# Ubuntu: Convince me to switch. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2007, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527 "2007-09-09T04:48:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/21 "2007-09-11T04:38:09Z")
If it showed up for **treis** automatically, it might for you too… so poke around there to see if you can see it. If not, the program ntfs-3g will give you the ability to read from (and probably write to, I think they’ve worked out the kinks) ntfs partitions. So from the terminal: ```auto sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g ``` Then we need to make a place in the filesystem where your Vista partition will reside. This can really be be anywhere, but /mnt and /media are generally used for filesystems outside the main body of Linux things, so you might create the folder /mnt/Vista by typing ```auto sudo mkdir /mnt/Vista ``` Then we place the Vista partition into that folder: ```auto sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda0 /mnt/Vista ``` The -t option specifies the type of partition that is to be mounted (one using the ntfs-3g drivers to read it), /dev/sda0 is the location of the Windows partition (“sd” indicates a SATA or SCSI hard drive, rather than hd for an IDE hard drive, “a” indicates that it is the first hard drive on the system, and “0” indicates the first partition on that hard drive, this could change based on your setup), and the final argument specifies where to put the partition. Once your done with the file transfers, unmount the partition with ```auto sudo umount /mnt/Vista ``` and you’re done. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/22 "2007-09-11T05:44:22Z")
**Dr. Love** - I tried to do this, and in terminal I got to this step ```auto sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda0 mnt/Vista ``` but I got a message saying ```auto Failed to access '/dev/sda0': No such file or directory ``` I’m thinking this means the partition is not where I think it is (or am looking for it) but how do I find it otherwise? I considered trying to reboot from the Vista CD and then make the backup discs of important info, but I realize that there isn’t much important info that I need soon, just records of stuff. Is there a way to find out how the drive is partitioned from terminal? or otherwise? I really appreciate all the help. Brendon Small ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/23 "2007-09-11T15:37:03Z")
My mistake, I got my naming conventions mixed up :smack: Looking over my own partitions, I now see that partition numbering starts from 1, not 0. Try it with /dev/sda1. If that doesn’t work, post the results of these two commands ```auto ls /dev/?d?? mount ``` These will tell you what your hard-drive partition setup is, and what is already mounted somewhere. For example, mine return: ```auto /dev/adsp@ /dev/sda2 /dev/sda5 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb6 /dev/sdb9 /dev/cdrw@ /dev/sda3 /dev/sda6 /dev/sdb2 /dev/sdb7 /dev/sda1 /dev/sda4 /dev/sda7 /dev/sdb5 /dev/sdb8 ``` ```auto /dev/sdb5 on / type ext3 (rw) /dev/sdb6 on /home type ext3 (rw) /dev/sdb11 on /mnt/ubuntu_home type ext3 (rw) ``` So you can see that I have two SATA hard drives, both partitioned many times, but only a few of them are mounted in my current setup. I have a separate partition for /home (quite common with Linux, keeps your data safe if something should go wrong with the main operating system) and I also have my /home directory from my original Ubuntu installation, which is where I keep all of my important documents and such. This allows me to install multiple distributions of Linux (like I said, I’m a bit of a nerd) and give them all access to the same important files. Sorry for the delayed responce, the board went down last night right as I was trying to reply ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/24 "2007-09-11T18:48:40Z")
[QUOTE=brendon\_small] **Dr. Love** - I tried to do this, and in terminal I got to this step ```auto sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda0 mnt/Vista ``` but I got a message saying ```auto Failed to access '/dev/sda0': No such file or directory ``` I’m thinking this means the partition is not where I think it is (or am looking for it) but how do I find it otherwise? I considered trying to reboot from the Vista CD and then make the backup discs of important info, but I realize that there isn’t much important info that I need soon, just records of stuff. Is there a way to find out how the drive is partitioned from terminal? or otherwise? I really appreciate all the help. Brendon Small [/QUOTE] You’re sure that the drive isn’t showing up in the file manager? If I remember right mine showed up as XX gb Volume, where XX is the size of the drive. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/25 "2007-09-12T00:57:56Z")
