Installing Ubuntu under Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server results in hard to view text stretched and distorted so that only half of the screen is visible. The lower half of the screen, where you type, isn't displayed so you don't know what you're typing.

At the first installation screen, press F4 and select 640x480x32. This will correct the video during the installation process.

After installation, the problem may continue when booting your system up for the first time. Other than editing your x11.conf file (previous post) you can also remove the 'splash' keyword from your grub bootup file. This is handy for server based setups with no x11 installed. Since you can't see what you're typing, you have to type the following carefully and hope you got it right. If in doubt, you can hit enter several times to bring the text from the lower part of the screen (not visible) up to the top half of the screen (visible).

• Allow system to bootup until you feel all services are started and ready and there is likely a command prompt for login credentials.
• Type the userid you supplied during the Ubuntu installation, press enter
• Type the password you supplied during the installation, press enter
• Type 'sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst', press enter
• Type the password you supplied during the installation, press enter {2nd time}
• Type '/splash', press enter {this will search for the string 'splash' in the file}
• Type '//', press enter {this will search for the next occurance of 'splash'}
• Press the [end] key to go to the end of the line
• Press the [a] key to enter edit mode
• Use the backspace key to delete the word 'splash'
• Press [esc] to go back to command mode
• Type ':wq' to write the file and quit the vi editor
• Type 'sudo shutdown -r now' to reboot the system.

Your video should be ok once again.

Quick and dirty Google Earth install for Ubuntu desktop distro:

wget -c http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
sudo sh GoogleEarthLinux.bin
sudo cp /usr/local/google-earth/googleearth.desktop /usr/share/applications/
sudo chmod 777 -R ~/.googleearth

Ubuntu video problem.

The only problem I had after install was with the video. Ubuntu correctly detected the Intel 810/815 video chipset and Samsung LCD. It set my resolution to 1280x1024 which should have been ok (that's the same resolution I use in Windows XP). However there were these funny lines across the screen, like thin lines of static or snow. Reducing the screen res to 1024x768 made them go away but I was determined to run 1280x1024 in Ubuntu just like in Windows XP. To fix the resolution problem I eventually found the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. In the "Screen" Section you need to adjust the DefaultDepth entry downward a byte from 24 to 16:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Intel Corporation 82815 CGC [Chipset Graphics Controller]"
Monitor "SyncMaster"
DefaultDepth 16

Screen resolution is now fine at 1280x1024.

Ubuntu. Installed.

The install was excellent. Simple, easy to understand, and all the basics of a desktop system are included. Having a knowledge of partitions made it easy, but if you're installing a dual boot Linux/Windows system I'd make sure you spend the time to get the partitions right.

1) don't screw up your existing Windows partitions. Shrink them, fine, but don't reorder or delete anything.
2) remember you should use a linux swap partition (as opposed to a linux swap file which is just that - a file that resides within your linux system partition). I allowed for 2048 mb swap partition.
3) remember to dedicate a data partition used for sharing files with the Windows and Linux operating systems. Safer than reaching into your Windows system drive from within Linux to manipulate/copy/move/edit files.

Here's a summary of my Windows XP and Ubuntu partitions:

Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15505 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 15505 117217768+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 5864 47102548+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb2 5865 9468 28949130 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 9469 9729 2096482+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

From this we can determine that:

/dev/hda1 is my Windows XP Pro drive "C:"
/dev/hdb1 is the Windows XP data partition ("D:")
/dev/hdb2 is the Ubuntu installation partition
/dev/hdb3 is the Ubuntu swap partition

The Add/Remove applications is feature is simply awesome. Why doesn't Windows have something this easy to add or remove software automatically from the 'web? Thousands of packages, so many to choose from. I added in what I thought would be half the internet but my full Linux install is still amazing compact. The complete opposite of my last 15 GB Windows Vista RC1 install that did not include drivers for either the Intel 810/815 chipset or a 3com network adapter! I eventually found drivers for the NIC (which was hard to install without network connectivity!) but never did get the Intel Video running. Vista defaulted back to 800x600 SVGA. But just for the record - I do enjoy working within the Vista GUI and anxiously await the sidebar applet market to explode with offerings. But 15 GB ?? Microsoft is going to have some serious installation cleanup to do before the RTM version.

But I digress. Back to Ubuntu.

Setting up an HP DeskJet 842C printer was a piece of cake as well. Simply File Print Add+ from any application that prints. Tests ok.

