Completely Removing Linux When Dual Booting with Windows

Completely Removing Linux When Dual Booting with Windows

There may be some cases when you may need to remove your linux system completely, like:

• You find you have allocated too much space to the linux partitions and feel you use it very less frequently

• You are not satisfied with the hardware support for your particular hardware

• You find the current distro less satisfying and want to wait for the next release

• You do not like linux!

• You just want to remove it!!

This is one of the cases when you may be interested in removing it either temporarily or even permanently depending on the circumstances. Though many people say it is impossible, it actually is possible and also extremely easy.

FOR WINDOWS XP AND LINUX COMBO:

You will need:

• One Windows XP installed CD/DVD (Not the recovery disks).

• Access to the Windows Account as an administrator.

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Step 1:

• Backup all the useful data in the linux partitions to another windows partition so that you don't repent later.

Step 2:

• Open the Windows Computer Management Console ( Control Panel->Administrative Tools (In Classic View)->Computer Management. )

• Go To 'Disk Management'

Step 3:

• Identify the partitions where you have installed linux by the size and free space (This may be difficult)

Step 4:

• Right click a linux partition and select 'Format...'

• In The Format Dialog.. Select 'NTFS' as the filesystem so that you can regain it back in linux.

• Repeat for all the Linux partitions, viz., ROOT, HOME, SWAP...

Step 5:

• Now that you have done the above tasks, reboot.

(WARNING: After rebooting, neither your old XP nor linux will start... so dont be alarmed!!! )

Step 6:

• Insert the XP installer CD and boot from it.

• Let the drivers load and wait for the first screen.

• It will scan the current partitions and show a list of current windows installations.

• Select the XP installation and press 'R' so that you enter a DOS-Like console called Recovery Console

Step 7:

• Enter 'FIXMBR' (Without the quotes) on the prompt so that the MBR is reformatted

Step 8:

• Enter 'FIXBOOT' (Again without the quotes)

• This will reset the MBR to boot from the windows partition instead of the linux partition.

• This is virtually the last step as the problem is solved now.

• Reboot via 'REBOOT' command and remove the XP CD.

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BACKUP PLAN:

If the above steps dont work, use this simple, but more time consuming backup plan...

• Boot from XP CD

• When the first screen comes DONT select 'R' for recovery but hit 'ESC' key to install a fresh copy

• Again a list of currently installed Xps is shown

• Select your current Installation to repair

• Hit 'R' to repair

• Wait for approx 45 mins so that the repair process completes..

• Done

Five Most Important Steps After Installing Ubuntu...

Hey guys, with the number of linux users increasing day by day and seeing the exponential growth of linux in the desktop sector, the number of people experiencing problems getting used to the new O.S. has also increased.
As a user who has been through such problems, i felt the need to present a small how-to for how to get your Ubuntu working smoothly without glitches and how to solve all the basic problems which ward off the so called "n00bs" from adopting this revolution.

This how to contains the first 5 steps that need to be done by any ubuntu user, starting with the most important one...

1)Setting up Repositories and CD packages in Ubuntu

2)Geting And Installing the drivers for your Graphics Card

3)Pump up the Glam Quotient (install Compiz Configuration Tool And Emerald Window Decorator)

4)Get the Music and Video Codecs right

5)Geting Great Wallpapers and Themes and Much More.....

If you have successfully followed all the above steps, give yourself a pat on the back!!!!

You have done something thought very-very difficult by others!!!

Easy Eh...!!!!

I hope it was useful...

For queries, mail me at kinnarshah8888@gmail.com

Geting Great Wallpapers and Themes and Much More...

The best place to get jazzy artwork and themes for ubuntu is: www.gnome-look.org

Go thru the various stuff put up, especially in the 'most downloaded' and the 'highest rated' sections.

Theme tar-balls (.tar files) can be installed by drag-dropping them to the apperance window.

Same applies for icon-themes, cursor-themes, etc

See how glamorous your computer dearest can be!!!

Get the Music and Video Codecs right

Now that you have installed your fav debian linux system and configured it, there is one major hurdle still left: Audio-Video Codecs.

This is a relatively easy task compared the above... so chill!!!!

After refreshing the repo according to “Configuring Repositories” post in my blog, type the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Start playing the music DJ!!!!

Pump up the Glam Quotient (install Compiz Configuration tool and Emerald )

Installing Compiz Configuration Tool

The configuration tool for compiz is known as “Compiz Config Settings Manager”

It can be installed by typing the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install compiz-config-settings-manager

It can be opened in the following ways:

• System->Preferences->Advanced Desktop Effect Settings

• Type: ccsm in the terminal

Tweak the settings as per your wishes and they will be instantly applied.

Bonus:

Setting Up The Rotating Cube:

• Disable Desktop Wall

• Enable Desktop Cube, Rotate Cube, 3D Windows (only in hardy), Cube Caps, Cube Reflection, Cube Gears (if you like it).

• Rotate the cube by CTRL-ALT-HoldLeftClick and guide with the mouse by dragging.

• Behold!!!!!

