Tips on moving to Linux?

[cgutjahr]

So I choose the first option "Install Lubuntu alongside Windows XP..."

They probably went too far when simplifying the install process? Think about it: you asked the installer to install "alongside" Windows XP", not to replace it - I guess that's why the installer won't let you select the first HD... Bad choice, obviously.

I wouldn't recommend using the partitioning tool if this is your first time installing Linux. It's actually easy to use (you should be familiar with the concept from using the Amiga's HDToolbox) and it will warn you when data gets destroyed - but better be safe than sorry.

I recommend disconnecting the media HD before starting the installation process.

[cgutjahr]

Cracking open the case and fiddling with IDE cables just to install an OS is not my definition of "just works" or "user friendly".  I'm discouraged to say that this is not a wholly positive first impression of Linux/Lubuntu.

I agree to a certain extent - your setup could have been handled better. But keep in mind that...

1. you could have solved the problem using the installer, if you had used the partitioning tool
2. installing Windows alongside Linux isn't possible at all - so far Linux beats Windows hands down, as far as you are concerned

[ElPolloDiabl]

What you want to do is pick something else.
On the next screen select: New Partition
You should be able to figure out where you want the partition. Use the mouse for that.
Select: /
(that means root) as the mount point and ext4 filing system.
Skip the swap partition for now.

It won't actually format the partition until you start the Linux install.
Click back if you didn't get it right and your partitions will be unharmed. Then click the manual partitioning again and have another go.

I say leave the drive in, but don't proceed until you are sure the partitions are correct.

[Bif]

2. installing Windows alongside Linux isn't possible at all - so far Linux beats Windows hands down, as far as you are concerned

To play devil's advocate I was going to say exactly the same thing, you beat me to it. I don't even know what all the versions of Windows installs allow, but if anything I might guess MS would go out of its way to find and erase the competition off the drive .

If anything I think Linux probably has had to go out of its way to handle multi-boot as possible given its circumstances. That said I agree it does seem a bit confusing for your situation, which is a bummer. That's why I'm just sticking with running it off a USB stick, I see no disadvantage to it so far for what I need.

[ferrellsl]

I agree to a certain extent - your setup could have been handled better. But keep in mind that...

1. you could have solved the problem using the installer, if you had used the partitioning tool
2. installing Windows alongside Linux isn't possible at all - so far Linux beats Windows hands down, as far as you are concerned

Number 2 is an utter falsehood.  I have several systems at home that have Windows 7 installed along side Linux.  In fact, the Toshiba laptop I'm using to post this message is triple boot.  It boots Windows 7, Ubuntu 13, and OSX 10.8.5

The easiest way to install Linux alongside Windows without all the partitioning and @ss pain of losing or accidentally formatting your non-Linux partitions is to use WUBI.  See:  http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/windows-installer

Officially WUBI only supports Ubuntu 12.04 but I've used it on later versions of Linux without any issues.

WUBI leaves your Windows partition intact and put the linux filesystem into a loop-file on your NTFS drive/partition so there's no need to re-partition and risk losing your other operating systems.

[polyp2000]

Number 2 is an utter falsehood.  I have several systems at home that have Windows 7 installed along side Linux.  In fact, the Toshiba laptop I'm using to post this message is triple boot.  It boots Windows 7, Ubuntu 13, and OSX 10.8.5

The easiest way to install Linux alongside Windows without all the partitioning and @ss pain of losing or accidentally formatting your non-Linux partitions is to use WUBI.  See:  http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/windows-installer

Officially WUBI only supports Ubuntu 12.04 but I've used it on later versions of Linux without any issues.

WUBI leaves your Windows partition intact and put the linux filesystem into a loop-file on your NTFS drive/partition so there's no need to re-partition and risk losing your other operating systems.

I concur , I have done this several times in the past both with and without using Wubi. Usually the "alongside" windows thing just works (tm) its only if you have a multi-drive configuration that it can get a bit confusing.