[QUOTE=treis] You’re sure that the drive isn’t showing up in the file manager? If I remember right mine showed up as XX gb Volume, where XX is the size of the drive. [/QUOTE] I didn’t see that anywhere, or anything similar, but I will look again to be sure. I have been gone all day though and haven’t even looked at the computer yet. Hopefully I can get it working tonight. Brendon ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/26 "2007-09-12T05:30:24Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Love] Try it with /dev/sda1. [/QUOTE] I got another error. It said this… ```auto NTFS signature is missing. Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't have a valid NTFS. Maybe you selected the wrong device? Or the whole disk instead of a partition (e.g. /dev/hda, not /dev/hda1)? Or the other way around? ``` Then I tried the next part and got this… For ```auto ls /dev/?d?? ``` I got ```auto /dev/adsp /dev/cdrw /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda5 ``` and for ```auto mount ``` I got ```auto /dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro) proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) /sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755) varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777) procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw) udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755) devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw) devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620) lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw) binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw) ``` So, from the first part, it is assumable that it is sda1, sda2, or sda5, but I am not sure how to find out which is what. Brendon ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/27 "2007-09-12T06:04:28Z")
No luck with **treis** suggesting I take it? Well, I can tell you that it’s not sda1, because the first line in the responce from mount tells us that sda1 is where your root directory for Ubuntu is located… which surprises me, I would have thought that Windows would still be in that slot. Neither sda2 or sda5 are mounted. So you have a choice at this point. You can retry the same command with sda2 and sda5 and see if they work, or we can take a look at your partition table directly. To do this, you need to install gparted, the Gnome Partition Editor, with which you can look at the partitioning layout of your hard drive. Install with ```auto sudo apt-get install gparted ``` Ubuntu may come with this already installed, in which case you should get some statement to that effect. Once the install is done, run it with ```auto gksudo gparted ``` You’ll see a screen which looks like [this](http://apcmag.com/index.php?q=img_assist/popup/6145) (minus the right click menu). Look under the Filesystem heading for whichever partition is ntfs, and that’s your Windows partition. Running gparted might mount all of your partitions, in which case a window containing the Vista directory should open up. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/28 "2007-09-12T06:20:26Z")
I’ll try that right now. Thanks for all the help, **Dr. Love** , I’d have given up if I didn’t have this thread. I looked again for the partition as **treis** suggested, but I really can’t find much that is similar to what I would be looking for. Hopefully this will work. Brendon ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/29 "2007-09-12T06:32:26Z")
I tried to install gparted but kept timing out. I will try again in the morning. Thanks again for all the help. Brendon ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/30 "2007-09-12T16:25:59Z")
Well, I hate to be the only one posting in my thread, but here’s what happened with GParted. It shows the three partitions, 1, 2, and 5. sda1 is labelled ext3 110gb and has used 4gb. sda2 is labelled extended and is 1.41gb. sda5 is labelled linux-swap and is part of sda2. I have no idea where Vista would be. Brendon Small ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/31 "2007-09-12T16:54:43Z")
