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I thought I'd ask the question of some of you: how do you set up a dual-boot system with Ubuntu (any version is fine) and XPMCE so I can continue to do my TV shows and burning and stuff like that?
Eventually I want to get around to using MythTV and trying something different.
I need a reliable, non-destructive way where even I can't bollocks it up. I've got 80GB space - about 50-something GB spare and the latest Ubuntu (7.10) so I might go that.
Very easy, simply download your prefered version of ubuntu and burn it to a cd. Then boot from the CD. You'll then have kind of a demo version of ubuntu running from the cd. There will be an icon on the desktop to install ubuntu on your machine. Double click that and follow your nose. The most critcal bit is to ensure you select the correct partitioning options. Select 'Guided - resize' then use the slider to tell it how much of your HDD you want ubuntu to use. 10 GB is plenty as ubuntu can access any files/data on you windows partition.
When your done the pc will now load 'Grub' when it boots, which will give you the option of loading windows or ubuntu.
If your thinking Myth, you may want to check out mythbuntu. It's a stripped down version of ubuntu with all the stuff you need for MythTV. It makes it very easy to set up.
and before you do it take an image backup of the existing machine and store it somewhere other than on that same machine Never hurts to be careful. Grub and partitioning isn't "simple' if it goes wrong. As much as they automate the grub installation if you're going to be trying different distros it will break eventually. Be safe and take an image before you make changes
If you do break it and nothing boots ask for help before re-installing (unless you have an image to go back to with no loss). 99% of the time the problems are reversible or easily fixed but until you understand how grub and partitioning works it's a bit of a minefield (if you're trying to fix things manually).
Cheers,
Arkay.
The following Member(s) said "Thank You!" to arkay for this information:
I'll do an image of the MCE2005 and then try it out - so you can resize through Ubuntu? Since I bought my external 320GB drive I've done backups weekly - though it's usually only another couple of documents or shows that I've recorded so not too much hassle.
As this system won't have Internet on it (my MCE doesn't at all and never has) how do I get it to play MP3s and DVDs etc - you can use Automatix, but you need net access obviously and not be offline. I'm just going straight for Ubuntu 7.10 because I ordered the disk out from Canonical.
I might take a look at Mythbuntu too Phil. Thanks a lot for your help.
I'll do an image of the MCE2005 and then try it out - so you can resize through Ubuntu? Since I bought my external 320GB drive I've done backups weekly - though it's usually only another couple of documents or shows that I've recorded so not too much hassle.
As this system won't have Internet on it (my MCE doesn't at all and never has) how do I get it to play MP3s and DVDs etc - you can use Automatix, but you need net access obviously and not be offline. I'm just going straight for Ubuntu 7.10 because I ordered the disk out from Canonical.
I might take a look at Mythbuntu too Phil. Thanks a lot for your help.
What ISP are you with? A few of the larger ISP have Ubuntu repositories for the updates and app installs that are NOT counted in your quota.
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That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.
Aristotle
You can do it without connecting it up to the net but I wouldn't recommend it unless you know what you are doing. You would have to download each of the .deb files and burn them to a disk, take them to the machine and install them. That means you'd have to handle the dependencies yourself which would have you going back and forth a few times.
If you can I'd plug it into the net. It's safe enough (specially on Linux).
What ISP are you with? A few of the larger ISP have Ubuntu repositories for the updates and app installs that are NOT counted in your quota.
At this point I use Westnet. Do they offer updates though for the multimedia playback? I've got several Linux distros here which I've tried and Ubuntu seems the most friendliest.
At this point I use Westnet. Do they offer updates though for the multimedia playback? I've got several Linux distros here which I've tried and Ubuntu seems the most friendliest.
For the multimedia playback use the Automatix repo's, but westnet does have its own ubuntu repo's.
I've had experience with partitioning before (for Windows, backups etc) but there are two questions left - what format should I use (ext2, NTFS, FAT etc) and which option on that screen is best for the size - like convulated?
The best bet for your system partition would be ext3, it needs to be a native linux file system. You'll also need to allocate a portion of 'swap'. About 1gb is quite satisfactory for most systems. If you want to have space to store data that can be accessed from both windows & ubuntu, then that will need to be on either fat32 or ntfs.
If you set up your partitions the manual way then there are 2 minimum requirements. You must allocate (mount point) root, also known as '/'. This is your system partition. And you must allocate 'swap'. Any other partitions can also be allocated a mount point, so your ntfs partition may be '/data' or something similar. When your up and running this is the point in the file system where you will access the data on that partition. As an aside, later on you can set it up so that you can access network shares in a similar way.
If however, you choose to use the guided/automatic method, most of this is handled for you.
Never hurts to be careful. Grub and partitioning isn't "simple' if it goes wrong. As much as they automate the grub installation if you're going to be trying different distros it will break eventually. Be safe and take an image before you make changes 
