Ubuntu

[realaleman]

For Ethel and/or Rojash:
Having read your replies to chas2008 dated 11.8.08 you both seem very enthusiastic about Ubuntu and it was mentioned that you can run Ubuntu from a live CD without installing it permanently. I've downloaded the image from their website and burned it to a CD, but it doesn't boot from the CD when I restart, all I get is windows XP. Have I at some time clicked a box that stops me booting from CD?
The executable on the CD said it could help me out, and installed something that gave me an option to start windows or Ubuntu at bootup. So far so good. Ubuntu looks pretty useful but I can't seem to set the screen res higher than 800x600 and some of the desktop seems to be off the edge of the screen. Also the startup option is there whether or not I have the CD in the drive, which means I have to sit and wait to select windows boot (most inconvenient). Solved this by doing a system restore but of course I now can't play with Ubuntu. I'm sure you clever people will find this a very simple problem to solve, so please can you help me out?

Geoff.

[topogigo]

Don't do it, Ubuntu is PC suicide, it cost me 100 quid to get my two PC's back to normal.
It is ok if it installs ok, otherwise it is awful. I would never do it again.

[whiffy]

The best option is to request a bootable CD by post. It saves loads of fiddling around. It says it may take up to 10 weeks to arrive but mine arrived in just 4 days. Ubuntu boots directly from the CD and doesn't affect Windows, although there is the option to install it onto hard disk (I didn't).

[Ethel]

You need to set your bios to boot from cd. As it is, it boots straight from C:

It is very easy to do, read all about it here:

http://www.peacefire.org/bypass/booting-from-c d-tutorial/

And there is no need to worry. If you don't have a disk in the cd drive, it will still boot from C:

[rojash]

You already have a bootable CD, so requesting one by post won't help. What you need to do is change the settings in you BIOS to allow you to boot from CD.
How you do this will vary according to your motherboard and BIOS manufacturer. Typically, you press F1, F2, Esc or Delete at boot time: Most PCs will show a message "Press F1 to enter Setup" (or similar).

Once you are in the BIOS setup routine, you should find a menu called "Boot Options" or similar.
Typically you will set the Boot Order to be CD as the first device, and HDD as the second. You may also need to "Enable boot from other devices"
Then save the options.

Once you have done this, the computer will boot normally if there is no CD in the drive, but will give you the option to boot from CD if there is one in the drive when you turn the machine on.

As long as you are using the the Ubuntu Live CD option (i.e. running Ubuntu from the CD without installing it) there is no danger of doing any harm. The mistake topogigo made was in installing it, without fully understanding.

As for the video settings, these can be changed in much the same way as they are changed for Windows, but you may need to install a proprietary driver for your video card.

[rojash]

Ethel, I swear your answer was not there when I started typing!

[Ethel]

Yours is by far the better answer, Rojash :)

[realaleman]

Both Ethel and Rojash gave brilliant answers, exactly what I was after. Thanks a million to both of you!

Geoff

[realaleman]

PS works a treat Rojash. My first device was set as LS21 rather than CD. Now its great and I'm using Firefox from within Ubuntu at this moment. By the way, it must have taken you ages to type all that info, so I'm not surprised Ethel got there first. LOL
And why are all the ABers in Technology section so civilized compared to most of the other sections.

Cheers again.

[Ethel]

Hurrah! What excellent news.