Installing Emerald Window Decorator

Emerald is the most rocking window decorator in the history of linux (and hence even windows!!!)

It has many graphics engines that enable a variety of what are known as “themes” in windows. It has a host of features like transparency, off-shoot skinning (difficult to explain), bitmap skinning, etc with all the control in your hands.

You can install it by typing :

sudo apt-get install emerald

in the terminal

You can open it by : System->Preferences->Emerald Theme Manager

Themes can be installed via the 'Import' button

Select the theme and see it instantly applied.

If it is not automatically appplied, type the following in the terminal to apply it: emerald --replace

Starting Emerald At System Startup:

• Go to System->Preferences->Sessions

• Add a new script to the startup tab via the Add button

  

• In Name, type anything like “Emerald”

• In command, type: emerald --replace

• Hit OK

To get the themes the best destination is www.gnome-look.org

Geting And Installing the drivers for your Graphics Card In Ubuntu

Many people have problems with the drivers provided by the default ubuntu installation. This problem occurs specially in ubuntu as it believes in the real “Open Source” philosophy and doesnot include any closed source drivers in the distro.

The cards with usual problems are:

1. ATI

2. Nvidia

Intel cards usually work out of the box.

Now to find the cardthat you have, type the following in the terminal:

lspci | grep -i graph

Now check the presence of NVIDIA or ATI in the output

NVIDIA is present:

• Get the driver binary from nvidia.com

• Say it is “Nvidia-Linux-{architecture)-{version_number}.run”

• Save it to desktop

• Add the 8.04 CD to the Synaptic repository (Go to Adding The Repositories Section that explains repositories for guidance)

• Install the build-essential package by executing the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

• Go to the virtual terminal by CTRL+ALT+F1

• Login

• Stop Gnome Display Manager by typing:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

• Go to the desktop by:

cd Desktop

• Execute the installer by:

sh NVIDIA*.run

• Go thru the normal instructions, keeping your eyes open at all times.

• After the install completes, start the Display Manager by :

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

• Get back to the graphic terminal by CTRL+ALT+F7

Assuming that you din't goof up, you are done!!!

ATI is present:

• Here you need to install XGL ( AFAIK AIGLX works, but it dint work for me... so goin with the general way)

• Enable all repository components (See the Configuring Repositories post for a how to) .... and refresh the database.

• Install XGL by executing:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl

• Restart the X-Server by CTRL-ALT-BKSPC

• Hopefully your work is done!!!

Setting up Repositories and CD packages in Ubuntu

The first thing to do after installing ubuntu (or in that case, any debian operating system) is to enable all the sources of software and packages that are available across the standard repository loop.

This is a straight forward process and involved almost no file editing...so rejoice!!!

Follow the following steps:

• Open System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager

• Go to Settings->Repositories

• Tick All the checkboxes in the 'Ubuntu Software' and 'Third Party' tabs except “Source Code” (unless you are interested in downloading source code)

• Enable updates in the Updates tab

• Close the settings window

• Refresh the local database by hitting the 'Reload' button

• Thats It!!!!

Adding CD-Roms With Packages To The Database

• Open Synaptic package manager

• Go to: Edit->Add CD Rom...

• Load the CD

• Wait for the process to complete

• Hit YES if any other CD is left or else NO

Thats it!!!

TOP 5 : Media Players For Linux

One of the many perks of being a Linux user is that you have plenty of excellent software to choose from. This is especially true if you are in search for an essential application like a media player because there are definitely loads of options. However, this could sometimes be a disadvantage particularly to new-to-Linux users for the reason that they could get overwhelmed with the many choices they have.

To somehow guide those who are still looking for a media player that will suit their needs, I have put together a list that I hope will help.

Amarok

Amarok is a free software music player for Linux or other varieties of Unix. It makes use of core components from the K Desktop Environment, but is released independently of the central KDE release cycle.

Amarok serves many functions rather than just playing music files. For example, Amarok can be used to organize a library of music into folders according to genre, artist, and album, can edit tags attached to most music formats, associate album art, attach lyrics, and automatically "score" music as it is played.

Here are the primary functions or uses for Amarok:
* Playing media files in various formats including but not limited to (depending on the setup) FLAC, Ogg, MP3, AAC, WAV, Windows Media Audio, Apple Lossless, WavPack, TTA and Musepack. Amarok does not play digital music files embedded with DRM.
* Tagging digital music files (currently FLAC, Ogg, WMA, AAC, MP3, and RealMedia).
* Associating cover art with a particular album, and retrieving the cover art from Amazon
* Creating and editing playlists, including smart and dynamic playlists. The dynamic playlists can use such information as the "score" given to a song by an Amarok script, and the playcount which is stored with the song.
* Synchronizing, retrieving, playing, or uploading music to the following digital music players: iPod, iriver iFP, Creative NOMAD, Creative ZEN, MTP, Rio Karma and USB devices with VFAT (generic MP3 players) support.
* Displaying artist information from Wikipedia and retrieving song lyrics.
* Last.fm support, including submitting played tracks (including those played on some digital music players) to Last.fm, retrieving similar artists, and playing Last.fm streams.
* Podcast

Rhythmbox

Rhythmbox is an audio player that plays and helps organize digital music. Originally inspired by Apple's iTunes, it is free software, designed to work well under the GNOME Desktop using the GStreamer media framework. It is currently under active development.

