Let me say that now is the time to back up all of your important files if you have not done so already. Data loss is possible during this step and data recovery is frustrating and expensive.
I'll start by saying that I haven't installed Ubuntu from scratch in a while. It was much easier than I remembered and much more automatic than in previous version. I would say that it is even easier to install than Windows XP. The days of manually partitioning drives and compiling custom kernels and modules is long behind (and thank goodness for that). Unless you are on the bleeding edge of hardware, most things will work right out of the box. Everything worked on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop without having to do anything special. That really says something considering that most laptop hardware is vendor specific and custom made for each model.
To begin, boot to your Ubuntu installation CD as described in my previous article. Once the CD boots you can go to the LiveCD desktop or you can go directly to the installation. Either option will allow you to install Ubuntu in the same way. If you do boot to the LiveCD desktop, you will need to double click on the installation icon on the desktop.
Once you are in the installation program, the first screen that comes up will be the language selection dialog. Just select your language and click the Forward button.
Next comes time zone selection. You can click on the map or select a city or region near you from the drop down menu. Don't worry if you mess this up because you can change it later after installation. The drop down menu was easier for me to use than trying to click on the tiny dot on the map. Click Forward when you are done.
Now you will have to select a keyboard layout. I just selected the typical US layout and my laptop keyboard worked fine. You can text your keyboard by typing in the text box provided. Once you are satisfied, click Forward again.
Everything up until now has been super easy. Now comes a part that might be confusing, but is easy once you know what is going on, disk partitioning. Linux and Windows cannot live within the same space on the disk. Space must be set aside for Linux. We began that process by defragmenting and creating a large block of free space for Linux. Now we will partition the drive into two sections. One section will house your Windows installation and the other section will house your Linux installation. For Windows XP, your Ubuntu partition will essentially be invisible and it will merely think your drive shrank in size once installation of Ubuntu is complete. Ubuntu will just treat your Windows partition as another drive.
On this menu you have three choices. The last choice is "Manual" and I recommend that you just leave that alone. You'll just get into trouble using that. The second option is "Guided - use entire disk." Use this option if you plan to install Ubuntu by itself on a hard drive. Pay careful attention to the drive you select if you have multiple drives inside your computer. You can see above that I had a flash drive plugged into the computer (for grabbing these screenshots) and if I had selected it, Ubuntu would have been installed on it.
The first option is the one you want to select if you are installing with Windows. The orange highlighted area is the area that Ubuntu will be installed in. Move your cursor over the dotted area and slide it back and forth to make the partition larger or smaller. In the example above, I had already installed Ubuntu once on this drive and I was installing it again. If you install along side Windows, it will automatically resize the partition in the manner you select. Once you've selected a size, click Forward to proceed. Don't over think this step, it's as easy as it seems.
The next step is setting up the admin user. This user will have administrative privileges and should be used by the main user of the computer. You can set up accounts for other users later. Just enter your name, the name you'd like to use as a login name, your password, and the name of the computer (this can be any word, I'd keep it simple). Write down your username and password if you think you might forget it. If you do forget it, you'll have to reinstall Ubuntu, so be careful! Click Forward.
I didn't have much luck with this next section. Ubuntu will attempt to pull your documents, files, settings, and bookmarks form your Windows installation or other Ubuntu installations. It pulled my Internet Explorer favorites and some of my files from Windows, but missed many files and didn't get my bookmarks from Firefox. You can try it if you want, but in the future, I'll probably skip this step and import my documents and settings myself. It does add time to the installation if you use this feature. To use it check the user setting you'd like to import and click Forward.
Now you are almost done. The final screen just shows the options you have selected and gives you a bunch of warnings. If you want to change anything, now is the time. Click the back button to go back to the step you'd like to redo, or click Install to begin installation.
Once you click Install the partitions you created earlier will be formatted and the files will be written to the disk. It should take about 10 minutes to complete the install from this point. If you selected an account to be imported, it will take longer since those files have to be copied as well. When the installation is complete you can go back to the LiveCD or reboot and start enjoying your freshly installed Ubuntu Linux.
That sure was easy! Well, it was easy for me anyway. You might have a few problems if your hardware is extremely new or extremely old, but the system should work with little extra effort from you. If you find that you are having trouble with a particular piece of hardware, try searching the Ubuntu forums (http://ubuntuforums.org) or Google to see if there is a known issue (sound problems seem to be the biggest hitter). Proper forum etiquette says that you should search first and ask second, but don't be afraid to ask if you don't find what you are looking for. Don't be afraid to dive in and start figuring things out on your own. You are the adventurous type or you wouldn't be doing this in the first place, so dig in and have a lot of fun!
Joseph Bales is a writer of fiction and humor, as well as a true computer geek and Linux guru. Visit his blog at josephbales.com.