Hello all, I want to install Linux for the first time, but I have a problem my parents fear the repartitioning, so I have a question how safe is Wubi?
very safe bro, i’ve used it several time. What it does is it pretty much installs linux as program on your windows and you can uninstall when you want to.
And when you boot up, you get two options, eg:
windows xp and ubuntu and you just choose… etc etc simple and well obvious:)
if your still hesitant read the download.com review.
And as always make back-ups whenever you do something.
-cheers
thanks I’ll point my parents to the link.
I just got a reply from my mom that says the following:
“Are you ABSOLUTELY sure it won’t harm windows XP, HOW do you know this?” any help in replying to that would really help me win this battle.
There is a whole forum dedicated to Wubi at ubuntuforums.org Check out the FAQ Sticky thread.
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=234
Ok thanks but that doesn’t really help me reply to the email I got.
Wubi installs Ubuntu in a file in Windows; it is no more dangerous than a regular file. Wubi is good enough to try out Ubuntu, but it doesn’t seem good enough if you really want to use it.
Another option you may want to check out is installing it in a virtual machine. You need a lot of RAM, because you will be running two OSs at once. It is not really a true experience because you don’t have to struggle to get drivers set up correctly. A program that works nicely is VirtualBox.
Yet another option is to get a USB drive (if your BIOS supports booting from USB). When I say USB drive, I don’t mean flash, because flash has relatively shorter life. You could install an OS to an flash drive if you needed to, though I recommend that you don’t make a swap partition. If you do decide to install to an external drive, you have to make sure to install the bootloader in the right place; I can give you furthur instruction if you decide to take this route. This route in my opinion is the best, because you have a true OS install, yet it doesn’t touch the internal drive and its partitions.
I can’t afford a USB external and I am unsure if my BIOS supports booting from USB. I will use Wubi untill I feel comfortable in Linux then ask my parents if I can move it to a partition under guidance from one of our friends. Thank you, I will tell you what she says.
man, get your own computer.
can’t afford it, don’t make enough money(only a teenager yet)
Reply to my reply to her last massage:
“yes you may install it on SUNDAY.”
Whoop!
…
Yep I decided to go with Xubuntu because I like the interface, i’ll be experimenting with the liecd until I find a config I like then screenshot my prefs and port them to my hard drive install unless you people know an easier way.
Making a persistent install on a flash drive, then installing from that, but you would need to boot from the usb…
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent
With this method you can run Ubuntu from the flash drive within Windows without having to reboot.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/03/26/portable-qemu-persistent-ubuntu-linux/
With both methods you can save changes to the Ubuntu configuration. In case you ever need to know. I don’t know if these are suitable for Wubi installs.
Well, I’m 10, I took our homw computer and put Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Kubuntu on it, backed up all the XP data, and then destroyed XP. All on 70 GB.
Then I wiped everything and put on OpenSuSe.
It only took a few days for everyone to adjust to Ubuntu.
(Well, they actually woudn’t let me wipe Windows, it’s just that I made a mistake and XP wouldn’t boot! So I backed up everything and replaced Windows)
That seems a bit too roundabout. It would be easier to just do you settings once you’ve installed Wubi.
First thing you should do once you install is to update, as this often makes it easier to find working drivers.
One thing that I recommend to you right now is to quickly enable “Focus follows mouse”. This is disabled by default for some reason in most window managers (even though it is characteristic of unixen). Once you’ve tried it, there is no going back. 
You can even enable it in XP with TweakUI.
I haven’t used Wubi in a long time, but as I recall, once I updated the kernel, I could no longer boot it, so proceed with caution.
Thanks guys preparing to install right now.
EDIT2: solved first problem by myself
EDIT: just installed blender but synaptic installed 2.46 not 2.48.1 how can I fix this?
Either download from blender.org …
…or www.getdeb.net
ok thanks.
Now could any of you guys walk me though setting up samba to see my windows computers, I have it installed and a network share set up, but I can’t see them(they have network shares).
Also every time I log in to Linux I get this massage that says “you must be logged in as root to edit the GDM” how to I stop that from happening?
I only used Xubuntu for a few months, so I don’t really remember what it did and didn’t have. I believe that by default Ubuntu can access Windows shares, but I’m not sure because I don’t have any.
As for your second question, that is pretty strange. What it is saying is that in order to edit GDM, which is the logon screen, you need root privileges. Obviously shouldn’t have them, so it throws this error. The mystery is why it would think you want to edit the GDM. I have a couple of far-fetched guesses. One, is that you added it to the Startup programs list. A more plausible one is that since Xubuntu saves your session by default (I think) it let’s you start up where you left off. Perhaps you were editing GDM options in the Settings Manager when you logged off or restarted. Normally preferences that need root priviledges start with gksu, but since that is not what Xubuntu saw when you left, it tries to open the GDM options applet, and fails.
thanks for shedding light on the GDM thing. xubuntu didn’t have samba installed when I first installed it so I had to install samba, but the xubunt and the ubuntu 8.10 doc tells me to got to system -> administration(doesn’t exist) -> network settings(wasn’t network settings removed in 8.10?). I have admin rights(in the admin group).