# Hopping over to ubuntu HowTo



## Xaevo (Nov 2, 2009)

Ok guys, i wanted to make a tiny tutorial for the people who are curious about Ubuntu 9.10.

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*You can try before you throw windows away! just follow the tutorial!*
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There are TWO possibilities to try Ubuntu,
*Wubi*
one solution is called *Wubi*, wich creates a virtual harddisk and makes ubuntu installed on that new partition,
and dualbooting your pc.

*Live CD*
Trying ubuntu Straight from the USB Stick!
_This is the method i will be explaining._

There we go!

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1. Download UNetbootin


If using Windows, run the file, select the *Distribution Ubuntu 9.10_Live* option select a target drive (*A FAT32 formatted USB stick with 2GB space*), then reboot once done.






After rebooting, if you created a Live USB drive by selecting "USB Drive" as your install target, press the appropriate button (usually F1, F2, F12, ESC, or backspace) while your computer is starting up to get to your BIOS boot menu and select USB drive as the startup target; otherwise if there's no boot selection option, go to the BIOS setup menu and change the startup order to boot USB by default. Otherwise, if you did a "frugal install" by selecting "Hard Disk" as your install target, select the UNetbootin entry from the Windows Boot Menu as the system boots up.
2. Now you should see a menu, press "Standard"
3. you should see the Ubuntu desktop now!
* You can try ubuntu in this mode, if you want to install, click on Install Ubuntu 9.10 on the desktop*
4. Follow the instructions!

Tuduu, you're using linux!


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## Tovarich Volk (Nov 2, 2009)

I've had good results with the Ubuntu distros from 7.10 onwards on desktop machines. I had a machine running continuously with 8.04 from last September until this past April with no problems, and it would have continued running had it not be for a T-Storm that knocked the power out. 

However my main bitch with Ubuntu as well as other Linux distros that I have used is that advanced power management features for notebook systems (speed stepping, Hibernate function, Etc.) is just as lacking now as it was when I first used Linux 10 years ago. -- Once that is taken care of I will gladly make a full migration to Linux.


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## ToeClaws (Nov 2, 2009)

Nice post TechieWuf - I would also suggest cut/pasting this into the Linux sticky threads.   Readers - if you are new to Linux, I suggest having a look at those threads too.

I would recommend the LiveCD over the USB stick just because booting from USB can be a chore for a lot of machines depending on how the recognize and use the USB port in terms of "a drive".  Newer systems are pretty smart and don't need as much help, but older ones may require that you reorder boot sequences in BIOS.  Kind of a daunting task for someone not savvy in BIOS play.

Also, UNETbootin is an awesome piece of software!  I was just showing a co-worker here how to use it not 10 minutes before seeing this thread.   The perk of it is that it can be used to make any ISO into a bootable USB stick.  Besides Ubuntu, you can do this for Mint, Puppy, Fedora, Mepis... etc, etc.


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## Xaevo (Nov 2, 2009)

LiveCD failed for me with 9.10 that's why i am recommending USB stick

*The boot order needs to be setted at your HDD, expand the Hard Disk drive order menu, and select your USB stick (at least, in my bios...)*


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## Sinjo (Nov 2, 2009)

You do realize that this thread is going to eventually sink to forum oblivion, right?

More than likely, if anyone wants help with any linux OS, they're going to google it.

I'd also like to point out, anyone who is going to be installing linux _-should-_ already know how to do this.


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## ToeClaws (Nov 2, 2009)

Sinjo said:


> You do realize that this thread is going to eventually sink to forum oblivion, right?
> 
> More than likely, if anyone wants help with any linux OS, they're going to google it.
> 
> I'd also like to point out, anyone who is going to be installing linux _-should-_ already know how to do this.



I couldn't help but hear that spoken in Megabyte's voice when I read it.  Seemed rather fitting.


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## fwLogCGI (Nov 2, 2009)

TechieWolf said:


> LiveCD failed for me with 9.10 that's why i am recommending USB stick


What did you use to burn the CD?
And was there anything wrong with the CD?


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## Sinjo (Nov 2, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> I couldn't help but hear that spoken in Megabyte's voice when I read it.  Seemed rather fitting.


oh god, I hear it now too.


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## Xaevo (Nov 2, 2009)

fwLogCGI said:


> What did you use to burn the CD?
> And was there anything wrong with the CD?


