[svlug] Progress at the school with Linux

[Florin Andrei]

Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> 
> I got the notebook from him.  I wiped the drive by installing Intrepid 
> Ubuntu.  I then tried to install Windows XP over it.  No luck.  Daniel G 
> figured it out and installed XP and then installed Intrepid.

There are a couple causes for this.

One is that the partitioners of the two operating systems do not quite 
agree with each other - or, to be less "politically correct", Windows is 
dumb and has unreasonable partitioning requirements.

Second is that, if you install Linux first, most distributions will put 
the bootloader (Grub) on the MBR. But then Windows wipes out the MBR, so 
bye-bye bootloader.

My strategy for installing Win/Lin computers, verified over many years 
of practice, is:

1. Install Windows first, give it one partition (or more), leave the 
rest of the drive unpartitioned.

2. Install Linux on the rest of the drive. While installing Linux, make 
sure to put the bootloader (Grub) not on the MBR, but on the superblock 
of one of the Linux partitions, typically /boot or /
Most Linux distros will let you do that, it's usually an "advanced" 
option in the installer. Write down the name of the partition that's 
carrying the bootloader (let's say it's /dev/sda3).

3. Boot the Linux installer one more time, either in Rescue Mode or as a 
Live CD, whichever is available. Fire up fdisk, mark /dev/sda3 as 
bootable, unmark any other partition that Windows may have marked (it 
usually marks the C: partition as bootable). So in the end only 
/dev/sda3 should be marked bootable.

Voila! A working dualboot, with the additional advantage that the 
bootloader is safe from Windows and all the bad Win32 fauna (viruses, 
etc.) that may damage it. The MBR is just too "high profile" to be a 
safe location for the bootloader.
Even if something on Windows changes the bootable flag on the 
partitions, it's enough to fire up the Live CD again, run fdisk and the 
system is repaired quickly.

> teacher is happy as a clam, and is using Ubuntu as his primary OS.  I 
> told him that he should try to note use Windows very much, or he will 
> just get a virus again.  He understands.

Maybe those two Windows apps that the teacher needs can run under WINE 
on Linux? A lot of them do, including some games, DVD rippers, etc. 
Simple and trivial apps usually work very well under WINE.

> tipping point at this public middle school, which would be nice, for a 
> couple of reasons: first, this school's computing experiences are being 
> followed by the city legislator responsible for this district.

OK, that's pretty important.

> In fact, another school is 
> coming to see our Xubuntu lab on Thursday.

It's best to expose such people to the most "mainstream" distributions 
possible. Not to less popular variations such as Xubuntu. Show them 
Ubuntu proper instead, if Ubuntu is what you use.
Or at least tell them "hey, we're using Xubuntu for some particular 
reason, but the more popular version is Ubuntu and that's what you 
should try".
Stay away from the fringe, steer them toward the center.

Everyone, please don't start a flame war, I'm tired of that. I've used 
them all, give or take, starting with Slackware on a stack of floppies 
in the '90s, I use about four distros at this time, and I don't really 
care one way or another. I'm just mentioning this as a common sense 
principle.

> I know a lot of people on this list have helped out a lot with this 
> school project, not the least of which is Daniel G., so I wanted to 
> thank you all for helping out and to give you the good news.

Good luck!

-- 
Florin Andrei

http://florin.myip.org/