Face to Face Help w Linux in Chiang Mai

[Barnum]

I need to empty my laptop and install Ubuntu 14.4. I have tried by myself and made things worse...

Where can I get help in Chiang Mai? Preferably someone who tells me what to do as I do it and don't touch my keyboard

Thanks

B

[NeverSure]

If I "emptied" my laptop I wouldn't use something like diskpart and lose the recovery partition. If you don't like linux you might want to revert.

[Gumballl]

I need to empty my laptop and install Ubuntu 14.4. I have tried by myself and made things worse...

What exactly did you try? Ubuntu is a bunny to install, especially if you install it using all of the default options (particularly those that apply to formatting the HDD).

It would also be helpful if you posted the type of hardware your laptop possesses; for example: video chip-set, ethernet adapter, wireless adapter, audio chip-set, etc?

I recommend that you boot into a 'live' version of Ubuntu, using a 4GB thumb-drive, before attempting to install. While in the 'live' mode, you can check to see whether all of your systems devices are functional. If they are, then as I stated earlier, installing Ubuntu should be easy.

P.S. I personally prefer Kubuntu to Ubuntu.

[Barnum]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

I need to empty my laptop and install Ubuntu 14.4. I have tried by myself and made things worse...

What exactly did you try? Ubuntu is a bunny to install, especially if you install it using all of the default options (particularly those that apply to formatting the HDD).

It would also be helpful if you posted the type of hardware your laptop possesses; for example: video chip-set, ethernet adapter, wireless adapter, audio chip-set, etc?

I recommend that you boot into a 'live' version of Ubuntu, using a 4GB thumb-drive, before attempting to install. While in the 'live' mode, you can check to see whether all of your systems devices are functional. If they are, then as I stated earlier, installing Ubuntu should be easy.

P.S. I personally prefer Kubuntu to Ubuntu.

Thanks for your help. However do you know of a physical place in CM where there is an English speaking person who I could pay to actually assist me in updating my laptop?

As for your questions Gumball,A: tried it, get error messages, B: They are not.

Again, thanks for trying to help!

[steve187]

is this your first voyage into Linux

[inlandchris]

Try another Linux, Ubuntu is discontinued

[dharmabm]

Try another Linux, Ubuntu is discontinued

Um, what?!

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

[steve187]

Try another Linux, Ubuntu is discontinued

not sure where you got that information. ubuntu one file storage closed

if the Op is used to windows then i suggest using zorin os 9 very similar to windows 7 look, as gumball suggested, try a live version on a usb stick to see if its for you, lots of easy to follow instructions around.

If you can not get a live version on a usb stick to work then maybe, linux is not for you

[dharmabm]

If you don't get any response from anyone local in the next few days I could probably talk you through it via Skype or telephone (Skype would be better particularly on a smartphone, as you could show me the screen). It would help to know the specific laptop model and what problem you had, one possibility is needing to disable uefi in bios if it is a newer laptop

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Edited December 22, 2014 by dharmabm

[dharmabm]

Also I would recommend Linux mint, xubuntu or lubuntu over the main Ubuntu distro for a first experience

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

[inlandchris]

Yes, Ubuntu One discontinued this year. It caught me by surprised so I ended using Ubuntu. I like it but its support is not reliable. Dont get me wrong, I use to use SCO unix and programed it into X windows to mimic windows and the speed is 100 fold faster but it needs constant maintenance. Ubuntu does not need that much maintenance except for versions upgrades but I really used Ubuntu One so now its discontinued and what else is going to be discontinued. Even retired, not enough time to maintain and tweak all the time, gave up the ghost.

[Paul944]

I shall be in CM from 27 till 4 jan. I installed Ubuntu on my gf laptop and i have about 25 years experience with linux.

What did you try already? Did you already downloaded Ubuntu and made a bootable usb stick?

[Barnum]

I shall be in CM from 27 till 4 jan. I installed Ubuntu on my gf laptop and i have about 25 years experience with linux.

What did you try already? Did you already downloaded Ubuntu and made a bootable usb stick?

Paul, It would be great if you could spare some time when you are in town. Just had confirmed that the guy with the ad below does not do linux. He did not know anyone who does.

I run Ubuntu 12.04 now (I'm almost sure, I have forgotten how to double check that information. Same as with computer model). Tried to upgrade to 14.04 following the info on ubuntu.com, but I got an error message (repeatedly). No bootable stick. Did not get that far.

There was an external memory involved when I tried to upgrade at one point about 6 months ago (before the attempt mentioned above) but since I did not actually know what I was doing, I cannot remember much about that. Anyway, whatever memory stick I used, is back in my home country...

