How To Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04

I usually wouldn't write something like this. I mean, everyone know how to do a dual-boot setup right? I thought this setup would be just as simple. I mean I've done dual-boot installs hundreds of times, why would this one be any different?

I don't know about your system, but when I tried to dual-boot my Dell Mini 9 with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 I had some problems. You see, I always start with the Windows Install first, then install Linux last so Grub can take over as the bootloader. I am sure most of you do too!

That's what I did first. I booted up with my Windows 7 DVD, and deleted all of the old partitions, then I partitioned my drive in half and installed Windows 7. After that, I booted up with Ubuntu, and started to install, and here is where I had the problem. Ubuntu didn't see the Windows 7 partition as an operating system! When the installer got to the disk partitioner, it showed that I had 32GB of free space! That was strange because when I mounted the hard drive from the live CD I could see all of the Windows 7 files. WTF!?!

I'm not sure what it is, but Ubuntu doesn't understand how Windows 7 does it's partitioning even though Windows 7 is using the same NTFS that we have all grown to love. Never fear though, I found a solution that works.

After playing around with different settings and installs, I finally found the best way to install it (for me anyway). Here is what I did:

1. Boot up with the Ubuntu 9.04 CD
2. Opened a terminal, and run Gparted
   
   >sudo gparted
   
   
3. Create an NTFS partion (I used the first half of the disk)
   
   
   
   
   
4. Quit Gparted, and reboot
5. Boot up with the Windows 7 DVD
6. When asked where to install, select the ntfs partition you created in step 3 and click next
   
   
   
   
7. Windows 7 will install
   
   
   
   
   
8. After Windows 7 Installs, bootup using the Ubuntu CD again and proceed with the install as usual to the empty partition
   
9. Ubuntu should now see the Windows 7 partition as a Windows Vista Partition, and now you can dual boot!
   
   
   
   

In the end, the moral of the story is that if you create your initial partitions with the Windows 7 DVD like you did in previous versions of Windows, then Ubuntu 9.04 will not be able to see the partition as an Operating System. If you use a third party partitioner, like Gparted, and install Windows to that, you will be good to go!

Did any of you have problems dual booting with Windows 7? Did you get it to work a different way? Did your's work out of the box? I want to hear about your experience in the comments!

Technorati Tags: dual boot, windows 7, ubuntu, how-to, hidden partition, can't see,

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Setting Up A Minimal Ubuntu Desktop

Once again my old security professor from college comes at me with some very useful information. This time in the form of an awesome Linux tip. He forwarded me a link to a post from Lifehacker who themselves mentioned a post in the Ubuntu Forums from a guy calling himself TheShiv.

TheShiv talked about how with the default Ubuntu installation there were a lot of pre-installed applications that he did not use that took up a lot of resources, and ultimately slowed the computer down more than it needed to. Fed up with that he wrote a quick script to use after doing an install using Ubuntu Server edition or the Minimal CD. With both of those, Ubuntu installs with just the terminal.

After your install you can wget TheShiv's script which I made available here: (Mini.sh)

For example, after your install from the terminal do the following:

sudo apt-get update wget http://ftp.bauer-power.net/misc/Ubuntu_Minimal/Mini.sh chmod +x Mini.sh sudo ./Mini.sh

Now sit back, grab some coffee and wait for your Minimal Ubuntu install to be pulled down from the repositories to settle nicely on your hard drive!

After installing all the minimal packages, now you can pull down only what you need as far as applications, and you don't have any extras your don't. Doing this type of install saved TheShiv approximately 260MB of typical memory usage. I think I will be doing this for all future releases of Bauer-Puntu ;-)

What kind of things do you do to optimize your Ubuntu (Or other distro) installation? Do you have special scripts of your own? Let us know in the comments!

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, minimal, how-to, light, script

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Creating Simple Animated GIF Images Using The Gimp

Yesterday I was hanging out with my downstairs neighbor when we got to talking about the movie Tropic Thunder, and of course the conversation turned to Tom Cruise's awesome dance at the end of the movie. You know the dance, where his character, Les Grossman, busts a move or two to some Ludacris.

