Trying to install Ubuntu MATE next to Windows XP

Yep, itā€™s quite verbose with text when it boots, just as a heads up. Youā€™ll be prompted to ā€œchange the keymapā€ and then to start the X Server, then youā€™ll enter the graphical environment, itā€™s Debian.

Ok, got it on CD now. Did a test run in Virtual Box and it goes on fine there Iā€™m just not sure where should I save those settings on the actual pc?

So I should take away 38 GIB of space to become unallocated and thatā€™s over? Or should I also make it on ext4 and part of that for swap? Or will this be done when I will try to install OS?

If all goes well, should I then download mini version if it will fit on CD?

Itā€™s up to you, whichever you feel most comfortable.

  • Specify the ext4 partition for the OS and create the swap manually, then use the ā€œCustomā€ option during the installation wizard to use that partition (as mount point / ).
  • Or, leave it unallocated and choose ā€œInstall alongside Windows XPā€ to let the wizard do this automatically. Even if that option didnā€™t appear, ā€œCustomā€ would let you create those partitions.

Iā€™d personally go with the full Ubuntu MATE disc image, so Iā€™m certain it has everything the system needs. I havenā€™t installed from the mini ISO, but the instructions are fairly straight forward if youā€™re up for the challenge. :thumbsup: (I think Iā€™ll give it a go in VirtualBox!)

Ok thanks.

At the end it ask to save details and close. Where should I save that? Just where it opens up?

Would you possible consider recording your desktop while doing that? Would be nice to see how it's done and then try to recreate it.

I think I will also try it in VirtualBox before getting on pc in case anything goes wrong you can just close it or even delete if it goes horrible wrong. I think that's one of the best things I discovered when I started exploring Linux world. Shame I didnā€™t know it earlier, might save me some problems with Windows lol

You donā€™t have to worry about that. It only saves the details in case you need to look back at the operations you did. Simply ā€œCloseā€. Mission accomplished!

I think @Wimpy has done a good job at presenting those instructions for 14.04. As he suggests, a majority of it will be waiting to download/install ā€“ while making coffee :coffee: and cakes :cake: :stuck_out_tongue: if itā€™s a very slow internet connection. Iā€™ll pass this opportunity to others who are into producing video tutorials.

:notebook: Note for 15.10 using the blogā€™s instructions ā€“ I donā€™t think those PPAā€™s are applicable anymore.

Thatā€™s fine, I see your point. Iā€™m just better when I can see photos or videos about how things are done, rather then just reading text a few times and then wondering around while also trying to translate everything from English to my language and see where things are. Especially when I first try to install something new and big, like OS, as I never done it before.

I think I will go with 14.04, if thatā€™s possible, even if itā€™s mini version, should then have some peace after installing it. It still has longer support right? I will try to install it in Virtual box first then and if there will be any problems or I wont know where to go next I will ask again.

Hopefully I will have some time tomorrow to finally test it out and install everything.

Really, the mini version is installing the bare bones of Ubuntu, and then installs the Ubuntu MATE packages on top. Also, the 14.04 (and 14.10) builds are just before the project became official members of the Ubuntu family, but the team are committed to supporting for the full 5 years.

Iā€™m late to this conversation but I saw that the PC is old. Is it possible the CPU doesnā€™t support PAE? If so, try booting the live CD with the --forcepae flag.

Also, if itā€™s old hardware, it might not support the current kernel architecture. I ran into that problem recently with a 10 year old IBM ThinkPad (Pentium M processor). As I only wanted an off-line machine I installed a distro version from the old days. It does what I want it to do.

Even linux can only support legacy hardware up to a point, some things just canā€™t be made to workā€¦ which is sadly not good news for the environment, or your budget.

Today I finally got some time to try and see if I could make it work. So I put CD with GParted on and I got to the screen where it shows my partitions

I wanted to resize 114 GiB partition, but all of the sudden my monitor says No signal Analog and shut itself off :angry: Why? :tired_face: Does it really have to give me so much trouble :disappointed:

Iā€™ve never heard or experienced of this happening, so this raises the alarm that in the worst case scenarioā€¦ it could shut off while itā€™s resizing! :open_mouth:

Why the hardware would shut off is beyond me, but it could be:

  • Not enough memory
  • Processor/motherboard experienced an illegal instruction (possibly?)
  • Hard drive does not permit tampering (never heard of such a case)
  • This version of GParted/the kernel is too new for your hardware.

Try the fail safe mode when you boot the disc instead:

  1. Other modes of GParted Live
  2. GParted Live (Failsafe Mode)

It's strange, I think the computer itself is still running by the sound of it, it's just the monitor that turns off (for no reason I could think of). I try it twice and it looked as if some time have passed and then monitor shuts off. If it helps that's happen before It gets to Debian and then GParted

Will try the other options then, if it will work...