As you see I probably should not be using Linux unsupervised, but I just cannot stand the thought of going back to Windows :-(

I guess that you yourself are not using Ubuntu, since you have 25 yrs of linux, but only mentions having installed Ubuntu once, on someone elses computer? Some people in this thread have advised me to go with other Linux alternatives - I'm open for suggestions from those who know better...

So, whenever you have time, I'll make time, Thank you!!

B

[Gumballl]

Barnum -

I'm not sure what you mean by "external memory" problem? Was it an issue with a USB thumb-drive? Btw, you can purchase a 4GB stick (recommended for Ubuntu installations) quite inexpensively.

Anyhow, you can verify the version of Ubuntu that you have by viewing the file /etc/lsb-release.

You may also need to verify that you have sufficient resources available on your system to perform an upgrade. This may entail examining the amount of HDD space you have remaining, how much RAM your system has, etc. Also it is desirable to have a steady internet connection.

With this in mind, the first thing I would do is to ensure that your current system is up-to-date. From the command line, you can run these simple commands:

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade

You also may want to visit the Ubuntu Forums for advice on how to proceed forward with upgrading to 14.04.

[Barnum]

Barnum -

I'm not sure what you mean by "external memory" problem? Was it an issue with a USB thumb-drive? Btw, you can purchase a 4GB stick (recommended for Ubuntu installations) quite inexpensively.

Anyhow, you can verify the version of Ubuntu that you have by viewing the file /etc/lsb-release.

You may also need to verify that you have sufficient resources available on your system to perform an upgrade. This may entail examining the amount of HDD space you have remaining, how much RAM your system has, etc. Also it is desirable to have a steady internet connection.

With this in mind, the first thing I would do is to ensure that your current system is up-to-date. From the command line, you can run these simple commands:

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade

You also may want to visit the Ubuntu Forums for advice on how to proceed forward with upgrading to 14.04.

did the sudo commands. The ca 2 page answer for the update has no meaning to someone like me. What should I be looking for?

The upgrade one ends in 271 to upgrade, 0 to newly install,0 to remove and 6 not to upgrade. Need to get 424 MB/449 MB of archives. After this operation, 51.1 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue (y or n)?

Does that mean anything to you?

[Apiwan2]

I tried wubi.

You load it on a USB stick and boot from there leaving windows intact.

Or just do a clean install.

It's very easy I done it 555

I'd get linnux on my home comp but the kids like to pla th minecraft .

The dodgy cds from pantip.

Don't think you can load on linnux.

[Gumballl]

did the sudo commands. The ca 2 page answer for the update has no meaning to someone like me. What should I be looking for?

The upgrade one ends in 271 to upgrade, 0 to newly install,0 to remove and 6 not to upgrade. Need to get 424 MB/449 MB of archives. After this operation, 51.1 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue (y or n)?

Does that mean anything to you?

Yes, that means you should enter 'Y' or 'y' to update your system.

[dave_boo]

Your problem is that you're using Ubuntu...install OpenSuSE (with LXDE) and then thank me.

That's one thing I hate about Ubuntu's 'way of things'; they recommend not having a separate /home partition. So when people go and try and update (which noobs seem to invariably do over an old installation), things get hosed and the user loses their data.

[dharmabm]

Barnum -

I'm not sure what you mean by "external memory" problem? Was it an issue with a USB thumb-drive? Btw, you can purchase a 4GB stick (recommended for Ubuntu installations) quite inexpensively.

Anyhow, you can verify the version of Ubuntu that you have by viewing the file /etc/lsb-release.

You may also need to verify that you have sufficient resources available on your system to perform an upgrade. This may entail examining the amount of HDD space you have remaining, how much RAM your system has, etc. Also it is desirable to have a steady internet connection.

With this in mind, the first thing I would do is to ensure that your current system is up-to-date. From the command line, you can run these simple commands:

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade

You also may want to visit the Ubuntu Forums for advice on how to proceed forward with upgrading to 14.04.

did the sudo commands. The ca 2 page answer for the update has no meaning to someone like me. What should I be looking for?

The upgrade one ends in 271 to upgrade, 0 to newly install,0 to remove and 6 not to upgrade. Need to get 424 MB/449 MB of archives. After this operation, 51.1 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue (y or n)?

Does that mean anything to you?

Don't listen to boo, he means well but that will just complicate things[emoji6]

This info is a bit different that what you implied in the OP, you never mentioned you had a working install of Ubuntu already. You should do as was suggested above, say yes to all the updates available (and you should really do this once a week or so... I don't run an Ubuntu desktop, but usually there is an update notification that should pop up and tell you this somewhere in your system tray, unless you disabled it)

After doing the update you should reboot and run

sudo apt-get update

and

sudo apt-get do-release-upgrade

which will take some time but will update you to 14.04 (because you are currently running an LTS version, which I would recommend sticking to unless you have a valid reason to need 14.14)

This is the proper way to upgrade Ubuntu to a new version.

