My Ubuntu Blog

Google Chrome arrived and I had to log on MS Windows to see how it works. I am so impressed that I don’t really feel like going back to Ubuntu and use Firefox. I have installed Windows Vista, which has Aero theme. I use Chrome and the world is beautiful again.

Honestly, I don’t like Microsoft Windows much. Previously I had trouble getting it configured for my internet, graphics and audio settings. It is just too much work with windows, I thought. But may be I was a little bit too biased towards freedom. I had this feeling that I am a software freedom fighter, I can not use Windows. But I am starting to think differently now.

If I use Windows I have Aero which looks 10 times better than Gnome with compiz and it has Google Chrome which is faster than Firefox and works like a charm.

These new things make me feel good. The graphics aren’t ugly, I have the same visual effects on Ubuntu too but they don’t look that good. Gnome’s interface that I have loved so much, now looks childish and boring. The simplicity has gone to a point where it feels like an insult to the human intelligence.

The windows are too big they take a lot of screen space. The fonts are ugly. Definitely Ubuntu has better support for Urdu Language but Vista is not that bad either. Using Vista I can use the new VLC media player that uses QT and has good looking interface.

I tried searching the Gnome website to see if they have any plans to give me something thats more beautiful than Mac OS X, Vista and KDE4. But I don’t think they have any plans to bring something modern and new for at least a few more decades. I can go for KDE4, and I did. I tried it with opensuse. But it crashed so often and after a week of trial I gave up. I tried KDE4 on ubuntu and the result was the same.

Developers at Gnome should think about improving their simplicity. Give me an intelligent user interface that is smarter than me. Give me better fonts. Don’t fill my screen with thick windows, fat buttons, and king size Icons. The KDE folks if they read it, please make it available for Ubuntu and make rock solid. Every body hates to see the crash handler poping up now and then. and I want VLC with QT ASAP.

Please bring me back to the free world. Please bring something exciting and modern.
BTW, after finishing this post I am going to try KDE for windows and see how it works. It might be unstable like hell but I want to do try it anyways.

Note: I haven’t completely switched to Windows yet. I am just jealous.

Grub is the GRand Unified Bootloader that comes as the default boot loader in most modern linux ditributions including all flavors of Ubuntu. In easy words it is the software that shows you the operating systems you have installed on your computer and allows you to choose one when you start your computer.

Many new users of Ubuntu often come across situations where they need to re-install boot loader. It happens particularly when you attempt to install or re-install Microsoft windows on a computer that already has Ubuntu installed. Windows wipes out Grub boot record, making user unable to boot other operating systems at start up. But don’t worry there are many ways to solve this problem easily. Visit the Ubuntu Community Docs “Recovering Ubuntu after installing Windows” help page for all these solutions. You will also find many threads about this on Ubuntu Forums.

Right now, I would like to talk about the solution that I found easiest and I think that most new Ubuntu users would also find this solution easier and helpful. This solution also applies to any Linux distribution using Grub.

UNetbootin is the software that allows you to fix your Grub Boot Loader from with in Windows. It allows you to use Super Grub Disk with out floppy, usb, or CD.

1. Download UNetbootin for Windows(download .exe file) and install it. Once the installation is finished you will be asked to reboot your computer. On rebooting you see a menu similar to Grub that asks you whether you would like to boot Windows or UNetbootin Supergrubdisk. Select Unetbootin SuperGrubDisk.
2. Now you will be presented with a menu where you will find following two options among others:
   Super Grub disk (With Help)
   Super Grub disk (No Help)
   Select Super Grub Disk with help because as the developers of the project say that Super Grub Disk is also an educational tool that teaches you a little about how boot loaders work. It will not take more than five minutes to read help text. Scroll or skip the help text by pressing enter key until you are presented with another menu to choose Language. We see help text again and then we are presented with the menu.
3. Select Gnu/Linux from the menu. You are then asked what you want to do.
   Fix the boot of Gnu/Linux (Grub)
   Boot Gnu/Linux
   Boot Gnu/Linux directly
   Gnu/Linux (Advanced)
   Select fix the boot of Gnu/Linux (Grub). It then presents you with a list of Gnu/Linux installed on your system and you have to choose a /boot/grub/stage1 file. You will see Ubuntu listed, select it and press enter. Super Grub Disk will now try to fix your boot loader and at the end you see “SGD has succeeded”. You are done now, press any key and then select the option to reboot your computer.
4. You will see Grub at the start up, select Windows as we need to perform one last action. Once logged in you will be asked if you would like to remove UNetbootin and all its components. Select Yes and UNetbootin will be uninstalled.

Even if somehow Super Grub Disk fails to restore your Grub, you can still boot into your Ubuntu by selecting “Boot GNU/Linux or Boot GNU/Linux directly” options mentioned in step 3. You can then attempt to fix Grub from with in Ubuntu.

Recently I had to format my entire hard disk and re-install Microsoft Windows XP and Ubuntu once again. Despite the usual headaches of such a painful procedure, I feel that it was kind of a good learning experience. First of all I had to backup all my important data. Since I try to save all my work on web based services such as Google Docs, so there was not much to backup. After that I inserted Windows XP professional’s CD, formatted my hard disk and installed Windows.

If you are going to install Windows and a Linux based operating system on the same computer then you better install Windows first. Because if you first install Linux then the chances are that windows will remove your boot loader (Grub in most cases) and you will have to reinstall boot loader with your live cd once again.

After the successful Windows installation, I rebooted with Ubuntu 7.10 Live+Install CD. During the installation I created a FAT partition, an ext3 partition and a swap portion. Now I have heard people complaining that they do not really understand the partition process during Ubuntu Installation. I feel that it is just their fear of losing their data accidentally. Otherwise the partition process during Windows Installation is a little more complicated than the Ubuntu One. Ubuntu’s partition manager Gparted recognizes all your partitions and provides you a GUI to perform the actions. You can even undo partitioning before applying your changes.

The interesting part comes after the installation. I am using a computer with Intel G965 Express chipset. After the installation Windows didn’t recognize my audio hardware, my built in LAN card and didn’t have suitable drivers for graphics. So I had a Windows XP with no internet and no sound. On the other hand Ubuntu recognized and provided drivers for all my hardware. So I had to install drivers from Intel’s website, save them on Windows Partition, reboot and install these drivers. Even after the installation of drivers Windows didn’t have any sound. I found out that I need some kb888111 update installed on my computer before I could use Intel’s drivers. I downloaded and installed this update and even then the sound didn’t work. However after installing this update Windows realized that I have audio hardware with no drivers. But was unable to provide a suitable driver.

Then I suddenly realized that there is an Intel disc that came with my computer and had drivers for my chipset utility. I had to dig out this CD from a huge pile of discs. Now this CD had an installation process that required me to reboot my computer more than five times. It took nearly 20 minutes to finish and when done I finally had volume icon available in the taskbar.

What I am really trying to say is that installing Ubuntu on a computer is not more difficult than installing Windows. Depending on your hardware, sometimes it is much easier than Windows. It is just that people have gone through Windows installation and have more knowledge of the procedure which makes them feel a little more confident. Otherwise installing Windows XP is quite complicated and sometimes it doesn’t even recognize hardware that is originally built to be used with Windows.

If you don’t believe me then have a look at Radagast’s comparison of Ubuntu and Windows XP installtion. He has a very detailed account of installing both operating systems. He also had trouble finding drivers for network and sound on Windows and then he had to go through lengthy process of installing different software using 6 different CDs.