PowerISO, and the cd seemed fine, no scratches


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## ToeClaws (Nov 2, 2009)

TechieWolf said:


> LiveCD failed for me with 9.10 that's why i am recommending USB stick
> 
> *The boot order needs to be setted at your HDD, expand the Hard Disk drive order menu, and select your USB stick (at least, in my bios...)*





TechieWolf said:


> PowerISO, and the cd seemed fine, no scratches



Odd - though I would say that a LiveCD not booting is a rarity compared to issues with USBs booting.  If they have to go in and change BIOS settings, that's going to be a scary experience for a novice, but then, Sinjo had a damn good point that if the user is _that_ green, then they best get more comfortable with computers before moving on to custom OS stuff.


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## Sinjo (Nov 2, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> Odd - though I would say that a LiveCD not booting is a rarity compared to issues with USBs booting.  If they have to go in and change BIOS settings, that's going to be a scary experience for a novice, but then, Sinjo had a damn good point that if the user is _that_ green, then they best get more comfortable with computers before moving on to custom OS stuff.


Yea, even the easiest to use Linux Distros are hard for newbies.


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## ToeClaws (Nov 2, 2009)

Sinjo said:


> Yea, even the easiest to use Linux Distros are hard for newbies.



I dunno - point of context there; say the person is new to computers, never used one before.  Using Windows, the MacOS, or Linux would all be about as daunting.  Just depends what you know.  For most folks, they've used Windows at some point, so it's the one thing they're kinda/sorta familiar with, thus learning anything different is a bit of a challenge at first, but not that bad nowadays.  I installed Ubuntu on a computer for a retired couple that are neighbours, and they seemed to figure it out just fine.  *shrugs* All comes down to how well one adapts or not.


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## ArielMT (Nov 11, 2009)

Sinjo said:


> You do realize that this thread is going to eventually sink to forum oblivion, right?



Not if it's stickied.  Wow, I'm slacking.  =(



Sinjo said:


> More than likely, if anyone wants help with any linux OS, they're going to google it.



True, but a brief overview of trying it out without giving up Windows doesn't hurt.


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## Runefox (Nov 11, 2009)

Sinjo said:


> More than likely, if anyone wants help with any linux OS, they're going to google it.



Same with any other OS/problem. Yet they post here still.


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## ToeClaws (Nov 11, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Same with any other OS/problem. Yet they post here still.



Aww, come on now - if everyone used Google properly, you, me and everyone else around here would never have any fun debunking things and going post crazy. :mrgreen:

Okay, so on topic - Once you have Ubuntu (or any Ubuntu derivative) installed, one program I recommend getting is called Ubuntu Tweak.  This is an awesome little application that puts a lot of hidden or tricky tweaks in an easy to use GUI interface.  It also provides a ton of third-party repository sources that you can enable to get additional themes, newer programs, and extra software in general over the normal offerings.  The site has easy instructions on how to install it.

Other handy things that you should do after installing is get a bunch of the restricted stuff installed.  By default, Ubuntu does not install a lot of proprietary and/or restricted software so that it stays in-line with the ideology of a completely "free" OS.  You can add these later yourself - and I highly recommend you do if you want to view most online videos, run Java, see flash, etc.  Follow these instructions (clicky) to add the medibuntu repositories, then you'll be ready to get all the restricted/proprietary stuff.  You can do this one of two ways:

*Command Line:* Open up a terminal and type the following (press enter after each line)...

```
sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras
```

Answer Y (yes) to any prompts and let it do its thing.  

*GUI:* Click on System-->Administration-->Synaptic Package Manager.  When it finishes loading, click on the "Search" button and enter "ubuntu restricted extras".  After a moment, it will bring up a few close matches, one of which is the obvious one - click on it to put a checkmark on it, then click on the "Apply" button in the top menu bar.

If you installed Mint (a Ubuntu derivative), the restricted extras are part of the default install and you will not need to do this. 

What the hell is a "GUI" you might ask? Well you'll be hearing that term a lot, so if you don't already know, it means Graphics User Interface.  Basically the pretty graphical window-ish system you normally use in modern OS's.  Just about everything is GUI-based nowadays, but all OS's, Windows included, have Command Line utilities that in many cases are much more powerful than the GUI ones.  My advice to anyone wanting to try Linux is to not be afraid of the Command Line - though you will not likely use it much, it's very useful and much easier for certain tasks.

If the Command Line terrifies you... then you might want to rethink your choice of leaving the world of Windows (though even in Windows you still need the command line for real troubleshooting).