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

[dave_boo]

Don't listen to boo, he means well but that will just complicate things[emoji6]

This info is a bit different that what you implied in the OP, you never mentioned you had a working install of Ubuntu already. You should do as was suggested above, say yes to all the updates available (and you should really do this once a week or so... I don't run an Ubuntu desktop, but usually there is an update notification that should pop up and tell you this somewhere in your system tray, unless you disabled it)

After doing the update you should reboot and run

sudo apt-get update

and

sudo apt-get do-release-upgrade

which will take some time but will update you to 14.04 (because you are currently running an LTS version, which I would recommend sticking to unless you have a valid reason to need 14.14)

This is the proper way to upgrade Ubuntu to a new version.

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

You heretic!

At least tell the poor guy to open a terminal and do the following:

rsync -aruv --progress /home/your_user_name/ /media/external_drive_name

He'll later be able to rsync it back if his distro upgrade gets borked. The nice thing about doing it this way is that after all his programmes have been installed, rsync will leave the configuration files from the installed programmes alone as they have a newer date.

I like the --progress option as it makes for something to look at. Also can scroll back and see what, if anything, failed to be copied over.

[Gumballl]

Your problem is that you're using Ubuntu...install OpenSuSE (with LXDE) and then thank me.

That's one thing I hate about Ubuntu's 'way of things'; they recommend not having a separate /home partition. So when people go and try and update (which noobs seem to invariably do over an old installation), things get hosed and the user loses their data.

Baloney! -- and that's putting it mildly for the sake of the TVF censors.

User's can opt to create their own partitioning scheme when they install Linux (not just Ubuntu, or OpenSuSE). But whether someone creates a separate partition for /home makes no difference whatsoever, unless you are switching desktop managers.

No OS-related files are stored in /home.

[Gumballl]

...

sudo apt-get update

and

sudo apt-get do-release-upgrade

which will take some time but will update you to 14.04 (because you are currently running an LTS version, which I would recommend sticking to unless you have a valid reason to need 14.14)

This is the proper way to upgrade Ubuntu to a new version.

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

+1

14.04, to the best of my knowledge, will be supported until 2019... which is fantastic, considering that most PCs/laptops become somewhat obsolete even after a few years.

Edited December 28, 2014 by Gumballl

[dave_boo]

Baloney! -- and that's putting it mildly for the sake of the TVF censors.

User's can opt to create their own partitioning scheme when they install Linux (not just Ubuntu, or OpenSuSE). But whether someone creates a separate partition for /home makes no difference whatsoever, unless you are switching desktop managers.

No OS-related files are stored in /home.

How many n00bs know about partitioning? Don't most of them just use the default that the installer suggests? Notice that I did not claim Ubuntu does not let you create a /home...they just don't do it automatically and seem to discourage it.

Having a separate /home is invaluable. Your assertion that there are no os-related files is technically correct; however, what of all those programme configuration files which can be easily seen with an "ls .*" from your home folder? An operating system in and of itself is nice, but without the programmes a bit useless.

I can upgrade from any version of OpenSUSE to the latest very easily. Downloading the latest iso and then installing it utilising the pre-existing /home (as well as /boot because of the stupid EFI) means it takes all of 15 minutes. Try upgrading an OS to the latest (without it getting borked) in the same time.

I don't know what you're on about with the comment in regards to desktop managers (I keep KDE around and also ALWAYS install LXDE and there are no issues), so I'll wait to read an explanation.

[dharmabm]

I tried wubi.

You load it on a USB stick and boot from there leaving windows intact.

Or just do a clean install.

It's very easy I done it 555

I'd get linnux on my home comp but the kids like to pla th minecraft .

The dodgy cds from pantip.

Don't think you can load on linnux.

FWIW, I don't know about the 'dodgy CDs from pantip' but minecraft runs fine on Linux, if it didn't my son wouldn't have it as I run nothing else in my home. A legit license is only about $20, well worth it in my mind. Most minecraft MPS servers run on Linux as well.

[/OT]

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[Barnum]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Barnum -

I'm not sure what you mean by "external memory" problem? Was it an issue with a USB thumb-drive? Btw, you can purchase a 4GB stick (recommended for Ubuntu installations) quite inexpensively.

Anyhow, you can verify the version of Ubuntu that you have by viewing the file /etc/lsb-release.

You may also need to verify that you have sufficient resources available on your system to perform an upgrade. This may entail examining the amount of HDD space you have remaining, how much RAM your system has, etc. Also it is desirable to have a steady internet connection.

