hi

i am going to install ubuntu on may laptop. i already have vista and one harddrive. i have rezised the vista drive so i have 15gb free space that i'm going to install ubuntu 7.10 on. i want to partitions on ubuntu, one for personal files on 5gb and one for ubuntu on 10g. what options should i use, primary or logic. what filesystem should i use and where shall i locate it in the beginning or the end. and what should i name it, is it right that the ubuntu part should be named /.

thankful for help and sorry for my bad englishing

Hi lyxell,
We have a staff of techs who have a wide variety of skills and will be able to help you with your problem, this is not my area of expertise, one of the folks who can help you should be along shortly.
Thank you
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Ubuntu is quite good for partitioning, just create your 5GB partition (use the FAT32 filesystem if I were you, so you can still access it using Windows). I'd suggest logical, I don't know the downsides to using logical, maybe someone else does.
Using logical partitions means you can have more of them, I think you can only have like 4 primary partitions.

Just leave the remaining 10GB of space blank, and when you get to the Partitioning screen of the Ubuntu installer, select "Guided - Use largest continuous free space", and it will do the rest.

Hope this helps, let me know if you need any more information

thanks i will test to do so. i have two more questions:

is ti best to have more space on the shared partition or the ubuntu one, witch one is it best to install programs on.

and what is the difference between the ubuntu cd and the ubuntu dvd?

do i need some kind of swap partition to?

it says that i can't use fat32 on /home because it is not a unix filesystem.

I'd say leave the 5GB partition for documents, as most linux programs install to it's own partition.

I wouldn't recommend using the 5GB partition as /home (it wont let you anyway), just mount it as something like /documents - whatever you like.

If it still won't let you, just don't mount it or don't create it yet. After Ubuntu has been installed, while you are still in the Live CD, go to the System menu, and go into Administration and select Partition Editor, from there you can create the 5GB documents partition in the free space.

If you have a fair amount of RAM, SWAP isn't needed (but it's recommended). It's like virtual RAM, I have a 2GB SWAP partition and i've never had a problem, but you have given Ubuntu less space so maybe something like 1GB would be ok.

i have already partitioned and installed ubuntu, and made a /shared partition that is FAT32, and /home and / in ext3. but /shared placed as a map in the filsystem, is there anyway a can make it like a drive?

and i can't boot to vista, when i try Lenovo's (i have an Lenovo, IBM T60) rescue and recovery starts up.

Hi there mate, if you just wish to use the /shared for dumping files I recommend making it ext2 or ext3. You can access the partition on windows by using the filesystem driver ext2ifs it works with ext3 it just ignores journaling.

Hope this helps

-Lebowski

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what is better with the ext format? i know i have to defragment th fat a little ofter but i don't care about that, what more? and how do i make the /shared show up lik a an hardrive/partition on the desktop in ubuntu, i don't know how it looks in vista couse i cant start it, any ideas about that?

The problem with FAT32 is as you mention it's easily fragmented, it is also limited in terms of file size, you can not have files of more than 4gb using FAT32.

FAT32 is just a compramise and one that isn't needed if you install the ext2ifs driver for windows, the advantages of this are not as much fragmenting, no file size limitations and you will be able to see all of your linux partitions from within windows.

To reformat the drive as ext2ifs you will need to install and launch an application called GParted, you will be familiar with this as it is the application you will have used to format while installing Ubuntu.

Hope this helps

-Lebowski.

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You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude

I don't want to talk about it
I don't want to hear no lip
Take your share don't shout about it
That's your lot remember you're a kid

OK i think i will do that then, but first i want to be able to start Vista.

I have an lenovo laptop and when i try to boot into vista lenovo's rescue and recovery only starts.

should i ask this in the Vista forum?

I would, if I were you. Good luck =]