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## Sinjo (Nov 11, 2009)

ArielMT said:


> Not if it's stickied.  Wow, I'm slacking.  =(
> 
> 
> 
> True, but a brief overview of trying it out without giving up Windows doesn't hurt.


I lol'd Sticking this POS. I could start a thread with just a link to the installer, it's that freaking easy to use. I don't think you should be telling people to install ubuntu; they'll instlal it, come into a driver problem and be like 'OMG WTF IS THIS BULLSHIT'

any version of linux needs an advanced comprehension of computers, giving an easy how to guide is like handing an infant a gun. They may be able to hold it and fire it, bu they sure as hell can't aim. I'm surprised you haven't gotten complaints about people formatting. There isn't even an installation guide on here.


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## Runefox (Nov 11, 2009)

Sinjo said:


> I lol'd Sticking this POS. I could start a thread with just a link to the installer, it's that freaking easy to use. I don't think you should be telling people to install ubuntu; they'll instlal it, come into a driver problem and be like 'OMG WTF IS THIS BULLSHIT'


Uh... You realize that this is for running the LiveCD off a USB stick, which is a little more advanced than "burn CD, boot, install". Not everyone knows how to make the LiveCD bootable from a USB drive.



> There isn't even an installation guide on here.


That's because that's not the point of the topic. Misleading title is misleading, but reading comprehension is a good skill to have.

Anyway, this topic is what I was looking for about a year ago when my laptop's CD-ROM drive decided that it wasn't going to read anymore. I did get it working, but this would have saved me a bit of time looking for it. I'd actually suggest compiling a list of HOWTO's to link to/place into this topic rather than having the LiveUSB bit the only part, just to round it out a little.


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## WarMocK (Nov 11, 2009)

Sinjo said:


> Yea, even the easiest to use Linux Distros are hard for newbies.


Meh, please do not compare a modern LiveCD to the ones that were used a few years ago. Many things have changed since then, and honestly: if the Live-CD has all the drivers it needs to support the hardware, a mainstream Linux installation is not that much more complicated than a standard Windows installation (if it's more complicated at all).
What I can tell so far from experiences I had with people who wanted to give Linux a try is that they feel kinda helpless because Linux is that "different" from Windows. They feel helpless as a little child, and when they ask a question like "Where is the C-Drive?" in a common linux chan or forum they get laughed at instead of getting told the difference between Linux and Windows when it comes to drive management. Personally I tend to say that this is the main reason that scares most people off immediately and drives them back into using windows again.


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## Sinjo (Nov 11, 2009)

WarMocK said:


> Meh, please do not compare a modern LiveCD to the ones that were used a few years ago. Many things have changed since then, and honestly: if the Live-CD has all the drivers it needs to support the hardware, a mainstream Linux installation is not that much more complicated than a standard Windows installation (if it's more complicated at all).
> What I can tell so far from experiences I had with people who wanted to give Linux a try is that they feel kinda helpless because Linux is that "different" from Windows. They feel helpless as a little child, and when they ask a question like "Where is the C-Drive?" in a common linux chan or forum they get laughed at instead of getting told the difference between Linux and Windows when it comes to drive management. Personally I tend to say that this is the main reason that scares most people off immediately and drives them back into using windows again.


Wait, back up. When did I compare a live cd to  old distros?

ooooh, I didn't.

Get the fuck out, elitist tart.



Runefox said:


> Uh... You realize that this is for running the LiveCD off a USB stick, which is a little more advanced than "burn CD, boot, install". Not everyone knows how to make the LiveCD bootable from a USB drive.
> 
> 
> That's because that's not the point of the topic. Misleading title is misleading, but reading comprehension is a good skill to have.
> ...


Like I said, the program that he linked easily downloads and installs most Linux distros. FVery true about the title, this should be called 'how to try out ubuntu'


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## WarMocK (Nov 11, 2009)

Sinjo said:


> Wait, back up. When did I compare a live cd to  old distros?


[ ] You understood that I was comparing newer Live-CDs with older ones.


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## Sinjo (Nov 11, 2009)

WarMocK said:


> [ ] You understood that I was comparing newer Live-CDs with older ones.


Let me fix that for you.

When did I compare current livecds to old livecds.


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## WarMocK (Nov 11, 2009)

Sinjo said:


> Let me fix that for you.
> 
> When did I compare current livecds to old livecds.


Most distros are shipped as Live-CDs so users can get a first impression before they decide whether they should install the OS or not. Back in the earlier days, you could be glad if the CD started at all unless you knew how to edit the booting parameters properly (which is beyond the capabilities of a common Linux newbie), now that's very unusual.