Playback from a variety of digital music sources is supported, excluding MIDI. The most common playback is music stored locally as files on the computer (the 'Library'). Rhythmbox supports playing streamed Internet radio and podcasts as well. The Replay Gain standard is supported.



Totem

Totem is a free software media player (audio and video) for the GNOME computer desktop environment that runs on Linux, Solaris, BSD and other Unix and Unix-like systems. It is officially included in GNOME starting from version 2.10 (released in March 2005), but de facto it was already included in most GNOME environments. The default backend is GStreamer framework but Totem can also use xine libraries. Totem is included as the default media player in many desktop Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Mandriva Linux and others.

Thanks to a large number of plugins developed for GStreamer, Totem is able to play all mainstream media formats, both open and proprietary ones. It also understands numerous playlist formats, including SHOUTcast, M3U, XML Shareable Playlist Format (XSPF), SMIL, Windows Media Player playlists and RealAudio playlists. Playlists are easily manageable using drag-and-drop features.


VLC

VLC media player is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to stream over networks and to transcode multimedia files and save them into various different formats. VLC used to stand for VideoLAN Client, but that meaning is now deprecated.

VLC uses a large number of free decoding and encoding libraries. Many of its codecs are provided by the libavcodec codec library from the FFmpeg project, but it uses mainly its own muxer and demuxers. It also gained distinction as the first player to support playback of encrypted DVDs on Linux by using the libdvdcss DVD decryption library.

Version 0.8.6, which adds support for WMV version 9 and enhances support for H.264, was released on 10 December 2006.

MPlayer

MPlayer is a free and open source media player distributed under the GNU General Public License. The program is available for all major operating systems, including Linux and other Unix-like systems; Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Versions for OS/2, AmigaOS and MorphOS are also available. The Windows versions work with some minor problems, and also in DOS using HX DOS Extender. A port for DOS using DJGPP is also available.

MPlayer supports a wide variety of media formats. In addition to its wide range of supported formats MPlayer can also save all streamed content to a file.

MPlayer is a command line application that has different optional GUIs for each of its supported operating systems. Commonly used GUIs are gmplayer (the default GUI for GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and Microsoft Windows), MPlayer OS X (for Mac OS X), MPUI (for Windows) and WinMPLauncher (also for Windows). Several other GUI frontends are also available for each platform.

Funny : A Message from Steve Ballmer to Ubuntu

Good day to everyone.




After two years in the making, Canonical Ltd. has announced right on cue the Long Term Support (LTS) release of Ubuntu 8.04. In behalf of Microsoft Corporation, I would like to congratulate Mark Shuttleworth and each and every Ubuntu community members who made it all possible.

Now, you might be wondering why I'm posting my message here in this mostly Linux and Open Source related blog. My friends, my answer to that is simple , " I LOVE LINUX". Yes I do. It's a secret that I've been trying to keep for so many years. And because it's a secret no more, I would like to take this opportunity to tell the whole world that I love all the Free and Open Source guys. I love Linus Torvalds, Eric S. Raymond and Jon "Maddog" Hall. I love Richard M. Stallman and his hair, and all the FOSS people that I failed to mention here, I love them all. Seriously, I want to be like them.

Let me tell you another secret. I have been using this new version of Ubuntu since yesterday. Mark sent me a very special limited edition of Ubuntu 8.04 on a Blu-ray disk, the one with a serial and activation number. And all I can tell you is this; I really adore what I'm seeing that I wanted to do the monkey dance all over again. The Wubi thing, which let you install Ubuntu inside Windows is just magnificent. I also tried the spinning cube desktop effects and was just blown away that I immediately called Mr. Gates. He told me that he's been playing with it since last year and have been wanting to implement it on the next Windows version. However, he told me that he wanted to beat Linux by putting 3 desktop cubes spinning together side-by-side. I told him that it was a bad idea. Why not put 6 cubes? Bill then told me that he'd think about it.

We all know that Windows Vista is the finest, greatest and most excellent computer operating system in the history of mankind. But after extensively using Ubuntu last night for 26 long minutes, I can say that it is a good OS. Not as superb and as breathtaking as Vista but it is good nonetheless. And because Ubuntu is a nice OS, we are offering to buy Canonical Ltd. for 999.9 Billion Dollars. Take it or leave it Mr. SpaceShuttleworth.

I won't end this message without leaving you this wonderful motto. I want you all to live and breathe with this motto and place it deep inside your heart.
"SAY NO TO PIRACY"

Thank you very much!

Sincerely,
Steve Ballmer
Microsoft, CEO


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Disclaimer: This is just a silly parody taken from the internet and should not be taken seriously. It is purely for fun and no harm is intended to anyone.
Credits: www.junauza.com