[QUOTE=brendon\_small] How difficult is it for someone who has never used anything but Windows (mostly, anyways). [/QUOTE] I was a Windows user till my boyfriend built me a computer and put Ubuntu on it for me (he’s a software geek, it’s his way). I’ve had little trouble with it, as long as I stick to internet stuff and that “open office” software. The only issues were things like the sound card not being recognized, my webcam not working with whatever pseudo-msn-messenger thing I’ve got running, and ripping my CDs. He knows the ins and outs and was able to straighten it all out by typing mysterious things in a little window, but then when the update bubble pops up, and I let it do its thing, it screws half of it back up again and I need to call him to fix it because I haven’t a damn clue what to do. I now ignore the update bubble till he comes to visit. Bottom line - it’s easy to adjust to, and the GUI is close enough to the way Windows is set up that you can more or less figure everything out. But you need to have someone around who knows how to mess with the software to tweak it when things don’t work. Or be very good at learning how to do it yourself, off the help forums. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/32 "2007-09-12T19:15:58Z")
**DO NOT USE NTFS-3G** **DO NOT USE NTFS-3G** **DO NOT USE NTFS-3G** **DO NOT USE NTFS-3G** ntfs-3g is an _experimental_ filesystem drive to enable write support for NTFS. Some people never have problems with it, but I’ve seen it completely hose up more than one MBR and/or partition table for people who don’t know exactly what they’re doing. Hell, _I_ know what I’m doing, and I never, ever touch it. At least, on any system that I need to actually work. You’re far better using the read only ‘ntfs’ driver. Here’s what you do: ```auto sudo -s ``` So you don’t have to keep typing in “sudo.” ```auto fdisk -l /dev/sda ``` That should print out your partition table. You should see something like this: ```auto Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 2873 23069340 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda2 2873 7296 35535748+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda5 3848 3978 1052257+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda6 3979 4896 7373803+ 83 Linux /dev/sda7 4897 7296 19277968+ 83 Linux ``` Note the “/dev/sdaX” name for whatever parition is labeled “HPFS/NTFS”. In my case, it’s _/dev/sda1_. If you don’t see an NTFS partition, Linux doesn’t either, and you most likely won’t be able to mount it without some hairier futzing around. If you _do_ see the parition, you can mount it with the following command: ```auto mount -t ntfs -o ro /dev/sda1 /mnt ``` That’ll make the C: drive available in the /mnt directory on Linux. One more time: **DO NOT USE NTFS-3G** ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/33 "2007-09-12T19:19:39Z")
[QUOTE=brendon\_small] Well, I hate to be the only one posting in my thread, but here’s what happened with GParted. It shows the three partitions, 1, 2, and 5. sda1 is labelled ext3 110gb and has used 4gb. sda2 is labelled extended and is 1.41gb. sda5 is labelled linux-swap and is part of sda2. I have no idea where Vista would be. Brendon Small [/QUOTE] Wait… it looks like you overwrote Vista when you installed Ubuntu. You’ve got a 120GB disk, right? That fdisk command should confirm it either way. When you reboot, do you see an option to load Windows in the GRUB menu? That’s the screen you see right after the BIOS is finished. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/34 "2007-09-12T19:22:45Z")
[QUOTE=brendon\_small] I installed Ubuntu and so far, I love it. I do have one problem - I followed the directions of how to dual-boot Vista with Linux, and it worked okay until I went back to boot Vista. It isn’t in the boot list. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=brendon\_small] It shows the three partitions, 1, 2, and 5. sda1 is labelled ext3 110gb and has used 4gb. sda2 is labelled extended and is 1.41gb. sda5 is labelled linux-swap and is part of sda2. [/quote] This might be a little worrisome. Assuming a single hard disk, the NTFS partition would have to be /dev/sda2. If it’s not recognized as such, it not mountable (easily, anyway – there might be some workaround of which I’m not aware). I’m thinking – hopefully wrongly – that you might have overwritten your Windows partition. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/35 "2007-09-12T19:43:48Z")
This thread isn’t really doing much to encourage anyone to switch. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/36 "2007-09-12T20:02:47Z")
[QUOTE=Digital Stimulus] I’m thinking – hopefully wrongly – that you might have overwritten your Windows partition. [/QUOTE] Well, I kind of wondered, but that’s ok. I guess I did overwrite it somehow, but I’m not too worried about it. The most I lost was a few old documents from school, nothing pertaining to this semester, and a few webpages I’ve made for my work. The webpages can be taken from viewing the source since they are uploaded, and the one that wasn’t is not more than a few hours work. Since I have switched, my computer does run faster, and better, it seems. I have liked how there are no more pop ups about “did you actually mean to click on this button?” for every action, and the interface is not