I/O Error sounds like a faulty disc drive or bad disc, Iā€™m afraid to say. :frowning: Iā€™m thinking more a faulty drive, since itā€™s struggling to correctly boot two discs - Cleaning the tray and/or checking its cables are securely in place may or may not make a difference.

You may wish to look into other ways to boot the medium, such as USB drives, booting over a network (PXE Server) or booting the ISO from the hard drive.

These links may be useful:

That didnā€™t work as my keyboard wasnā€™t responsive at start, but then could easily select options that comes before Debian startsā€¦

If Iā€™m not mistaken I think I had to change cd/dvd drive on that pc (or was it on previous I donā€™t remember, but I know I had problems with it and had to get it replaced)

Are Automatic processes any good? Do you still need to make free space for it or make own partition for it?

Will check more later or probably tomorrow and see if I will have more luck with those.

I have never tried to resize a partition using the Ubuntu Installer - but I think it may possible with the ā€œCustomā€ option ā€“ always double check the dialog box before proceeding ā€“ and beware if there is no window status during the operation.

This help article advises using GParted for Windows XP partitions:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoResizeWindowsPartitions

The easiest way would be to shrink it (either by GParted Live or Ubuntu MATE Live Session, when we get it booting) and then use the ā€œInstall alongside Windows XPā€ option during set up. The installer will take care of setting up Ubuntuā€™s partitions. :thumbsup:

Sorry that weā€™re 30 posts in and still havenā€™t managed to boot Ubuntu MATE on your older machine. :smile: Weā€™ll get there eventually. :wink:

Turns out after all, ubiquity is able to split up partitions during installation. I never knew that:

While the Wiki advises to use GParted for Windows XP partitions, my tests show that it works fine using the installer.

I have been busy with other stuff so havenā€™t done much on my old PC and what I did didnā€™t turn on anything really.

So I read the links yo provide about installation from Windows, but some links didnā€™t work and didnā€™t really want to use automatic onesā€¦ While other two were to technical and looked to complicated to do and I didnā€™t have that much time.

I also tried to boot CD with Lubuntu 14.04 on it, because it fitted on CD, but when I put it in I got shown language to chose, but neither my keyboard or mouse worked then and I couldnā€™t select anythingā€¦ I was wondering it that could be because they are both connected to pc trough usb and it somehow doesnā€™t work when trying to install from CD.

I did finally buy new USB stick trough :smiley: And successfully install Ubuntu MATE 14.04 on my old laptop alongside Windows 7 and I have to say it doesnā€™t overheat much underneath UM which it great :grinning: Will probably need to install few more stuff on it once I remember what I missing. I think Welcome isnā€™t available for 14.04, right?

So when I will get more time I will try to get some floppy disk that I still have and try to install it with that usb stick, since I know it works, just need to get floppy disk to work.

I assume this will also work when having disk split to 2 partsā€¦ I already forgot how exactly it set as itā€™s quite a long time since I started.

Thank you so much for all your help so far trough @lah7 really appreciate it.

No problem, any further questions/problems, do ask! Myself and others can try to help. :smile:


ubuntu-mate-welcome wasnā€™t introduced at the time of 14.04, I imagine itā€™ll be in the ā€œdevelopmentā€ repos at that time.

Now, you say your keyboard/mouse stopped working, I wonder if the system freezes up at this point - it could happen because this is a low RAM machine with 512 MB of RAM. Out of memory = Locked up.

There is some sort of non-graphical installer if need be. Again, I think this is now part of the netboot/mini ISO we talked about a few weeks ago, but this gets a little advanced.

Several of your questions answered here:

For partitioning:

Hope it helps!. :smiley:

Yes, I know it didnā€™t exists back then, would save me some problems, but I found that there is link to it on the forum, just a bit lower into the topic. I really like how you can easily install stuff from there and will definitely install it next time I will have that pc on and will remember to do it.

I donā€™t know. When I change running order in bios itā€™s working, but then when cd starts itā€™s like there is no life in it, no led indications or anything, but at least monitor stay on now, which wasnā€™t the case when i put gparted cd on and it turn off before I could do some serious work, like partitioning.

I havenā€™t done anything more to that old pc as for now I got laptop with win 7 on working and it doesnā€™t overheat much under Ubuntu MATE, which it great :smile:

Thanks @wolfman I really like your tutorials with so many photos, itā€™s much easier to see how to do things, where they are and how the screen looks.

I might read all those things again when I get back to fixing it and see if I miss something and give it another try then.

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