Is it fine to dual boot Linpus & Ubuntu?

Hello there,

Bought myself the One - Linpus version, 1GB RAM & 120 GB hard drive. Part of my motivation was to get into Linux as I've always used Windows. So this is my first forray into the world of Linux.

I have been using Ubuntu 8.10 on LiveUSB and I much prefer it to Linpus so want to install permanently. But I am learning so want the security of being able to revert to Linpus if it all goes Pete Tong.

Is it OK to have 2 versions of Linux operating systems ie Linpus and Ubuntu 8.10 as a dual boot? Or is this likely to cause conflicts, corruptions etc?

If it will work fine then I will use the LiveUSB to install Ubuntu and then add Netbook Remix.

If this is a total 'numpty' question, please forgive me - very much learning the ropes and want don't want to bugger the One up.

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks
B

 

Dual boot systems rarely cause trouble, especially with only one harddisk.
So dual boot Linpus / Ubuntu should not be a problem. I never tried installing Ubuntu next to another Linux distro though.

If you want to install Ubuntu, watch these forums for a thread about a custom kernel. I installed it and I like it. I do not use wireless networking, but enough can be found about that too.

I use Xubuntu 8.10 myself on the A110 (8GB disk) and it works nicely. Even qcad (a 2D CAD program) works pretty well with the touchpad. I did not install the netbook remix.

 

You'll see when you go to install Ubuntu it will detect the other installation automagically. And then offer to resize the linpus partition and have Ubuntu take up the rest of the disk. It'll be the first "Guided" option and will show you in the graph bars what it's wanting to do. If you find you want to go back to only Linpus you can use a GParted LiveCD/USB to fix it up in a snap.

 

The only difficulty I've ever had was trying to share a home directory between the distros. Since the home directory stores config files, you can have problems when each distro has a different version of a program. Also, you could have conflicts in user names matching with account numbers.

 

Hmmm, perhaps not as easy as was thought then? What sort of problems can I expect and are these easy to overcome?

Cheers
B

 

Actually, you probably won't have any problems. The problems I was speaking about occur when two Linux distributions both use the same /home partition. But Linpus doesn't let you designate a /home during installation; it just uses part of / and adds the HD if there is one. So unless you reconfigure Linpus to share your Ubuntu /home, you won't have any problems.

The only problem you might have is running low on space on the 8GB SSD.

 

I agree with JimK - you shouldn't have to worry about it. I do share some config files between distros, in particular, pidgin, claws-mail, and (if I'm feeling brave,) firefox config files between Fedora and Ubuntu. I make sure I create my user with the same user id number in both cases, and keep the shared files in a separate directory on its own partition. Sometimes I just copy config files from one distro to another and change the ownership/permissions as appropriate.

 

Thanks for the advice all. This was going to be tonight's project but only got home from work now. As I understand it takes a good couple fo hours to install, configure and update this can be the weekends fun. I'm sure the GF will be looking forward to this one.

Cheers
B

 

Hi Branny,

can you share with us how your dual boot went and what you did to make it work?

cheers,

Steve

 

Hello Steve,

I went down a totally different route in the end. I've installed TinyXp and will be installing Ubuntu also (although might go down the route of linux4one).

B

 

run the standard ubuntu desktop install cd, when you see desktop ,hit the install icon.
Disc partitioner allows guided partitioning (graphic slider to size disc linpus v ubuntu)
let it do the rest. Wireless needs tweaking, ubuntu community docs and forum discuss this.
Currently on my third A!50 modified to duel boot/ubuntu and planning to create custom install iso to clone setup