2 points

1) If not using "wubi" the order is important. If you install Linux alongside windows and windows is the thing you install after Linux - it will rewrite the boot sector and you wont be able to get to your linux partition. (This can be fixed be re-installing GRUB)

2) Wubi works really well - I've read that I/O performance is degraded by doing it this way, although in practice i cant say i've noticed it!

These days i keep a windows install on a separate hardrive for the express purpose of updating TomTom every now and again. Other than that my machines are all running dedicated Ubuntu.

[Mr_Bumpy]

Within the "Something Else" installation option, here is what you want to do:
1) Select the current Windows partition (/dev/sda1).
2) Click "Change..."
3) You will need to shrink your Windows partition to make room for a Linux partition. Enter a new size for your Windows partition. Based on how much space you've used (almost 30 GB), you could safely shrink it down to 60 GB (60000 MB) and have plenty of room to spare.
4) After the /dev/sda1 partition has been shrunk, you will now see a new option in the list: "free space". Select this option, then click the plus icon to add a new partition in the free space, and give it the following options:
  Type: Primary
  New partition size: just accept whatever's here (it will be all your available free space)
  Use as: Ext4 journaling file system
  Mount point: / (you can select it from the drop-down menu)

Then click OK. Your new partition will show up as "/dev/sda2" alongside your Windows partition on "/dev/sda1", and you can proceed to "Install Now".

Good luck

[Ral-Clan]

Within the "Something Else" installation option, here is what you want to do:
1) Select the current Windows partition (/dev/sda1).
2) Click "Change..."
3) You will need to shrink your Windows partition to make room for a Linux partition. Enter a new size for your Windows partition. Based on how much space you've used (almost 30 GB), you could safely shrink it down to 60 GB (60000 MB) and have plenty of room to spare.
4) After the /dev/sda1 partition has been shrunk, you will now see a new option in the list: "free space". Select this option, then click the plus icon to add a new partition in the free space, and give it the following options:
  Type: Primary
  New partition size: just accept whatever's here (it will be all your available free space)
  Use as: Ext4 journaling file system
  Mount point: / (you can select it from the drop-down menu)

Then click OK. Your new partition will show up as "/dev/sda2" alongside your Windows partition on "/dev/sda1", and you can proceed to "Install Now".

Good luck

This is the most helpful reply so far.  Thanks.  But what does...

Mount point: / (you can select it from the drop-down menu)

....mean?  I can select what, exactly, from the drop down menu?  I have no idea what a "mount point" is, so I'm not going to know what to choose.

Thanks.

[psxphill]

2. installing Windows alongside Linux isn't possible at all - so far Linux beats Windows hands down, as far as you are concerned

It's just a pity for your argument that it was Linux that was causing the problem. It sounds like you'd defend Linux to the end.

[ElPolloDiabl]

/
It just means the root of the drive. As opposed to a folder in the drive e.g.
/mystuff (the mystuff folder)
Equivalent to C:
by itself or C:\mystuff\

[Duce]

God Forbid you just click the one radio box in Windows 8 that lets you avoid 99% of the "Metro" features to begin with, John.  

Irony is, I'd be willing to wager fair money you wouldn't know the difference between a desktop-only W8 setup (again, ONE CLICK REQUIRED! for boot to desktop mode, avoiding your Pure Evil aversion to Metro) vs. a Windows 7 box if you plunked yourself in front of each of 'em.

There was a lot to gripe about in the early days of Windows 8, and it's still not perfect.  But all in all, I've found it wholly faster and more stable than 7 - and that's saying a lot.  On average, my Windows 7 boxes only get rebooted once every 3-4 months, tops - and I can count the crashes I've had on them on one hand since the day W7 launched.

My one remaining XP machine, which I'm forced to use because my work apps are old and crusty and require XP, they crash multiple times a week.

But I digress, this is a Linux thread (another super OS in itself) - don't let me put throw a wrench in your alternate reality field

[cgutjahr]

Number 2 is an utter falsehood.  I have several systems at home that have Windows 7 installed along side Linux.

I was talking about installing Windows without having your existing operating systems wiped off the disk - which isn't possible.

