Windows Laptop And Ubuntu?

Off-Topic
1

I’m thinking about getting a laptop and I remember reading/hearing that on a lot of the common laptops, the ones that have Windows by default you can’t install another operating system, like Ubuntu, because of integrated parts or something. So, since some of you guys use Linux/Ubuntu/some other OS, is this true? Can I install Ubuntu Studio on either of these two laptops?

I have two laptops I’m looking at right now

I’ll write all the info here
HP Pavilion DV-3017EO (800€)
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 M300
4Gb RAM
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD4530 with 512 MB
16-bit SB Pro-compatible 3D sound
4 USB 2.0’s
e-SATA, Express Card/54, VGA, HDMI, RJ-45
Windows 7 Premium

Fujitsu AMILO Pi 3660 (700€)
Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300
4Gb DDR2
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M with 1 Gb
3 USB 2.0’s,
e-SATA, HDMI, VGA, Firewire, Express Card, S/PDIF,
Windows 7 Home Premium

My current desktop computer has 1Gb RAM and AMD Sempron 2800+ processor, just out of interest, is my current processor worse than both of those laptop processors?

The only thing I really need it for is making music really, along with listening to it and watching movies so I guess the only thing that really matters is performance, the processor and whatnot and I don’t really know anything about processors, but I’m guessing the one on the HP is better?

I would also like to know which one is better when thinking about music hardware and stuff like that. I don’t have anything other than a MIDI keyboard at the moment, but is it possible that I might not be able to use say, a synth or a pad or something like that with either one?

Also anything I should consider about getting either one is appreciated :D

I would look at other computers, ordering from the net, but I can’t really afford to pay hundreds just to cover the postage costs. So if someone has a better suggestion for me for around 700€ and very low postage costs, it’d be great too. I live in Finland.

2

I’m writing this message from an Acer 5920G laptop with Ubuntu :)

download the Ubuntu ISO image and boot from the CD, then choose the boot menu entry which lets you try Ubuntu without installing it: it will launch a version of Ubuntu (called “Live”) which does not change the content of your HD in any way, so you will be able to test how Ubuntu works with your PC.

If everything works good (remember that the Live version is quite slower than the installed one), you can also partition your HD and easily make a dual boot with both Windows and Ubuntu

3

Hmm… There should’t be any conflicts when you want to install Ubuntu. I remember the problem was more with getting rid of Vista and setting up XP. In many cases XP didn’t recognize videocard/networkcard etc. The best trick to avoid users switching back to XP was with the harddrive that XP just does not find a drive where to install. With Ubuntu the installation and setting up drivers was quite easy. Anyway you can just download the ISO and try out the live CD and see if Ubuntu doent have any conflicts with your machine’s hardware. just when you want to start making music on Ubuntu watch out for those integrated Intel chipset soundcards which are making it very painful to get audio applications run fast and smooth.

Good luck!

4

Why would you like to use Ubuntu when you have Windows 7?

Oh yes, they will in run circles around your old PC… Take a look here:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

The T4300 is 3.3 times faster than your sempron, and the Athlon M300 is 3.0 times faster than your sempron…

5

My girlfriend bought this one some months back for 490 euros:
http://nordic.computers.toshiba-europe.com…hibaShop/false/

It has the T4300 processor, the same as one of those you listed. To me, Toshiba seems to be a little more robust compared to other PC laptops…

6

So I got the HP Pavilion one now, and I’m about to set up Ubuntu here, but, I have a problem\question about the partitioning. I partitioned my desktop which had Windows XP a long time ago but I can\t remember anymore. On the Live session I run GParted and it shows the one hard-drive that I have, and it shows that the main/big ntfs partition is in use wholly by the Windows installation. It shows the coloured/used area in the beginning of the partition, is it ok if I just resize that one and format the left over part as ext3? There are two more smaller partitions after the big ntfs one, a 15GB HP_Recovery one and a 100MB HP_Tools one.

So is it safe to just resize the big partition without fucking up the ones after it or the Windows installation itself? I will probably hardly even use the Windows part, but I don’t want to get rid of it either.

here’s a screenshot http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/5117/screenshotc.png

7

it is safe to do what you described with a reliable partitioner.

also, i suggest you to create at least 4 partitions for Ubuntu: one for “/” (root) (>8GB), one for “/home” (as big as your Windows’ “My Documents” should be), one for swap (at least your RAM size divided by 2) and one for “/tmp” (at least 5GB to easily allow DVD authoring, if needed).

this will allow, for example, to reinstall the whole Ubuntu without loosing any of your user configurations

8

I resized, didn’t apply yet, and tried to create a new partition and it says: It is not possible to create more than 4 primary partitions. If you want more partitions you should first create an extended partition. Such a partition can contain other partitions. Because an extended partition is also a primary partition it might be necessary to remove a primary partition first.

