8 easy steps for installing ubuntu 8.10 on dell xps 1330 (pen drive)

you can now run ubuntu 8.10 on dell xps 1330 without having to install it completely.what i am talking about is using pen drive/flash drive as startup disk and using the startup disk to boot into ubuntu.

using pen drive as startup disk has its own set of advantages

retain your old file system

you need not make changes to existing file system or the default operating system which involves partitioning hard disk;tweaking  with boot records,dealing with post installation problems  can be avoided.the chances of running into problems trying to multi boot a system are fairly high.

saves hard disk space
saves a lot of disk space,since the minimum required for ubuntu is a mere 1giga byte of free space on a flash drive.

save changes
running a live cd is a  slower process and you cannot save changes back to cd.
you can remove it whenever you want and still reuse your flash drive as before

faster access,improved functionality

booting into ubuntu using pen drive is faster compared to cd  and you can use the cd drive for installing some other softwares while running ubuntu on pendrive simultaneously.thereby increasing the functionality of your cd drive.

how to install ubuntu 8.10 on your laptop or desktop

step 1: download ubuntu iso.burn it to a cd

step 2: boot from cd you have just burnt.

step 3: insert a pendrive  having atleast one gb free space

step 4: click under the system tab>>administration>>make usb startup disk

step 5:set the amount of free space where you want to save your changes

step 6:click on make startup disk button

step 7:reboot and in the bios make settings to boot from usb device first .( press f2 key in case of dell xps 1330 while booting to enter into bios)

step 8: save changes and reboot.

post installation problems

operating system missing…..

when i tried for the first time,i got this error.then i changed the settings in the bios to boot from internal hard disk and got back to vista home premium.i looked up the internet for a while.

www.pendrivelinux.com is a very useful resource.there  i found a system compatibility utility to check if your system was capable to boot from a pen drive.i tried that utility ,but the laptop did not boot from usb storage device even after bios setting.

as a final try i formatted the pendrive to fat32 format(previously i had ntfs on my pendrive) and repeated the whole process once again.

surprisingly it worked this time.so the system compatibility was not of much use to me and this proves that compatiblity test (from pendrivelinux.com) is  not fool proof test to check your system’s compatiblity.

what i suggest is retry the whole process again and you must be able to boot from usb storage device.