It's just a pity for your argument that it was Linux that was causing the problem. It sounds like you'd defend Linux to the end.

I wasn't making an argument, I was joking. You know, I tried to illustrate that by putting a smilie behind it - stupid me.

ral-clan was disappointed with his his very first Linux experience - I'm simply trying to put that in context. Yeah, that was a (minor) bug, but a slight inconvenience while doing things that Windows can't do at all isn't exactly a reason to ditch Linux.

Maybe he should try reinstalling WIndows XP on his 160 GB HD (it doesn't even support 160 GB out of the box, does it?) to realize what he's been putting up with so far

(psxphill: that last paragraph was another joke)

[Thorham]

Maybe he should try reinstalling WIndows XP on his 160 GB HD

What they should do is make two partitions on that 160 GB HD, install WinXP on one of those partitions, and after that Linux on the other. Problem solved.

(it doesn't even support 160 GB out of the box, does it?)

Of course it does, why wouldn't it? I have two HDs in my peecee. One 0.5 TB, the other 1 TB. Works just fine with WinXP. I think WinXP supports 2 TB out of the box actually.

[CritAnime]

This is the most helpful reply so far. Thanks. But what does...
 
 
 
....mean? I can select what, exactly, from the drop down menu? I have no idea what a "mount point" is, so I'm not going to know what to choose.
 
Thanks.

 
What he means is this. Mount point simply means what you want the partition to do. In linux you can have multiple partitions all doing their own job but still be part of the the whole system. So you can have one simply for /home which is where you store all your personal stuff. Check out this link.
 

 
When you double click a partition, or create a new partition, it comes up with a dialog box (see above) with some options in it. Set one to EXT 4 (this is the file system) then click format then set mount point to / (root). This will configure the partition to be used for everything to do with the OS.
 

 
This is how my current setup looks. I have just opted to keep things simple considering I have a secondary HDD for backups and such. As you can see I shrunk the Windows 8 parition down and created a 8gb swap partition and the the rest I used as /.
 
Sorry my earlier post wasn't more helpful. It was something like 2:30am and my brain was fuzzy after getting up to feed my daughter. Basically what I was aiming to say was simply that having 2 or more HDDs can make it a touch more difficult. The installer, from the pics you posted showed, thought it would be more appropriate to shrink the spare HDD and allocate space to Linux on there. Thus preserving the Windows HDD. The drop down at the top would have let you select your primary HDD and do it from there anyway.
 
The installer is easy if you let it help you. But, much like Windows, if you have multiple HDD's it can make the process a touch more complicated or if you're wanting to do a dual boot situation. My suggestion to remove the backup HDD from the equation was simply a suggestion. I just know from personal experiences what it is like as a new Linux user to try and install it. It's not difficult, especially with the mordern *buntu installer, but it can be a bit of a learning experience.

[cgutjahr]

What they should do is make two partitions on that 160 GB HD, install WinXP on one of those partitions, and after that Linux on the other. Problem solved.

That's more or less what he's doing (shrink the Windows XP partition without data loss, install Lubuntu in the free space).

Of course it does, why wouldn't it?

I'm really not an expert on Windows, but the way I remember it the original Windows XP had a 128 GB limit. If your install CD already contains SP1, you should be fine, but I think you couldn't create partitions bigger than 128 GB otherwise, you had to 'fix' them with partition magic later on, IIRC.

I might remember it wrong, and it's only become an issue because people had to use XP for so long, my apologies for bringing it up. Let's go back on topic and discuss the merits and problems of WIndows 8.1 please

[Thorham]

That's more or less what he's doing (shrink the Windows XP partition without data loss, install Lubuntu in the free space).

Should do the job

I'm really not an expert on Windows, but the way I remember it the original Windows XP had a 128 GB limit. If your install CD already contains SP1, you should be fine, but I think you couldn't create partitions bigger than 128 GB otherwise, you had to 'fix' them with partition magic later on, IIRC.

Really? Didn't know that. My install disk has SP2 on it, so I've never had any issues with HD sizes.