install this and have XP all slow and sluggish. (or vise versa)

What do ya all think??

Thanks.

 

Try a LiveCD instead and see if you like it. They just run off the CD so no installation needed but it is slow. You can also do a dual boot which won't affect your XP install at all, *nix doesn't take much HD space, you'll just have to partition your drive first.

BTW, I ran Ubuntu on a very similar system, mine was a Celeron 1GHz. I know nothing about Wubu.

 

I would say go for the Wubi, but you might want to get a bigger hard drive or see if you can free up a little room. Wubi needs 5GB, but that would be cutting it close.

http://wubi-installer.org/ Very nice. Click from windows and it downloads and installs with ease...

Have you run CCleaner in windows to see if you can free up a bit of space? http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

And I agree with the Canuck there, a live CD is a great way to experiment with Linux. It is a bit slow, running off the CD, but a great way to test it with no risk to your Win OS.

 

I cleaned up a bit with my HD. Got rid of some old games and iTunes and Winamp.
I now have 10gigs open. That may be a bit better. Sorry I misspelled Wubi. (not wubu)
Where can I get a disk at? I'm thinking one of those Linux magazines usually has a disk that comes with the mag. Or can I request a free one online somewhere?
Thanks

 

Just download them. http://dir.linuxforums.org/ (one place to go) Ubuntu will send you disks for free as well. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

 

Well, I downloaded it and installed. After all that I am left with over 2 gigs on my HD. But the funniest thing is when I reboot my computer, it gives me the option to choose my OS, but my keyboard isn't on or activated while it's in between boot. I can't move the arrow key down to select Ubuntu. Story of my life.
Any suggestions?

 

PS/2 or USB keyboard?

:-D Win 7 beta posting...:-D

 

My keyboard is an USB connection.

 

nm, you already tried what I thought was the issue. you try the up arrow key too?

 

Yeah, arrow keys won't work. I know that my mouse doesn't work at that point of boot. Is there another button I can push that represents a selection for Ubuntu?

 

Here's an update. I tried moving the arrow keys in all direction with no luck. :cry

That's the oddest thing I ever seen. Never thought I couldn't get into an OS because my keyboard won't make me make the selection.

rolleyes

 

you will have to get a ps2 keyboard - i had the same problem with a usb one and grub (the bootloader screen),
no amount of fiddling and cursing helped, i even tried the usb to ps2 keyboard adaptor, in the end i had to stick with my ps2,
its not a fault with your install or operating systems, as you will find that your keyboard will work fine in your bios, xp and ubuntu,

you could try enabling usb legacy support in your bios to see if it helps

if not i would stick with ps2

 

Or ask a geek here to ship you a copy....

 

Thanks Guys,
I decided to just uninstall it for now and perhaps I'll try and find an old keyboard somewhere and try it then. With only 2 Gigs of space left after the install, I may just need to get a second hard drive. I saw some good deals on NewEgg.
Thanks again for the inputs.

 

Yardsales, Craigslist, Ebay.

I have a 12.5 Gig drive that was my backup when my main drive was not working.

The main drive is a 360 Gig SATA that was part of the rebuild in March of last year.

 

Is this just a motherboard error? I run Windows 7, OSX Leopard 10.5, and Ubuntu 8.10 and all of them support my USB keyboard from the very beginning of bootup.

 

that depends on your bootloader - i use grub with no usb keyboard support so i use a ps2 keyboard to choose my operating system,
you can use F11 to choose your boot option if your motherboard/bios supports it,

don't know whether lilo bootloader supports usb, but i do know that ntldr/boot.ini does,

havn't a clue about a mack bootloader

i've fiddled about with multi-boot using various options and settled with grub and 2 hdd's

 

Hmm...so that's what Grub is.

Anytime I've installed linux onto one of my harddrives, and have another OS installed...Grub loads up...and then I'm able to select between each OS. I have a USB keyboard though, it's always worked in the Grub menu.

 

I had to move mine to another USB port on my other box. Do you have anything else plugged in to USB at the same time? Can you disconnect everything else and test the USB keyboard alone?

 

My keyboard actually takes up two USB slots, then I have my iPhone charger, mouse, and headset all plugged in...works for me.

 

Ok, so if you unplug everything else but keyboard and mouse, does it work?

You then try to plug into different USB slots and see if that works.

 

i tried all that, couldn't be bothered messing anymore and got bored of my apple keyboard (usb), just stuck my compaq ps2 back in