I decided I had to rip that dance seen so I could make an animated GIF of it. On Windows, I usually use Beneton Movie Gif, but I had to do it using my Bauer-Puntu laptop. What program will make animated GIF images on Linux? The Gimp of course! Actually, The Gimp can do it in Windows too, but that is neither here nor there...

Anyway, creating animated GIFs in The Gimp is pretty easy, just do the following:

1. Get the images you want to animate in a single folder for easy importing.
2. Open The Gimp
3. Click File > Open As Layers then browse to the folder where your images are located.
4. Select the first picture, then press CNTRL+A to select them all, then click OK.
5. The pictures will all open as layers.
6. Click Filters > Animation > Optimize for GIF to save space
   
7. Now click File > Save As and save it as a gif, then export it as animation.
   
8. You will be prompted to set the timing at this point, select whatever you think is appropriate
9. BAM! You are done!

NOTE: If you want a different timing for a particular frame, you will need to change Miliseconds number in the layer name to whatever number you want. For example, if you you will have to change your layer from "File_Name.jpg (100ms)" to "File_Name.jpg (500ms)".

Here is my Tropic Thunder animated Gif:

(Best Viewed in Firefox)

I love me some animated GIFs! I want to see what you have created! Post me some links to your animated GIF work in the comments!

Technorati Tags: animated gif, the gimp, how-to, tom cruise, tropic thunder

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How To Install VMWare Server 2 on Ubuntu 9.04 Server

I just finished installed Ubuntu 9.04 server, and VMWare Server 2 and I can't be more pleased with this pair! The last time I wrote about installing VMWare server was back in Ubuntu 8.04. With that you had to install VMWare server using the VMWare-any-any patch. I can tell you that this is NOT the case in VMWare server 2 on Ubuntu 9.04!

No, I guess the VMWare team finally decided to make an Ubuntu friendly version of their software, and made installation relatively easy! Also, they have done away with the VMWare server console and have gone with a very easy to use Web console! That means less headache for you and me!

So lets get to the nitty gritty. This is what you need to do to install VMWare Server 2 on Ubuntu 9.04:


Note: Since ubuntu server doesn't have a GUI, I had to register for the download then download it to my Windows machine. after that I transferred the VMWare server TAR ball over to a SAMBA share on my Ubuntu 9.04 server. Feel free to get the tarball onto your server any way you see fit ;-)

Now, to the install steps:

1. Install the necesarry prerequisites


sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential xinetd


2. Now change into the directory where you saved your VMWare TAR ball. I saved mine in /home/paul/vm
   
   cd /home/paul/vm
   
   
   
3. Now Extract the TAR ball and run the installer
   
   tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz
   
   cd vmware-server-distrib
   
   sudo ./vmware-install.pl
   
   
4. You can hit enter for all of the defaults, except when asked for a name of an alternate administrator. For that enter your username. If you don't, you will have to reset the root password as that is the default administrator for VMWare Server. Also, when asked for the direcrory of virtual machines, you have the option of saving them in a different directory. I for instance like to save mine in /home/paul/vm.
5. Near the end, you will have to enter your serial number which you received when you first registered for the download.
6. Done! Now you are ready to login! You can login to the web console by browsing to http://servername:8222
   
   
   

After building your first machine, you can view it through the web console in IE and Firefox after installing the correct plugins which you will be prompted for in the web console.

That is it! Seriously! Can you believe it? In just about all previous Ubuntu versions, and VMWare Server versions it has been 1.5 bitches to install. This time it is really really easy!

After installing it, let me know what you think in the comments!

[EDIT 6/2/09] - A Lot of you have been experiencing the vsock error. I have not experienced this, but for those of you that have, I found a Pearl script that should resolve your problem. You can download it here: (VSOCK FIX)

To run it open a terminal, and do the following:

1. CD into the directory where the Pearl script is
   
   >cd /path/to/vmware-config.pl
   
   
2. Make the script executable
   
   >chmod +x vmware-config.pl
   
   
3. Patch!
   
   >sudo patch /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl /path/to/vmware-config.pl

Let me know if that works or not. If not, and if you found a better solution, let me know!

Technorati Tags: vmware, ubuntu 9.04, server, how-to

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