I Just Installed Ubuntu on a Flashdrive

[Vince53]

For about $16 US, I paid a computer shop to install Ubuntu on an 8 gig thumb drive.

It is not difficult. During start-up, I had to press F11 (This will vary on different computers) to get the option to boot off a thumb drive. A tiny Ubuntu icon appeared, and after ten seconds the entire program opened. A column of icons on the left made it easy to find my way around.

I did not have to sign onto any account, so I had to go to Outlook.com to get into my e-mail account. As with every new computer and/or operating system, I have to sign in to everything that ever required registration.

Folks, it is easy to do.

 

[skalle]

For future reference, you can use this utility in Windows to write live distro images to a USB drive yourself:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

 

[nChrist]

Can you install Ubuntu on a Windows machine fairly easily if you buy a Ubuntu distribution DVD? I'm thinking about running Linux and Windows on the same machine. I read somewhere that you can use a dual boot and boot either into Windows or Linux. Does this sound right?

 

[Oafman]

Can you install Ubuntu on a Windows machine fairly easily if you buy a Ubuntu distribution DVD? I'm thinking about running Linux and Windows on the same machine. I read somewhere that you can use a dual boot and boot either into Windows or Linux. Does this sound right?

Yes, I added Kubuntu to a desktop with Windows a year or two ago, and I am reasonably clueless with these things. I didn't use a CD though, I just downloaded the files onto a flash drive and installed it from that.

When I boot up I get a choice between the 2 operating systems.

You'll need to partition your drive, allocating a certain amount of drive space to each OS. There are plenty of guides online and vids on Youtube to help you.

 

[Vince53]

I need some advice. Ubuntu works great on my Windows 7 (upgraded to Windows 10) desktop. But when I shut it down, all the programs I installed disappear. Other than installing, is there a way to save programs?

 

[Oafman]

I need some advice. Ubuntu works great on my Windows 7 (upgraded to Windows 10) desktop. But when I shut it down, all the programs I installed disappear. Other than installing, is there a way to save programs?

If you're just running linux from your flash drive, then I wouldn't have thought there was a way to save things. Certainly not an easy way. I could easily be wrong though, I'm not great with this stuff.

I think the idea behind running it off the drive is to give you a chance to try it out, rather than to start using it regularly.

Why not install?

 

[Hieronymus]

i'm still running Ubuntu 10.4

 

[Hieronymus]

Can you install Ubuntu on a Windows machine fairly easily if you buy a Ubuntu distribution DVD? I'm thinking about running Linux and Windows on the same machine. I read somewhere that you can use a dual boot and boot either into Windows or Linux. Does this sound right?

That's right.
I had that for a while, but never used Windows so i just installed Ubuntu.

 

[Willie T]

LOL. The usual. "It is simple to do.......... However........ " LOL

 

[Oafman]

LOL. The usual. "It is simple to do.......... However........ " LOL

Yeah, these things do get brushed over! It took me the best part of a day to successfully install Kubuntu alongside Windows

 

[paul1149]

Can you install Ubuntu on a Windows machine fairly easily if you buy a Ubuntu distribution DVD? I'm thinking about running Linux and Windows on the same machine. I read somewhere that you can use a dual boot and boot either into Windows or Linux. Does this sound right?

You don't have to buy anything, ubuntu and almost all linux distributions are free to download. You should find plenty of help for dual booting (eg, http://ubuntuforums.org/search.php?searchid=11717507). Machines with Windows >=8 may require a linux distro with UEFI capability, or some manual changes in the BIOS settings.

 

[Vince53]

LOL. The usual. "It is simple to do.......... However........ " LOL

Touche', Willie. However, while it is easy to get onto Linux AFTER you have it installed on a flash drive, there are some problems with not understanding the Linux system once you get going.

 

[Cute Tink]

Oddly enough, I installed Ubuntu on my laptop on this day 5 years ago. It took me a couple hours. The installation on the download did the partition work for me so I had Windows 7 and Ubuntu available on boot, with Ubuntu as the default if I didn't make a choice. It was pretty simple to me.

 

[paul1149]

I need some advice. Ubuntu works great on my Windows 7 (upgraded to Windows 10) desktop. But when I shut it down, all the programs I installed disappear. Other than installing, is there a way to save programs?

What you're looking for is persistence. Or use a virtual machine, but it will be slower.

 

[Vince53]

Hey, I'm on Ubuntu right now, but it's on a flash drive.

I decided to install. It tells me that I cannot resize my partitions, but I need at least 6.9 gigs on my hard drive, which I easily have. It shows me a partition that is the "Windows 10 Loader." Then it shows three large partitions, which I assume are Windows 10, 8, and XP, none of which I want to delete.

Then it shows a partition with 8000 megabytes, 1100 of which are being used. What is that partition?

It recommends that I install next to 10 (and there is enough room). It explains that this will allow me to dual-boot. Is this a safe route for me to take?

 

[paul1149]

It should be safe. Safest, of course, is to back up your installation, if not the whole hard drive, with an image. Probably the safest way to shrink the Win10 partition is from within Windows itself, at right-click Computer / Manage / Disk Management. Then let Linux take it from there. The 8GB partition is probably the oem service partition and should be left alone.

 

[Vince53]

Well, Folks, I will be installing Ubuntu on my Windows desktop in a little while. If you never hear from me again, it was nice knowing you.

 

[paul1149]

There's more chance Windows will never hear from you again.

 

[Vince53]

Gasp...I...I installed Ubuntu onto my Windows desktop...gasp...Then it wanted to install the updates....then it stopped after half an hour, saying that the connection had failed...then it wouldn't let me into Windows...and in the distance...I could hear Willie T....laughing....then it wouldn't let me onto the internet...but I found out how to get into Windows...now it wants to upgrade me to the next version of Ubuntu...and I'm posting this from Windows 10.

 

[Vince53]

When I go to an installed program, it gives me a choice of "More Info" or "Remove," but does not allow me to run the program.