[Stephen47]

I have the Ubuntu CD. If I click on Install where does it install and what happens to Windows?

[CouchMaster]

To install as a dual boot with windows you need a seperate partition to put it on - now you can use the partitioning tool on the Linux CD, or use an after market utility like partition magic. If you want to keep Windows just be careful. Linux will shrink the windows partition and make room for itself - I do it all of the time --- but it will use all of the HD if you make a mistake.

[Stephen47]

how much space do I need for Ubuntu?I have 40 GB free space. Does the linux partitioning tool allow me to select the size of the partition?

[CouchMaster]

Yes, the partitioning utility will let you re-size the free space to make a place for Linux. You might want to try 5 or 6 gigs - if you formatted the rest of the free space to FAT32 Linux and Windows both could read and write to it (I'm assuming a NTFS for Windows presently) I just installed ELive on a HD of mine and it took me 3 tries with the partitioning tool (GParted) to get it right. I've never missed with the SuSE partitioning utility but it's getting too bloated for me these days. Anyway, if you have never used it before find a way to practice first.

[Bartender]

I second Couchmaster. Diving into this without prior experience is asking for trouble. Do you have an old HDD laying around you could practice with?

Take a look at aysiu's website. He's spent quite a bit of effort building graphical guides to installing. Start with "Introduction". If you're feeling overwhelmed by the time you get to "Install Desktop CD Ubuntu" then that's a good indication that you might need to research this a little more.
Herman's website is another good source of graphical guides. Both of these guys are Ubuntu enthusiasts who put a lot of time and effort into their guides. I did my first dual-boot (with the Breezy text-based CD, back before there was a LiveCD available) using Herman's "Ubuntu + NTFS" guide. I didn't know what I was doing, just carefully followed his steps and it all worked out. However, the Windows install was fresh, with absolutely no valuable data on it, so the worst that coulda happened was having to start over!
If you have broadband, I'd suggest downloading the GParted LiveCD. This can be done on a Windows PC. Download the CD version, burn to a CD. The end result is a CD that will boot your PC and gives you a great tool for setting up partitions before you dive in with the Ubuntu CD. Actually, the Ubuntu LiveCD's partitioner is the GParted partitioner, but it's a stripped down version.
Defrag the dickens out of your Windows partition, make sure the data is moved over to the left, then reboot, drop in your GParted LiveCD, make a primary partition, formatted as ext3, over on the right side of the disc map. Apply the change, reboot, drop in the Ubuntu CD, follow whatever instructions you have. When you get to the partitioning step, click on manual partitioning and you'll see the same disc map you saw when you were in the GParted LiveCD. I found this to be very confidence-inspiring. Instead of more unknown territory, I could see the changes made previously had worked.

Don't proceed unless you have taken whatever steps you feel are necessary to completely rebuild your Windows data. The directions should work but people have ruined their Windows partitions.

[Stephen47]

Sounds like a true adventure.I am up for it.

[fenderfreek]

Generally you can just resize Windows and install Linux alongside it - the Installer will help you do that. It's not terribly difficult either - sometimes it will complain if you don't defrag your Windows part. enough, but it's usually a cakewalk. You'll want about 6 gigs minimum, to give you some room to play a bit, or if you can spare it, I always make 10 Gb partitions so that I can have total freedom to install pretty much any packages I want.

[Stephen47]

I am looking at the some screen shots at the GParted site. What is /dev/hda1? It also lists the same thing with different numbers. Is there something I could read to help me understand this? I assume dev stands for device and I am guessing the different numbers refer to different partitions.

[Bartender]

/dev = device (a device can be a hard drive, optical drive, USB drive, etc.)
/hda = your first PATA hard drive
1 = first partition on that drive

/dev/hda2 would be the second partition.

/dev/hdb1 would be the first partition on a second hard drive

You'll notice that if you just let Ubuntu install to an entire drive, it'll place the linuxswap partition way out there at "hda5", which seems weird at first but it makes sense. An extended partition is created for swap, and partitions 2, 3, and 4 are left unassigned in case you want to create more primary partitions.

[Stephen47]

by the way is it pronounced oobuntu or youbuntu?

[Stephen47]

One more question. I have a Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card. will I still be able to go wireless with this?

[Bartender]

I've heard oohbuntoo and ooboontoo. Wish I knew which it's supposed to be.

I don't know about the wireless. Try it out and tell us how it goes! My impression is that Broadcom can be ugly, Intel is the easiest. Don't know who makes the "Dell" wireless card.

[Stephen47]

Broadcom which is not good news for me. I'll Keep you posted

[Bartender]

You'll probly be looking for instructions on ndiswrapper. I hear this term all the time. Don't know anything about it because haven't had to deal with wireless yet, but it works for a lot of people.
For instance, here's a How-To on the Broadcom 4318. You've gotta find out exactly which one you've got cause the instructions vary.

Here's one for the 4306.

Stephen, I've got a question for you or anybody else passing by. Aren't the little wireless cards inside of laptops fairly easy to get at? I remember reading a MaximumPC article a few months back that described building a lappy. They just popped the card in thru the back. It looked like there were 2 miniscule wires that you would not want to break, but other than that didn't look bad. If this gets too deep, I wonder how expensive it would be to just swap the Broadcom for an Intel wireless card? In Windows you'd probly have to go thru the hassle of loading different drivers, but I'll bet Ubuntu would recognize the card on the reboot...

OK, found it. Pages 46 & 48 of the April 2006 MaximumPC. They show how to plug in an Intel 2915ABG Mini PCI WiFi card. Newegg doesn't have the Intel 2915ABG in stock right now. Take a look also at Intel's product page. Looks like the newest version, the 3945, won't fit into the same slot as the 2915. Your Dell's card probly the same shape as the 2915.

As I said before, I don't know anything about this so don't want to lead you down the wrong path, but this certainly looks like an option to me if the Broadcom doesn't come around with ndiswrapper...

EDIT: I read the MaximumPC article more closely. The WiFi card socket is buried underneath the keyboard on the lappy they built. Don't know where Dell places theirs.

[Stephen47]

I'll look into it removing the keyboard is not a big deal. I have done it on two laptops I have owned. Is the MaximumPC article online? Thanks for the tips I will check into the ndiswrapper.