[SGVLUG] how to download and install a free linux distribution?

Fri Apr 21 13:43:10 PDT 2017

After successfully removed hard disc as a boot device it booted up to FreeDos Kernel. I saw the Freedos mentioned in the Rufus menu when running it on the usb. 

    On Friday, April 21, 2017 1:20 PM, Jess Bermudes via SGVLUG <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:

 If your motherboard is relatively new, then it might have something called "secure boot" enabled that may prevent Linux distros on external drives from booting. Go into your BIOS/UEFI firmware settings and see if there's anything there like that. Also sometimes in the boot device menu from the motherboard you'll get an option to boot a device in UEFI mode or not, so sometimes choosing the other option works better. I feel like I'm not explaining this properly. Anyone else want to take a stab? Although seeing how you've previously installed fedora I suppose at one time you were successful in getting something installed?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

On Fri, Apr 21, 2017 at 12:54 PM, qun li via SGVLUG <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:

I just downloaded the Ubuntu 16 iso, Ran Rufus on the usb and then copy the iso to the usb. I changed the boot menu to use " removable device" first but when I reboot it still goes to the installed Fedora2 version. 

    On Wednesday, April 19, 2017 4:08 PM, Jess Bermudes via SGVLUG <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:

 So one trap for newbies in this age where nobody has an optical drive anymore is that the ISOs image files provided by the various distros can't simply be copied to a flash drive and booted off of. You need to use a special program to put the image on the flash drive.

Ubuntu provides instructions for Windows:
https://www.ubuntu.com/ download/desktop/create-a-usb- stick-on-windows

And for Mac users:
https://www.ubuntu.com/ download/desktop/create-a-usb- stick-on-macos

These instructions should work even if you're not using Ubuntu's images

On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 2:04 PM, Claude Felizardo via SGVLUG <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:

You may also want to consider setting up for dual boot of linux and windows if you have already paid the windows tax and you still have one or more applications that work better (or only) on windows.  I've done this with just about every laptop I owned.   It's been a while but the last time I looked the distros usually supported this from the install disc.
I have also used VirtualBox first with an online compiler class where the instructor provided a ready-to-go development environment with all the documentation, tools, assignments and test cases; and for work where I have several images for testing one of our products on different platforms.
Claude

On Apr 19, 2017, at 12:02 PM, qun li via SGVLUG <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:
I just want to get a all around Linux on the box as an alternative to my win laptop. I lean towards putting it on the hard drive. 

    On Wednesday, April 19, 2017 10:51 AM, Bryan Backer via SGVLUG <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:

 Do you want to install it on your hard drive? Or just boot linux to try it out?
If you want to just try a distro or two, making a 'livecd' image that is bootable
directly from CD or thumbdrive would probably be a good starting point.That would let you try out a distro without installing. Once you find one youlike,  you could then take the next step and install it on your harddrive,start booting from that.
For instance, at https://wiki.centos.org/ Downloadif you scroll down to the 'Variety of ISO images' sectionyou'll see a discussion of a 'livecd' and what that means.If you see links on that page for 'liveKDE' or 'liveGNOME' theyshould be bootable, runnable without installation setups, differingin their windows manager (KDE vs gnome). 
I'd suggest you give those a try, see what you like, then proceed on
to a real install.

A different alternative for testdriving linux distros is the download virtualboxand run a VM on your system and try linux within that. That is a great way
to test drive but requires a little more robust hardware.

On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 9:41 AM, qun li via SGVLUG <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:

Like Ubuntu etc.? My understanding is download the distribution, get it on an USB and boot on the computer. Is the downloaded distribution bootable without further tingling?Any recommendation other than Ubuntu?

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