Hi Mr C,

We’ll be running thru an install of a firewall/router/server in class, and that’s what you need to be thinking about setting up longer-term, since experience being root on your own internet-attached machine is essential for those heading for the Network track. But dual-booting a notebook is a good thing to be able to do, too…

Some notebooks will install the latest Ubuntu, this one at Feb of '09 is 8.1-Ibex, with zero ‘manual tweaks’ and everything just works fine. Others need some work to make this or that device, especially Broadcom WiFi, speakers, mikes, &c, &c work at all.

The good news is that many of ‘the tweaks’ for this or that model of Notebook or Netbook are likely to be posted out there, in a way that requires some persistent googling and also finding and scouring the forums for both the Ubuntu release & the Notebook or Webbook involved. I know some ThinkPads take to Ubuntu real well, for some reason a few kids at Governor’s School have this combination, proudly _not_ running windows on them.

You can get the latest Ubuntu ‘Desktop Edition’, (google download ubuntu) and that’s a ‘live CD’ that will boot and run Ubuntu (very slowly) off the CD, so you can see what works and what doesn’t without actually _installing_ Ubuntu on your computer. If it looks a promising prospect, then you can resolve to 1) free up space on your hard disk as detailed below, 2) boot the live CD again, and 3) take the Install option and see what happens after that (keeping this next 'everything valuable backed-up rule in mind).

Make sure you’ve identified all the stuff of value on the existing Windows install, and make sure it’s backed up reliably so you can scrape clean and recover if something goes wrong with the install. You should be backing up your stuff anyhow, and although I’ve not yet seen a dual-booting destroy a machine, I've heard this is a possibility, so there’s the risk to be mitigated.

Start planning your 'dual boot OS' adventure by visiting linuxcompatibility.org, and also by googling with stuff like ‘Install Ubuntu 8.1 on IBM Think Pad t43’ to see who’s finding it easy and who’s not. Sometimes, there are issues with this or that BIOS version, or the particular video card, or wired or wireless Ethernet interface that’s in your machine, and the posts sometimes expose you to deeper tech stuff like “use lspci to find out what you’ve got and then do this if you’ve got that”, or misleading stuff.

Installing Ubuntu on Notebooks & Netbooks is the current rage, so there is very likely an actuve 'forum' for each of the manufacturers' lines of notebook or mini as they come on the market, so go looking for yours and I hope you'll find geeks with good sense have posted step-by-steps that soon make sense to you. Recently, googling on 'hp mini note forum' got me quick joy, and so did 'ubuntu hp mini forum'. Searching on 2133 in both of them soon got me to discussions about this particular comgination of hardware & OS, and I quickly learned that a BIOS downgrade and adding the cryptic 'xforcexvesa' to the boot options got me past the black screen & flash cursor I saw on the 1st attempt. (HP sells and supports Suse on these Netbooks, by the way, so we're looking to 'the community' for support.) If what you see in this investigation doesn’t scare you off dual-booting your machine, have at it.

(Ubuntu Heron & Ibex have installed with ‘no manual tweaking’ on my Dell Inspiron 910m and an XPS 1330. A Dell Mini 9 only needed some tweaking with the alsamixer to make the speakers and mike work. It installs on Compaq Evos with no problems, as does Fedora Core. I’m having a hard time getting Ubuntu on an HP Mini, might have four or five hours in that… and am finding out that this machine's video processor is not rigged out of the box to do 3D, accelerated video... Fedora Core 9 didn't make a 'tweakless' install on any of that notebook lineup except the Evos, by the way.)

Setting aside space on a hard drive for another OS:

The best way for a noob to ‘clear up space’ to install another OS is _not_ during the Ubuntu or other Linux install process where a slip caused by momentary confusion can eat your machine. The best way to prep the machine is to use a ‘Partition Editor’ to shrink an existing partition small enough to leave the several Gigs you’d like to leave empty for Linux to take over. If you’ve got Partition Magic or another partition editor you know, use that.

Otherwise, a safe & free one is GParted, ‘Gnome Partition Editor’, the ‘live CD’ version. Google on ‘download gparted’ and make sure you’re getting the latest Stable release of GParted Live. Download the ISO, ‘burn the image’ to a CD, then boot the machine with it and take the top menu choice. This will show you the partitions on the disk and let you change them and add new ones. If you've got lots of hard disk, set aside more than one partition so you'll more easily be able to triple-boot, or quad-boot, and really investigate this OS stuff.

Plan on this taking a long time after you click on the last Excute, it might be an hour or more on a larger disk. Also, when you boot back to Windoze the next time, it will notice that the filesystem’s been changed since the last time and will make a thorough check as it starts up.

Do a 'Live CD', if there's any trepedation, the intrepid may choose the Install Option :

Get that Ubuntu 8.1 Live CD ISO, burn it on a CD (don't drag it to the burn folder!), and give it a try. Or, do the equivalent for a USB stick, making a 'executable stick'. (There were great strides toward civilizing the Wireless in 8.1-Ibex, so I don't look back and advise 8 LTS-Hardy Heron unless the promise of Long Term Support is valuable.)

I’m hoping this is helpful to get you to whatever’s next? Keep me posted about your progress and I’ll help as I can.

Be on the lookout for a notebook where a PC-card Ethernet will fit, or desktop machine with some life left in it that has a slot to install another NIC. This you can rig as a firewall/router/server for your LAN and get your eyes on the traffic at the interfaces, and start prepping for that interview where they ask 'how do you do it'... Anything Pentium or Celeron, 600MHz or above, and a Gig of RAM, is enough to give you a good ride into ‘internetworking’ & security skills that are so valuable today.

Best to you, G