Me and You and Ubuntu

(We'll return you to your regular ResearchBuzz topics shortly; I just want to make sure I document this somewhere so other people don't bang their heads into the same wall.)

Where I work we have a tiny two-computer network: Tom Servo and Crow. Tom Servo shares files with Crow and Crow basically acts like a terminal. Crow is very old and has been making weird bootup noises for a while now, but since he doesn't host any files we were just letting him run until he turned in his dinner pail.

One day last week when booting up Crow we discovered that he had a corrupted file as part of his Windows XP operating system, and that we'd need to reinstall the OS. Instead, however, I asked the boss if we could try an Ubuntu Live CD on the computer and see how compatible it was with our office files.

I had heard about Knoppix ages ago, but Live Linux CDs didn't resurface in my brain until recently. A Live Linux CD is a CD that contains an entire operating system that you can run from a CD. Put the CD in the machine, boot it up, and away you go on that operating system. Well, kinda, but more about that in a minute. So if you're curious about Linux but you don't want to install an operating system, this is an option. (Bryan Hoff has a marvelous overview of Live Linux CDs and a few of your options in this article.) And as I've mentioned in the last couple of weeks I've been hearing waterfalls of buzz about Ubuntu.

I downloaded the Live CD for Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with KDE packages. This took quite a while as it's 642 MB. The one file is an .ISO file. I put a blank CD in the drive, used Windows the burn the ISO image onto a CD, took it to an experimental computer, and --

>GASP!<

nothing happened. It failed. Went into the computer's BIOS, made sure booting from the CD was the first option, gabba gabba hey, and the computer still insisted on booting straight to Windows.

I made sure the download was complete and burned it onto a different CD. Same thing.

I got on Google and started looking. And just to bring this marginally back on-topic, this is why sometimes I fall on my face when searching -- I don't know the vocabulary. No matter how I tried to express my problem, all the support pages I was getting dealt with some issue of running Ubuntu -- it was assumed that you could get a Live CD burned and going. Sometimes (like in legal and medical searches) you can learn enough of the vocabulary to get by and help you find that for which you are searching. For tech, especially since the words change so much, it's a lot harder.

Among the buckets of buzz about Ubuntu was a mention from my friend Dan, and he's a pretty geeky guy, so I e-mailed him and explained my problem. Dan's excellent tech vocabulary uncovered an Ed Bott article about CD burning from 2003. Furthermore, he also discovered that Windows XP out the box can't burn bootable CDs with ISO images.

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere on the Kubuntu site, so it's either not there or I missed it. So Windows XP users, if you're wondering, "How do I make a Live CD with Windows XP?" YOU CAN'T DO IT WITH JUST WINDOWS XP.

Instead you'll need an called ISO Recorder, available at http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm. It's free, though donations are accepted. This is a quick utility that allows you to burn ISO discs. I downloaded it, tried it out, and voila, a Kubuntu Live CD.

Not that there weren't a couple of snags. Say, you have a test computer with a DVD drive and a CD-ROM drive. Say, one drive has Kubuntu and one drive has, say, "Emperor, Rise of the Middle Kingdom". Kubuntu threw a series of little OS diva tantrums and refused to mount the CD-ROM drive (it kept saying the Ubuntu disc wasn't there) until I took out the Emperor CD and put it away. So if you're having the same problem make sure that only the Kubuntu disc is in your CD/DVD drives.

I found that Kubuntu also ran a tich slowly, especially when starting up applications, then I reminded myself that OF COURSE IT'S RUNNING A LITTLE SLOW EVERYTHING'S COMING OFF THE CD. As my niece says, "Hello??"

I'm going to try running Kubuntu with Crow today, and will keep you updated over at WRAL Tech Talk, with an eye to writing some basic instructions for getting going with Kubuntu for those who are curious about Linux. I just wanted to make sure I documented the solved problem (thanks again Dan) and a couple of little technical oddities over here.

We now return you to your semi-regular programming...

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