Setting up a Canon N650U scanner was equally easy. No searching for drivers, just select it from a list. Tests ok.

The Big Question.

Some people are not content having what everyone else has. Sometimes they want something better than the common average. An object that others will notice. An object that others may also want but cannot have. You can see it everyday, anywhere you go. A gucci watch flashed very unmodestly when asked for the time. The Beamer or Hummer weaving in and out of traffic during the afternoon commute. He's not in rush, but enjoys the attention of making people look.

I, and probably you too, live in a Windows world. The family PCs - Windows XP Home. The work PC - Windows XP Professional with a backend myriad of mostly Windows servers. The mobile phone and PDA - Windows Mobile. The PVR - a Windows XP HTPC box. The TV set top box - Windows CE. Even our mini van has at one point been outfitted with Windows XP Pro and a console-mounted touchscreen on the dash. Consistency, I love it. All the devices work mostly the same. They look the same. They act the same. They feel the same.


Then something happened that made me stop, remember, and think. A techie peer mentioned they had installed Ubuntu Linux on their laptop. What ?? Hours of quiet contemplation followed.

Lets roll back about 13 years. This was during a time of my final years at a technical institute earning a Computer Technology diploma. They advertised that they teach the skills "you need now to succeed in industry". Being young, naive, and never having had a career at that point I balked. DOS is dead I proclaimed! Chicago (Windows 95 codename of the day) will be coming soon! Visual Basic is the Rapid Application Development tool of next year! The world will soon revolve around a GUI, not a command prompt! The instructors shook their heads. One actually told me I was too creative and should think more traditionally.

Around this time, a friend handed me 14 1.44MB floppy diskettes.
"It's LIE-NIX...", he said.
I looked at the disks, looked at his eyes, and searched for some guidance within them. It's what? And why do I want it? 14 floppy insertions and an entire bag of red cinnamon jelly candies later I had a working Linux PC. At this point, I had reached the proverbial fork-in-the-road.

It was too much like DOS I thought to myself, and abandoned the brief excitement I felt after seeing linux boot for the first time.

Over the years I've had occasional reintroductions to Linux (and learned to pronounce it "LiNUX" . In '95 I found a bargain bin book introducing Linux and it included a CD. I read the book reviewing all the commands but never did install it.

In '96 the users in the 28000 person strong telco I work at frequently got ahold of their Windows NT4 adminstrator password. Most of them inevitably messed something up after granting themselves admin rights and of course had forgotten what they had changed the original administrator password to. An interest in computer security, combined with the above problem, brought me to some websites of interest. I downloaded a linux boot disk that succeeded in booting the afflicted PC's, restoring the default administrator password within the SAM file on a secured NTFS partition, and voila the PC's were in full working order within seconds.

I became successful at work whizzing through arcane console prompts, changing and cracking passwords, using dd to restore partition mbr's, etc. Linux became a tool I used from time to time that no one else really wanted to touch. They were comfortable in their Windows worlds and saw no need to leave it. When really needed they called upon a messenger, myself, to route around the Linux underground looking for obscure solutions.

As I graduated around the company to bigger and better jobs I gained plenty of experience with other O/S's. The emergency system I supported for several years was a hybrid combination of VMS and Microsoft Windows 2000 spread amongst several hosts. Also, a Call Tracing application fell under my watch and it ran under HPUX 10. While I wasn't directly responsible for the O/S's, maintaining and updating the applications required my Unix and VMS skillsets to improve. Which they did.

But never once did I run Linux as a desktop or server operating system. Linux was always at arms reach. Relegated to a loyal servant called upon in moments of great need but shunned when not needed. It was just a boot disk or a server host I'd telnet to occasionally and that's it.

Ubuntu. I'm curious. Why? How? Linux on the desktop? Nah... but I wonder if the interface might be cool. Maybe its changed since last seen several years ago? I do Windows, but so does everyone else. A little Googling later I was very interested. There are so many distro's out now! They read like an evolutionary timeline. Different lines of distro's have merged, they've spawned new distro's with a combination of characteristics from both parents. Other distro's have mutated and succeeded where others couldn't. This thing is getting big. But the really big question is can Ubuntu do everything, and I mean everything, that I need it to do?

At that point, I picked a Linux distro, Ubuntu, and downloaded the .iso file. Burned it. I'm going to install it.