that bad. Honest, I know it doesn’t sound great, but I’m rather glad that it’s working, not so worried about Vista and the files from before, and thinking that it could have turned out a lot worse. Actually using Ubuntu is great, it was just getting back to where Vista was (which was difficult since Vista seems to be overwritten - no wonder there was so much confusion). I guess it might sound bad, but I would overwrite Vista again if I had the choice. I really appreciate all the help though, and I’m glad I did switch. I planned on dual-booting for a while, but now I’m just as happy with the results. Brendon Small ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/37 "2007-09-12T20:38:22Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] This thread isn’t really doing much to encourage anyone to switch. ☹ [/QUOTE] Yeah, it’s unfortunate that mistakes happen. **brendon\_small** , just be sure to ask if any additional issues or problems arise. No guarantees that they’ll get fixed, especially considering the effects of specific hardware and differing distros (for instance, I run Debian), but there’s lots of people who’ll try to provide assitance. If you haven’t, you’ll want to set aside a couple hours to browse through the available packages (e.g., _synaptic_). If you feel like geeking out (yow – a whole section of software devoted to “Amateur Radio”?!?), you’re in for a treat. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/38 "2007-09-12T20:54:26Z")
[QUOTE=Digital Stimulus] Yeah, it’s unfortunate that mistakes happen. **brendon\_small** , just be sure to ask if any additional issues or problems arise. No guarantees that they’ll get fixed, especially considering the effects of specific hardware and differing distros (for instance, I run Debian), but there’s lots of people who’ll try to provide assitance. If you haven’t, you’ll want to set aside a couple hours to browse through the available packages (e.g., _synaptic_). If you feel like geeking out (yow – a whole section of software devoted to “Amateur Radio”?!?), you’re in for a treat. [/QUOTE] It seems that there are a good bit of people willing to help if problems come up, which I appreciate. I would much rather post on a message board (here or on the Ubuntu site) and try solutions than use tech support like what I have to at work when we have errors - recently the tech support lady explained to me that I could not print my paperwork because I was not an admin - but couldn’t explain how I could print the paperwork 5 nights a week for the last 4 months without being an admin (apparently they changed the accounts, it used to be anyone could print those, but then it was only admins who could - the 3 tech support people we talked to did not know this…) I plan on looking through all the available packages and such while at work this weekend. I could tonight, but I have a little bit of work to do for school, so I may start. Of course, geeking out is a wonderful thing! Brendon Small ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/39 "2007-09-13T07:21:24Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] This thread isn’t really doing much to encourage anyone to switch. ☹ [/QUOTE] To be fair he did, and I mean no offense by this, screw up a pretty easy task. If he had partitioned his HD properly he could have accessed his Vista partition with no configuration. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527/40 "2007-09-13T08:14:43Z")
[QUOTE=black rabbit] **DO NOT USE NTFS-3G** … **DO NOT USE NTFS-3G** ntfs-3g is an _experimental_ filesystem drive to enable write support for NTFS. … One more time: **DO NOT USE NTFS-3G** [/QUOTE] Just to respond… ntfs-3g has been marked **stable** since Feb 2007. It is very conservative, always refusing to mount dirty NTFS partitions (that means the one labelled PORN). I have used it consistently for a long time, and my frustration is with XP for not cleanly dismounting partitions on shutdown/safe removal. There is no **fsck** for NTFS-3G - I have to use chkdsk from XP. And I can’t see ntfs-3g destroying a MBR/Partition Table - File System drivers play _within_ partitions. I can see ntfs-3g demolishing your NTFS data/file system, and it probably did happen in the past (I read the forums), but I have seen Windows do that, too. Just don’t try to access the same partitions from Linux and a virtualised WinXP session (or the other way round) - that will kill your file system dead. Bottom line - NTFS-3G works for me and many others, it works well, it is conservative and risk averse. I don’t expect too much more from a File System driver. Of course, I keep stuff backed up, but I do that anyhow. Si [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubuntu-convince-me-to-switch/418527.md?page=3)