Ubuntu success
Jun. 9th, 2020 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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livredorOh gosh I got stalled on installing Ubuntu for four and a half years! But I'm not stalled any more, so I suppose I should feel good about that instead of bad about getting stuck.
Things I did differently this time: I quacked for 'download Ubuntu' and found this page, which is actually helpful. It's only one link down from the homepage and I think I would have found it by going straight there but there's still an awful lot of what looks like advertising for why Ubuntu is great.
Anyway, the download page no longer has a pile of confusing options, and it has a big obvious link called 'How to create a bootable USB stick on Windows'. The second thing I changed was that I started with a brand new completely virgin USB stick; I'm still not sure if I ended up with a dodgy one previously. The tutorial recommends a different piece of software I hadn't previously tried, Rufus. And it helpfully told me to download the ISO file to my hard drive first, before running the bootable creation software, and it was pretty obvious which version to choose,
Next difference I had another, Windows computer open so I could look at the instructions on a different machine from the one I was doing the installing on. My target computer is an old HP Pavillion g, which was previously on Win7 (last time I tried a Win8 netbook). I attached the newly created bootable USB drive, and started up the laptop. Which hadn't been switched on for like 3 years but the hardware still seems to be fine. It started Windows. Step 4 was very helpful to me here: it tells me what order to try things in,
I was happy to erase everything, including Windows 8, as all my files are on the aforementioned other Windows computer and also backed up multiple times. I stopped following the tutorial once I got the installation started, since the instructions within the installer were perfectly clear. And it basically Just Worked.
Getting online was a bit odd, but fairly easy. The system started up for the first time in aeroplane mode, which I suppose is fair enough for safety reasons but I'm unlikely to suddenly jump on an aeroplane while in the middle of installing an OS! It told me to use a hardware key to exit aeroplane mode, which made me feel a bit like the user in the joke about not being able to find the 'any' key. I tried
And Firefox comes pre-installed, and I was able to import my profile from my previous computer. That's a bit faffy but it's a Firefox problem more than an Ubuntu problem, and now I have an internet terminal set up basically how I like it. I plugged in a USB mouse, which Just Worked. Lots of people had warned me that sound can be hard, and my general expectation was that videos would be difficult because they're full of proprietary stuff, but in fact FF had no problem playing YouTube videos, I didn't have to install anything.
A lot of the stuff I'd planned to do with initial install is completely redundant now. The sort of step-by-step guide for newbies I had in mind already exists on the main Ubuntu webpage. And I got to a fairly comfortable endpoint with only the most minor of hitches.
Things I did differently this time: I quacked for 'download Ubuntu' and found this page, which is actually helpful. It's only one link down from the homepage and I think I would have found it by going straight there but there's still an awful lot of what looks like advertising for why Ubuntu is great.
Anyway, the download page no longer has a pile of confusing options, and it has a big obvious link called 'How to create a bootable USB stick on Windows'. The second thing I changed was that I started with a brand new completely virgin USB stick; I'm still not sure if I ended up with a dodgy one previously. The tutorial recommends a different piece of software I hadn't previously tried, Rufus. And it helpfully told me to download the ISO file to my hard drive first, before running the bootable creation software, and it was pretty obvious which version to choose,
20.04 LTS. The tutorial pretty much tells you exactly what options to choose in the Rufus software. I was a bit confused by the way it overwrites the name of the stick, but I had some warning it was going to do that. The end of the tutorial links to another one on installing from the bootable media.Next difference I had another, Windows computer open so I could look at the instructions on a different machine from the one I was doing the installing on. My target computer is an old HP Pavillion g, which was previously on Win7 (last time I tried a Win8 netbook). I attached the newly created bootable USB drive, and started up the laptop. Which hadn't been switched on for like 3 years but the hardware still seems to be fine. It started Windows. Step 4 was very helpful to me here: it tells me what order to try things in,
F12 did open a boot menu but the only option was still Win7. Escape caused terrifying screaming beeps and I could only break out of it by force resetting the machine. F2 gave me the appropriate option. I was happy to erase everything, including Windows 8, as all my files are on the aforementioned other Windows computer and also backed up multiple times. I stopped following the tutorial once I got the installation started, since the instructions within the installer were perfectly clear. And it basically Just Worked.
Getting online was a bit odd, but fairly easy. The system started up for the first time in aeroplane mode, which I suppose is fair enough for safety reasons but I'm unlikely to suddenly jump on an aeroplane while in the middle of installing an OS! It told me to use a hardware key to exit aeroplane mode, which made me feel a bit like the user in the joke about not being able to find the 'any' key. I tried
F12 which has a WiFi symbol on it, and that seemed to work. During the installation I had seen a message about connecting to the internet, but instead of giving me a choice of networks, it asked me to select the computer's WiFi card (the only option in a drop-down menu of one). So I was a bit nervous about whether it would actually find the network, but in fact it did. The magic push button on the router method didn't work (it usually doesn't in Windows either, IME), but entering the password did. And Firefox comes pre-installed, and I was able to import my profile from my previous computer. That's a bit faffy but it's a Firefox problem more than an Ubuntu problem, and now I have an internet terminal set up basically how I like it. I plugged in a USB mouse, which Just Worked. Lots of people had warned me that sound can be hard, and my general expectation was that videos would be difficult because they're full of proprietary stuff, but in fact FF had no problem playing YouTube videos, I didn't have to install anything.
A lot of the stuff I'd planned to do with initial install is completely redundant now. The sort of step-by-step guide for newbies I had in mind already exists on the main Ubuntu webpage. And I got to a fairly comfortable endpoint with only the most minor of hitches.
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Date: 2020-06-09 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-10 03:29 pm (UTC)