With this in mind, the first thing I would do is to ensure that your current system is up-to-date. From the command line, you can run these simple commands:

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade

You also may want to visit the Ubuntu Forums for advice on how to proceed forward with upgrading to 14.04.

did the sudo commands. The ca 2 page answer for the update has no meaning to someone like me. What should I be looking for?

The upgrade one ends in 271 to upgrade, 0 to newly install,0 to remove and 6 not to upgrade. Need to get 424 MB/449 MB of archives. After this operation, 51.1 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue (y or n)?

Does that mean anything to you?

Don't listen to boo, he means well but that will just complicate things[emoji6]
This info is a bit different that what you implied in the OP, you never mentioned you had a working install of Ubuntu already. You should do as was suggested above, say yes to all the updates available (and you should really do this once a week or so... I don't run an Ubuntu desktop, but usually there is an update notification that should pop up and tell you this somewhere in your system tray, unless you disabled it)
After doing the update you should reboot and run
sudo apt-get update
and
sudo apt-get do-release-upgrade

which will take some time but will update you to 14.04 (because you are currently running an LTS version, which I would recommend sticking to unless you have a valid reason to need 14.14)
This is the proper way to upgrade Ubuntu to a new version.

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

Terminal did not recognise do-release-upgrade. is there another space or something in there?

Also, some index files seems to be missing because other ones have been used instead...? Cannot remember the exact phrase, maybe you know it anyway?

[dave_boo]

Terminal did not recognise do-release-upgrade. is there another space or something in there?

Also, some index files seems to be missing because other ones have been used instead...? Cannot remember the exact phrase, maybe you know it anyway?

Try to upgrade/install update-manager-core. If that doesn't work, use sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. Obviously the do-release-upgrade is a better choice (that's why he recommended it), but you're trying to upgrade instead of clean install like I recommended...

[dharmabm]

The missing index files may be because a repo was offline, you can try

sudo apt-get clean

and

sudo apt-get update

To see if the error goes away

Then

sudo apt-get upgrade

Then

sudo apt-get install update-manager-core

As Dave suggested

If that all works without errors you should be able to do the release upgrade

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

Edited December 29, 2014 by dharmabm

[Gumballl]

How many n00bs know about partitioning? Don't most of them just use the default that the installer suggests? Notice that I did not claim Ubuntu does not let you create a /home...they just don't do it automatically and seem to discourage it.

Having a separate /home is invaluable. Your assertion that there are no os-related files is technically correct; however, what of all those programme configuration files which can be easily seen with an "ls .*" from your home folder? An operating system in and of itself is nice, but without the programmes a bit useless.

I can upgrade from any version of OpenSUSE to the latest very easily. Downloading the latest iso and then installing it utilising the pre-existing /home (as well as /boot because of the stupid EFI) means it takes all of 15 minutes. Try upgrading an OS to the latest (without it getting borked) in the same time.

I don't know what you're on about with the comment in regards to desktop managers (I keep KDE around and also ALWAYS install LXDE and there are no issues), so I'll wait to read an explanation.

Of course Ubuntu is going to 'discourage' newbie users from setting up their own partitioning; the goal is to get the OS working out-of-the-box. If users (either advance or newbie) want to set up their own partitioning, then the option is available; the user just has to click on the button that allows for manual configuration -- trust me, it is there!

Btw, I am not disagreeing with you with respect to the value of having a separate /home partition, but merely indicating that a system does not need to have this. On occasions when I install Linux (typically CentOS or Kubuntu) as a VM, or even when I installed Kubuntu on my parent's PC, I do not bother to set up separate partitions.

On my personal system I too have a separate partition for /home and /boot, however this mattered little when I upgraded from 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS.

In the ol' days, when I used Fedora (which previously was called Fedora Core), I once did have trouble with an upgrade due to some issue with GNOME. Nowadays, for unrelated reasons, I shun GNOME, and instead rely 100% on KDE.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Gumballl

[Gumballl]

The missing index files may be because a repo was offline, you can try

sudo apt-get clean

and

sudo apt-get update

To see if the error goes away

Then

sudo apt-get upgrade

Then

sudo apt-get install update-manager-core

As Dave suggested

If that all works without errors you should be able to do the release upgrade

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

It should be mentioned (I don't know why I did not suggest this earlier), that in lieu of typing commands within a terminal, the OP should simply rely on the Synaptic Package Manager GUI to update his system.

Here's a video the OP might be interested in:

Edited December 29, 2014 by Gumballl

[pavloos]

Barnum, did you get anywhere with your Linux installation? I am in Chiang Mai and can help you if you still need it.