Vacuus Verbum

This is a description of the steps (or at least the initial and most significant ones) I will be taking in order to install and configure Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. Besides serving as a personal record, I am also hoping this will be of help to someone.

Introduction

I have been a Ubuntu user since 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog and currently run 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. I am typing this on OpenOffice Writer 3.0.1, just as Transmission works hard on the background to bring me the freshly released ISO image. I have installed every single release of the OS since 5.04, always choosing clean installations over upgrades. While some might see it as a waste of time, I simply feel it is actually cleaner and, besides, I find that installing most software on Ubuntu is as easy and quick as it gets.

In the beginning, I used to dual-boot, with Windows still being my main OS. This has changed since at least the release of 6.06 Dapper Drake, when Ubuntu became my platform of choice. And I’ve never felt like going back. From that time on, I still have a dual-boot setup, but I now refer to my Windows installation simply as “the videogame”, for that’s the only reason I ever choose it from GRUB’s menu. Hopefully, I’ll be able to wipe Windows off for good someday, without having to give up my taste for games.

The Hardware

While the download is not done, here are some basic details about my hardware:

The “videogame” is left with the 60GB unit. The 320GB HD is Linux-only land. Here’s an overview of its layout:

	ney@nicky:~$ df -HT | grep "Filesystem\|sda"
	Filesystem    Type     Size   Used  Avail Use% Mounted on
	/dev/sda1     ext3      40G   4.1G    34G  11% /
	/dev/sda2     ext3      79G    66G   9.6G  88% /home
	/dev/sda3     ext3     196G   129G    58G  70% /multimedia

I was initially planning to move to ext4, but on second thought I’ve decided to stick with ext3 for now. The only partition that is going to get formatted is the root one, where the OS is to be installed. The bulky partition I call multimedia is where I keep shared media files, including music, videos, movies, books, images etc. I keep a shortcut to it on my Places menu for quick access.

Burning

It has arrived! The Ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso is now lying on my desktop. I inserted a blank CD-R into the CD-ROM drive, right clicked the ISO file and chose ‘Write to Disk…’. I left the speed setting at ‘Maximum’ and that was all.

Wow, that was quick! Before I could finish this part of the description, the drive tray had already popped out. Now, onto the final checks before installing.

Installation

The installation went smooth, as has been the case with all the latest versions of Ubuntu (I remember having some minor ACPI issues with the first or second version I installed.) It took me through the usual steps of choosing language, keyboard layout, timezone and, then, disk partitioning. I chose to manually define the partitioning, since I already had my partitions laid out and only needed to indicate the mounting points, which I did in accordance to the df output shown previously. It’s absolutely important that one makes sure which partitions are marked for formatting. In my case, I only did so for partition #1 (in the end, the swap partition also gets formatted).

After the partitioning is done, the installer asks you for some user information. I filled out the necessary fields, carefully verified the installation summary that is presented afterwards and set things off to start the file copying process.

To be continued…

Having been a Ubuntu user since its 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) release, I am anxiously waiting for its 9.04 incarnation, the Jaunty Jackalope.