Open Source - Linux and Video on a Laptop

Upgrading to Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy Badger

Marghanita da Cruz

This page describes the process I used to upgrade Ubuntu in January 2006. See my latest entry. My previous experience with Linux is at Linux Log No. 1 Knoppix and Linux Log No. 2 AV. I have recently returned from a trip to Goa, where I relied on other people's personal computers and Internet Cafes and had to revert to using MSWindows 98 to XP.

I still have my laptop set up as a dual boot system - Knoppix on the main partition and Ubuntu on a secondary one. I use Ubuntu primarily for accessing and editing the photos and video from my Canon MVX250i - see Linux Log No. 2 AV for more about that.

I was given the PCWorld January 06 DVD - which contained Ubuntu version 5.10 Breezy Badger in the file ubuntu_5.iso. The instructions said this file had to be converted to a Bootable Install CD. After discovering that this did not mean copying the file to a CD, I discovered there was an option of "Write ISO Image" under Tools, in K3b provided in Knoppix. This utility unpacks the .iso file and creates the bootable installation disk.

WARNING: The INSTALLATION or UPGRADE of any OPERATING SYSTEM, which Ubuntu is, is NOT A TRIVIAL TASK. As such, it SHOULD be EMBARKED UPON with a complete RISK ASSESSMENT and RECOVERY STRATEGY in PLACE.

Before starting the upgrade, it is useful to have your disk partitioned and free space available for Ubuntu. I have provided about 6GB of my 30GB disk. The installation program will create the partition and swap space. It gives you various options, including overwriting the whole disk and using the free space. There are also options to write over currently used partitions - though I felt this approach was a bit risky, at a stroke I could overwrite the wrong partition. The programme also creates a swap disk - it did not recognise or use the existing knoppix one - this can probably be done manually - but unfortunately the disk space has already been assigned.

The other point I learnt in setting up my laptop for dual booting - ie providing a choice of operating systems when it is booting up. I configured lilo manually from Knoppix. So, I skipped the offer by the Ubuntu installation program to install Grub and the option to install LILO.

Once you have the above background items in mind, it is just a matter of putting the bootable installation CD in the drive and rebooting the machine and answering the questions about Time Zone and Username.

The programme detects your hardware (it is useful to have all bits in place - I had my firewire cable, ethernet (providing an Internet connection) and removable PCMCIA disk attached. I did not have my USB printer or camera attached also.

Manual Configuration of LILO

I did this after the Ubuntu installation aborted at installing a boot loader.

1. In order to avoid confusion between the Knoppix and Ubuntu images, which are both pointed to by "/vmlinuz" and /initrd.img on their respective disks, I made a copy of the Ubuntu ones which in my case were on partition hda3. In my case from the Knoppix on partition hda1 and with the Ubuntu partition mounted on hda3, the commands were:
   cd /mnt/hda3/ (to get to ubuntu disk top level)
   cp vmlinuz -d vmlinuz-ubuntu (-d is critical to preserve link)
   cp initrd.img -d initrd.img (-d is critical to preserve link)
2. These "files" and the images they point to then have to be copied to the Knoppix Disk.
   cp /mnt/hda3/vmlinuz-ubuntu -d /mnt/hda1/vmlinuz-ubuntu
   cp /mnt/hda3/initrd-ubuntu.img -d /mnt/hda1/initrd-ubuntu.img
   The actual image files had to be copied also (the version numbers make the image unique - but it is a good idea to check the copy does not overwrite existing images):
   cp /mnt/hda3/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-9-386 /mnt/hda1/boot/
   cp /mnt/hda3/boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-9-386 /mnt/hda1/boot/
3. Next the following lines were added to /etc/lilo.conf
   image=/vmlinuz-ubuntu
   label=Ubuntu-hda3
   root=/dev/hda3
   read-write
   initrd=/initrd-ubuntu.img
4. Then lilo was run - and reported two options it had added Knoppix-hda1 and Ubuntu-hda3
5. Ensuring the Ubuntu bootable installation CD was not in the drive, when the laptop was rebooted - two options now appeared. Selecting the Ubuntu option booted Ubuntu and it then completed its installation procedure.

I then installed Kino which now provided audio in the edit mode and as before capture from the MVX250i over Firewire (only when run as root) - but the editing of my Goa video is another chapter still unfolding. Ubuntu uses Gnome, so KDE has to be downloaded/installed later. The Gimp and Totem were available in the base package (from the distribution image) but not k3b, the KDE desktop or Kaffeine.

At this stage, the decision to switch over to Ubuntu (from Knoppix) is dependent on me changing from Mozilla mail and transferring my data. I haven't tested Open Office, the ftp or Firefox - but do not anticipate these will be stumbling blocks. The restricted access to the root/os prompt may be.

Email comments and questions to marghanita@ramin.com.au

www.ramin.com.au/linux/linux-log3.html © Ramin Communications 2007. Last modified 17 September 2008.