So I need to format one of the other partitions now or what?

9

Are you aware of that both program execution and starting programs will be slower on Ubuntu than on Windows 7 on that computer? The only thing that is faster on Ubuntu (with a relatively new computer) is computer startup.

10

But that is the normal Ubuntu release… I don’t know about Ubuntu Studio…

Anyway, I think you should try Reaper on Windows:
http://www.reaper.fm/

The only restriction to the demo version is a delaying intro window.

11

Ubuntu is debian based, right?

I have now several months Sidux and happy with it ^_^
(also debian based and it feels more stable than ubuntu - what is that i have recognized)

12

@oooooo, did you figure this out yet?
GParted is quite good for resizing partitions.

once you resize a partition and apply it, the new area will be unallocated, and you should be able to create a primary, inside this primary, you create all of your partitions for ubunutu.

make sure you write down the locations also, and keep it in a safe place.

this is so if you need to work on a boot manager like grub now or in the distant future, you can give it the proper places to boot.

13

also, I might suggest creating a fat32 partition in case you want to transfer files between ubunutu and windows.

You know, it could very well be a great idea right now to run Virtualbox http://www.virtualbox.org/

you can use virtualbox to test distros and get acquainted with them, without the plausible added anxiety of messing up your system.

then once you have done all your testing, you can just delete the image virtualbox created for you to free up the dead space.

I highly suggest checking out virtualbox.

help with installation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F-ehg3lEPE

oops, this video is more suited toward you needs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5ravk1H6DM&feature=fvsr

14

In addition to this, i can also recommend you to try Linux Live USB with Persistent options (so you can save specific configurations)
http://www.linuxliveusb.com/
You can install a few different linux distributions and test them one by one, how they work and how you can connect Renoise to it. For some distributions this thing seems to be capable of creating a virtual appliance, however, in the latter case:you should not have virtual box installed because the LiveUSB edition tries to run a concurrent virtualbox client that conflicts with the installed virtual network adapters and stuff.

For a full performance test though i would not stick around to keep running Virtualbox but booting the USB instead running a RT kernel.

16

No it won’t let me create a new partition of any kind, even after applying. :( There are already 4 primary partitions. When I start the installation and try to do manual partitioning it says the unallocated part that it is unusable.

EDIT: Ok now I can use the unallocated space, but I can only create one partition of any kind, but…

I can’t create any partitions inside the primary…

…this wasn’t so hard the first few times :S God damn not having to hard drives :D

17

Ah, I didn’t see your question above.

Yes, you do need to remove one of the 4 primary partitions, you don’t need to format it, just remove it, once you use GParted to put ext3 on it, it will give instructions to format it automatically.

The one you resized can probably stay resized.

How are all 4 of these partitions being used currently?

18

When I had tried Ubuntu for a while and noticed that it was slower than Vista and not better in any way that I could notice, I removed the Ubuntu partition and ended up with a computer that didn’t start at all! After managing to rewrite the bootblock or something, Windows started… a little… My system had been damaged. I ended up having to buy a new harddisk and install Vista there all over again to be able to keep my files on the old drive (as I only have an OEM licence, the drive will be formatted when you reinstall your recovery backup)… So I’m not a fan of Ubuntu after that.

19

I’m not certain of your case, but a few things I could tell you that you will not want to hear.
If you would have put that partitions back in place similar to the way you had them and reinstalled ubuntu using the same partition scheme. You very well could have been able to access or backup your windows system. Working with the MBR is tricky indeed and one should use much care when working with it in this situation. One really needs to know where all the HDDs are.

Also, looking for help with linux can be daunting until you know what questions to ask. most often the puzzling problems you may encounter you ask questions about that go unanswered are questions that many answers exist for. It’s just that many times searching for the right question is hard to come up with.

20

First “System” 200MB,
then the “C:” drive,
“Recovery” (“D:”) 15GB
and finally, “HP_TOOLS” 100MB.

The leftover space from resizing the biggest partition (“C:”) is naturally after the “C:” partition, before the Recovery one.

Yeah I’ve noticed that asking the right question the right way is difficult with linux stuff, but I’m determined to get Ubuntu working (just because I want to… :)) and as long as I have things backed up there isn’t that much to worry about if I fuck things up.

I’ll probably try removing the last partition in the next few days. I’ll keep you posted.

21

Sounds good.

Find a way to make an image of the contents of HP_Tools before getting rid of it. Make a couple copies and verify them just to make sure in case you ever need it for something down the road. :)