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## Sinjo (Nov 11, 2009)

WarMocK said:


> Most distros are shipped as Live-CDs so users can get a first impression before they decide whether they should install the OS or not. Back in the earlier days, you could be glad if the CD started at all unless you knew how to edit the booting parameters properly (which is beyond the capabilities of a common Linux newbie), now that's very unusual.


Please don't edit my posts.

there was nothing wrong with it.

Regardless, where did I do the comparison?


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## WarMocK (Nov 11, 2009)

You claimed that even the easiest Linux distros are hard for newbies. This is not true anymore. They got as easy as they could get for a newbie when it comes to linux, unlike the earlier versions. I never said that you compared them, I compared them to show the evolution and improvement Linux made in the past four years.


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## net-cat (Nov 11, 2009)

Gentlemen. Might I suggest that you _both_ discontinue this discussion?


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## WarMocK (Nov 11, 2009)

</discussion>


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## Ruko (Nov 25, 2009)

Ubuntu in many aspects, is just as easy (if not more so) to use/install than the modern windows derivatives. Not sure why a thread like this needed to be made let alone stickied. 

All of the issues brought up on the first page (live cd issues, drive incompatibility etc) have all been resolved at least since 2007.


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## ToeClaws (Nov 25, 2009)

Ruko said:


> Ubuntu in many aspects, is just as easy (if not more so) to use/install than the modern windows derivatives. Not sure why a thread like this needed to be made let alone stickied.
> 
> All of the issues brought up on the first page (live cd issues, drive incompatibility etc) have all been resolved at least since 2007.



Never under-estimate the power of n00b.


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## Sinjo (Nov 25, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> Never under-estimate the power of n00b.


Do we need to go over how noobs shouldn't install any distro of linux again?


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## ToeClaws (Nov 25, 2009)

Sinjo said:


> Do we need to go over how noobs shouldn't install any distro of linux again?



Only if you make a catchy song about it.


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## Axelfox (Dec 9, 2009)

TechieWolf said:


> Ok guys, i wanted to make a tiny tutorial for the people who are curious about Ubuntu 9.10.
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> *You can try before you throw windows away! just follow the tutorial!*
> ...



Of course i was reading blogs last night and most of them said bad stuff about Linux,like your ethernet card may not work.


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## ToeClaws (Dec 9, 2009)

Axelfox said:


> Of course i was reading blogs last night and most of them said bad stuff about Linux,like your ethernet card may not work.



As of earlier this year, Linux became the OS that natively supports more drivers and devices than any other OS.  That said, yes - there's still a chance the Ethernet driver (or any other driver for that matter) might not work.  There's less of that chance than with any other OS, but main difference is that manufacturers readily provide drivers for Windows, but not always for other OS's, so getting a driver can be the trickier affair.

That said, I have never encountered a desktop or laptop class Ethernet driver that was unsupported, even by a small Linux distro like Puppy Linux.  This is also why a LiveCD is such a cool thing - you can boot up your desktop or laptop on Linux and see if things work or not without ever having to install it.


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## Renacance (Dec 31, 2009)

Alright, I'm starting to see this conversation skew. And there are quite a few things that every single one of you have wrong about Linux. First of all, the Linux kernel was built to utilize every piece of hardware on a computer, if it doesn't, you have a broken distro. Second, why are any of you talking about puppy Linux? Yeah, it's a great os, but this discussion was built around ubuntu. And I challenge any one of you to tell me what makes puppy Linux so unique. 

Yes, that entire paragraph was a skew in itself


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## Toaster (Dec 31, 2009)

If you can't even install ubuntu, I don't think you should be using linux. It is too simple.


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## Runefox (Dec 31, 2009)

Renacance said:


> First of all, the Linux kernel was built to utilize every piece of hardware on a computer, if it doesn't, you have a broken distro.


... Wha?

Linux, the kernel, requires kernel modules - either built-in or loaded externally - to be built in order to take advantage of any hardware the system happens to have, some of which may have been obscure enough not to have been included with the distro by default, or perhaps are only available in binary form (ATI/NVidia unless you want the rudimentary OS driver), or not available at all and require special wrappers (some wireless/ndiswrapper). Some drivers have been only recently been introduced (X-Fi, though that was a little while ago now), and some drivers just don't exist (some webcams, some capture cards, good open source drivers for video cards, etc).

