Sunday, June 22, 2008

On the learning curve with Ubuntu

Using Firefox, I managed to install all my bookmarks from the Foxmarks automatic bookmark synchonizer. After a few uses, I sometimes forget I am even on Ubuntu and not XP. I did my emails and read all the RSS feeds just as I used to do before.

Next, I tried Youtube. It prompted me to download Adobe Flash Player, which I did. Then Youtube works fine. Next I tried MP3. It didn't work at first. I read the tips from http://www.linux.com/articles/54945 about Linux restricted formats that had to be dealt with. Did that and Mp3 works fine, even when I played directly from files stored in my XP drive.

Minor hiccup:
When I installed Ubuntu, I first partitioned the second drive on my computer. Booting back from XP, I could not "see" this drive, so I decided to reformat it while in XP. That resulted in my computer not being able to boot up. It gave a Grub Loader error. That's when I learned a bit more about Grub Loader from the internet. Simply put, the Ubuntu installer also installs the Grub Loader into the MBR (Master Boot Record) of my hard disk to enable booting from multiple OS's. I have to restore the MBR to prior state. Fortunately, I got it from the internet. Here's how: Boot from XP installation disk. When the choices come up, press R to get into Recovery Console. Type "1" to select primary installation. Then type "fixmbr". That's all.

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