schwim
22nd September 2007, 09:08 PM
I dedicate the following to Dan and Seve. Seve because his post count now exceeds God's and I fear that he can actually bend time so I want to stay on his good side. Dan because he does incredibly cool things like sends you Fedora installs when your internet connection precludes you from being able to do so yourself. I can never do things like help them on the forum, so the fact that they can get a chuckle out of my inability to turn a computer on is the best reward I can muster.
Before we get into the nuts and bolts, you need to know that you should take this as a every-man's record of the install and thoughts pertaining to it in that light. I'm the guys that you look at and figure shouldn't be here. I fail at most of the things I try to do when using linux as a desktop and my statistics aren't improving that much over the years.
That's why I wanted to try it though. I'd never been willing to dual-boot one of my machines, so I thought this being an application based alternative would cool to try. Which brings me to my first point of the install. You're going to end up dual-booting :D. There's no way around it.
I downloaded the .exe installer from wubi-installer.org and ran it. It asked me a minimal amount of questions (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi2.jpg). Upon answering them, it immediately began downloading the 875mb install. During the process, you get to choose which version of Ubuntu you would like to install. I chose UbuntuStudio. It will rotate mirrors when attempting to connect, so if you get a slow download, cancel and restart the installer. Last night, I got 20kbps, which timed out over the night. This morning on restart, I got 175kbps.
After download, it tells you that you need to restart. On restart, you have the option of choosing the OS to boot.... If your computer will detect your keyboard when outside of the OS :). My USB keyboard is not recognized on startup, so I had to get under the desk with a standard keyboard and use it to choose Ubuntu. Once I did that, I could unplug the keyboard and watch the proceedings with facination.
On first boot, the real install begins. I didn't have the savvy to snap any screens, but It "retrieved", "installed" and "configured" a lot of applications. It took about 20 minutes before it was done. Once finished, it automatically rebooted, so back under the desk I go with my keyboard :) After choosing Ubuntu again, I unplugged and had a seat.
My first (and most notable) impressions are these:
1) I didn't really have to do anything, other than choose a username and password. I didn't get asked to register at any site, I didn't get asked what kind of internet connection I used, nothing. It simply rebooted and I had a desktop that, so far as I can tell, everything worked on.
2) It strikes me as being very polished (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi4.png) in regards to out of the box graphics and themes. I like the black default theme that came with UbuntuStudio, and don't think I'd even try to change it.
3) It acts like an OS, and not a Windows install of another OS. I know to most of you, this is a given, but to the uninitiated, when reading wubi's site, it seems like you'll get to Ubuntu from Windows. Because of that, I pictured Wubi being very laggy. After initial startup, processor usage dropped to normal(5%) and memory use dropped as well (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi6.png). I guess on initial start, it had some things to take care of.
The only thing that confused me so far? I never set a root password. There obviously was a root password, as it often asked me for it, but I had no idea what it was :). I couldn't find mention of it in the docs somewhere, and I would think that this is something you want to take care of on install. For instance, no upgrades for me! (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi8.png)
So I needed to find a way to get my updates and such. Wubi-installer.org sent me to wikis and support forums. One of the support forums provided this thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=540396&highlight=root+password). I was sad to hear tht Wubi didn't use a root password, since it wouldn't let me update without the root password that it didn't use.
My next step was to figure out how to change the root password. This site (http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/183/change-password/) and the instructions on using sudo(not sudu, as I was typing it) got me a root password (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi9.png). I can say with complete surety that I do not have a family member that could have done this.
A pretty neat package, all in all. As is the case with any support forum, the wubi forums has some very angry people(slow disk access, wubi being broken by certain package updates) and some people who view it as the devil's OS, but in my very limited time, I've been impressed by it.
If anyone wants me to do some tests or try something, just let me know and I'd be happy to if I can.
Added bonus? My screensaver worked out of the box! :D
thanks,
json
Before we get into the nuts and bolts, you need to know that you should take this as a every-man's record of the install and thoughts pertaining to it in that light. I'm the guys that you look at and figure shouldn't be here. I fail at most of the things I try to do when using linux as a desktop and my statistics aren't improving that much over the years.
That's why I wanted to try it though. I'd never been willing to dual-boot one of my machines, so I thought this being an application based alternative would cool to try. Which brings me to my first point of the install. You're going to end up dual-booting :D. There's no way around it.
I downloaded the .exe installer from wubi-installer.org and ran it. It asked me a minimal amount of questions (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi2.jpg). Upon answering them, it immediately began downloading the 875mb install. During the process, you get to choose which version of Ubuntu you would like to install. I chose UbuntuStudio. It will rotate mirrors when attempting to connect, so if you get a slow download, cancel and restart the installer. Last night, I got 20kbps, which timed out over the night. This morning on restart, I got 175kbps.
After download, it tells you that you need to restart. On restart, you have the option of choosing the OS to boot.... If your computer will detect your keyboard when outside of the OS :). My USB keyboard is not recognized on startup, so I had to get under the desk with a standard keyboard and use it to choose Ubuntu. Once I did that, I could unplug the keyboard and watch the proceedings with facination.
On first boot, the real install begins. I didn't have the savvy to snap any screens, but It "retrieved", "installed" and "configured" a lot of applications. It took about 20 minutes before it was done. Once finished, it automatically rebooted, so back under the desk I go with my keyboard :) After choosing Ubuntu again, I unplugged and had a seat.
My first (and most notable) impressions are these:
1) I didn't really have to do anything, other than choose a username and password. I didn't get asked to register at any site, I didn't get asked what kind of internet connection I used, nothing. It simply rebooted and I had a desktop that, so far as I can tell, everything worked on.
2) It strikes me as being very polished (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi4.png) in regards to out of the box graphics and themes. I like the black default theme that came with UbuntuStudio, and don't think I'd even try to change it.
3) It acts like an OS, and not a Windows install of another OS. I know to most of you, this is a given, but to the uninitiated, when reading wubi's site, it seems like you'll get to Ubuntu from Windows. Because of that, I pictured Wubi being very laggy. After initial startup, processor usage dropped to normal(5%) and memory use dropped as well (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi6.png). I guess on initial start, it had some things to take care of.
The only thing that confused me so far? I never set a root password. There obviously was a root password, as it often asked me for it, but I had no idea what it was :). I couldn't find mention of it in the docs somewhere, and I would think that this is something you want to take care of on install. For instance, no upgrades for me! (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi8.png)
So I needed to find a way to get my updates and such. Wubi-installer.org sent me to wikis and support forums. One of the support forums provided this thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=540396&highlight=root+password). I was sad to hear tht Wubi didn't use a root password, since it wouldn't let me update without the root password that it didn't use.
My next step was to figure out how to change the root password. This site (http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/183/change-password/) and the instructions on using sudo(not sudu, as I was typing it) got me a root password (http://personal.schwim.net/images/share/wubi/wubi9.png). I can say with complete surety that I do not have a family member that could have done this.
A pretty neat package, all in all. As is the case with any support forum, the wubi forums has some very angry people(slow disk access, wubi being broken by certain package updates) and some people who view it as the devil's OS, but in my very limited time, I've been impressed by it.
If anyone wants me to do some tests or try something, just let me know and I'd be happy to if I can.
Added bonus? My screensaver worked out of the box! :D
thanks,
json