The kernel itself doesn't know how to make use of everything out there, though Linux itself does a damned good job of identifying hardware, even outside of what it actually supports (lspci).


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## Rhetorica (Mar 18, 2010)

(If for some reason you did want a kernel that seems to autodetect all hardware ever no matter what you ask it to do, NetBSD is great!)


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## Tetragnostica (Mar 18, 2010)

Rhetorica said:


> (If for some reason you did want a kernel that seems to autodetect all hardware ever no matter what you ask it to do, NetBSD is great!)



Gentoo's genkernel ( http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/genkernel.xml ) is another option to avoid module selection.  Though... to be honest, there is nothing sexier than a stripped down kernel.


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## Ricky (Mar 19, 2010)

Just installed Ubuntu 9.10 on my new HP Pavillion laptop I got (DV6-2155DX).  It came with Windows 7 and I was sure to immediately remove this as soon as I got home.  I've usually used Debian but the hardware is new and I've always heard Ubuntu is good with newer hardware so I decided to go with that.

HAH!

The video didn't even work on the installer; it went to a black screen and died unless I put it in "Safe Graphics Mode".  Afterwards, when I tried to set xorg.conf to use the intel drivers it fucking died again; no video at all (there was no sound, either).  I had to upgrade the kernel (I'm on 2.6.33 now) and do an update using the xorg-edgers repo in order to get video to work (had to search the net for that recommendation.  I guess the Arrandale chipset is pretty new though so maybe it's no big surprise).

So, I was happy to get this working after like an hour of upgrading shit and then I clicked on the hardware manager which found my Wi-Fi card!  I was so happy, and surprised -- I was thinking "wow, a GUI hardware wizard on Linux! Can it be?" and felt all spoiled.  I go to run it just to have it tell me "there was an error" and go scour through log files.  dkms wouldn't load it either when I tried to through Bash.

It turns out there were two bugs (I'm guessing related to the upgrades) where a hard-coded file path was incorrect and in another file a header was missing that contained a function declaration (I'm guessing it was moved to its own file at some point).  After manually editing the source files and rebuilding the module I finally got wifi support and that about wraps it up.

Linux is really fucking easy to install if you have hardware that's been around a few years.  Just put in the CD and keep hitting "next".  It can definitely be a bitch for newer hardware though, even on the more updated distros.

Still fucking better than Windows.


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## ToeClaws (Jun 10, 2010)

Handy link for y'all - this is a beginner's guide to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, free digital book published by the Ubuntu Manual project: 

http://distrowatch.tradepub.com/free/w_ubun01/pf/w_ubun01.pdf

Most of the good info in here can also be applied to any of the Linux versions based on Ubuntu 10.04 (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint 9, Mythbuntu, etc.)


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## michaelgabrielr (Mar 16, 2012)

I'm kind of hesitant to use use Ubuntu, since I bricked my old laptop with it.
I used the Ubuntu Windows installer to dual-boot the thing.
One day I decided to just uninstall it but GRUB refused to boot Windows XP after partition merge.
I can't take the easy way out of making a boot CD, because my CD drive got broken and my old tools for making a pendrive bootable don't seem to work under Windows 7.
Is there any way I could McGyver myself out of this and un-brick my old laptop?


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## Ikrit (Mar 16, 2012)

michaelgabrielr said:


> I'm kind of hesitant to use use Ubuntu, since I bricked my old laptop with it.
> I used the Ubuntu Windows installer to dual-boot the thing.
> One day I decided to just uninstall it but GRUB refused to boot Windows XP after partition merge.
> I can't take the easy way out of making a boot CD, because my CD drive got broken and my old tools for making a pendrive bootable don't seem to work under Windows 7.
> Is there any way I could McGyver myself out of this and un-brick my old laptop?


my first boot was with a flash drive, ever try that?


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## Elim Garak (Mar 16, 2012)

michaelgabrielr said:


> I'm kind of hesitant to use use Ubuntu, since I bricked my old laptop with it.
> I used the Ubuntu Windows installer to dual-boot the thing.
> One day I decided to just uninstall it but GRUB refused to boot Windows XP after partition merge.
> I can't take the easy way out of making a boot CD, because my CD drive got broken and my old tools for making a pendrive bootable don't seem to work under Windows 7.
> Is there any way I could McGyver myself out of this and un-brick my old laptop?


You did it wrong, and GRUB is pretty easily fixed.
For the other question:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/create-a-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive-the-easy-way/


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