The updated Lubuntu manual (Chapter 1 is Installing Lubuntu) can be found at https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/

This guide is outdated

NOTE: This guide is extremely old and is no longer updated.

Please see the Linux Installation guide on RTechSupport.org for a comprehensive and up-to-date install guide.

The guide on RTechSupport is designed for many Ubuntu versions, such as Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu.

The below guide should not be followed, at the moment it exists for archival purposes only, if anyone decides to fix it up.

Many MANY things are wrong with this page as it is:

Broken images, incorrect images, formatting, confusing sentences, outdated information, bad advice, etc.

If somebody wants to take the time to overhaul this guide, feel free to do so, but please do not remove the above message until the entire guide is overhauled. It wouldn't make sense to keep people pointed at this guide if it's outdated and useless.

Installing Lubuntu

The aim of this guide is to explain in an easy and simple way the needed steps to install Lubuntu on your machine. Whether you are a new Linux user or an advanced one, this guide should be your reference.

You are not required to have special or advanced skills to install Lubuntu. Installing Lubuntu is an easy task.

Please note that this guide will be updated on daily basis. Should you have any comment/feedback, please contact amjjawad.

Requirements

Please see this link for hardware requirements.

If you have a very old computer, trying the minimal install is a good idea.

Before Installing

Before installing Lubuntu, you need to download the correct iso file that matches your hardware (CPU architecture). Go to Download Lubuntu and select with release of Lubuntu you need to download. Please note that the final and the current release of Lubuntu is 11.10 which will be supported until April 2013. It is recommended to download the ISO from a torrent using a torrent client like Transmission for that job.

After you download the ISO it's recommended to check the MD5SUM to verify that the download was successful.

If your machine is capable of booting from a USB drive, it's better to create a Live-USB because it's faster than Live-CD and less error-prone. Please see this for How To create a Live-USB. UNetbootin has proved its success so you can use that to create your Live-USB. It's available in the official repositories if you are using Linux OS and it also installs on Windows.

Some machines like mini notebooks have no built-in CD-drive so this way will be very helpful, unless you have an external CD-drive.

If your machine is not capable of booting from USB, the classical way is to create a Live-CD and boot your machine from it. To learn How To create a Live-CD, please see this.

Installation Process

Step A

Whether you are installing from Live-CD or Live-USB, please make sure that your BIOS is set to boot first from the device/media that you are using.

BIOS could be different form machine to machine but the concept is the same. Just make sure to set your CD-Drive if you are using Live-CD as the first device to boot from ... OR ... set your USB-Drive if you are using Live-USB as the first device to boot from. Sometimes, USB-Drive will be referred by USB-HDD0.

There are two options in BIOS under Booting Configuration: Boot Device Priority and Hard Disk Priority. Please do not be confused.

Your Hard Disk Drive (HDD) should be the second device to boot from.

If you are not familiar with BIOS and have no idea how to change things, please consult your user guide for your motherboard or your favourite search engine. Usually, by default, your machine will boot first from CD-Drive then Hard Drive. The only situation that you really need to change the settings is when you are booting from Live-USB.

To change your BIOS settings, please turn your machine ON and Press the key that will take you to BIOS. It's different from machine to machine but usually these are the most used keys: Del, Esc, F2.

Note that: if you will use the Live-USB, please make sure to plug it before you even turn your machine ON so that BIOS will detect it before you enter BIOS Setup.

Step B

Screenshots could speak 1000 words. To KISS (Keep It Simple and Short), instead of written steps, these screenshots will help you to understand all what you need to do during the installation.

Choose your Language

Try Lubuntu

It's highly recommended to choose "Try Lubuntu without installation". With this feature, you'll be able to find out how well Lubuntu will work on your Hardware.

Install

If everything goes well with "Trying Lubuntu without installation", you can install Lubuntu. There is an icon on your desktop where you can start the installation. When you'll start the installation, which is really easy, the first screen will be:

Downloading Updates

Please note that if you'll choose to Download updates while installing and Install this third-party software, your installation process will be slower but that will depend on your internet connection speed. However, you should install all updates anyway, so there is no reason for not selecting them now.

Partitioning

By default, you'll be presented with 3 options to choose from. Please read carefully before clicking continue. If you decided to choose Something else, which is recommended for users who know what they really want, please step to advanced partioning

• Note by the author of this guide: I believe the users must learn how to do the manual installation because that will give them more options to choose from. The user who will decide to let the installer take care of everything, in most cases, he/she doesn't know what is really going on. In some cases, he/she will end up with a problem which is most likely "My Windows is gone, where is it?". I see no harm to go a bit complicated. Also manual partitioning can provide better results with multiple disks in a desktop.

• Please note that I'm going to update this guide with more details and make it more simple so no one will be confused.

Device for boot loader installation

VERY IMPORTANT: If you are going to hit Install Now while you are on the above screen, you are going to install Lubuntu's Boot Loader (GRUB2) to the MBR of your HDD which is sda. By performing this action, you are overwriting your MBR (sda) and all its contents. This may lead to some un-bootable systems, other systems which are installed in your machine. If you have a machine that has multiple disks and you want to install a bootloader to an internal disk other than sda please select something else but be careful not to install the bootloader on you usb drive as then you will be unable to boot once you take the usb drive out.

Please be advised that you can leave everything as it's like the above screen (install Lubuntu's Boot Loader to the MBR of your HDD) ONLY if you want Lubuntu to take care of the whole booting process in your machine.

Otherwise, please install Lubuntu's Boot Loader (GRUB2) in the same partition where Lubuntu is about to be installed. In this guide, it's /dev/sda6.

Where do you live?

Keyboard Layout

Set your password

Please make sure to set a Good Password and make sure to choose Require my password to login

Import accounts

Experimental support for importing accounts from other systems has been added recently; if any show up, select any you wish to import and continue.

Introductory slideshow

Admire your hard work, and watch the introductory slideshow as files are copied and the system sets itself up.

Reboot your computer

Finally, all what you have to do is Restart Now unless you want to carry on with your test.

Advanced partitioning

Most likely you won't choose Something else unless you are already Dual-Booting or Multi-Booting or have a complex setup with multiple disks. For example a custom built desktop with a solid state drive for the / partition and a /home partition on a spinning hard disk and want grub the bootloader on the solid state drive even though it is sdb or the second disk.

Presumptions

In this guide, there are 3 Operating Systems installed and Lubuntu 11.10 will be the 4th one. Also, this guide assumes there is a Free-Space which is not used yet by any other system or data partition.

Creating partitions

Now, you need to create a partition for Lubuntu from the Free Space that you have on your Hard Disk:

• Please note that: the size here in this guide is the minimum size. You are the only one who will decide how much space you need for your OS. For more information about partitions and sizing, please check Other Links at the bottom of this page.

Finishing up

After creating the root partition to Lubuntu (for more information about the recommended partition scheme, please see this). The table will be like this:

See Also

Trying Lubuntu without Installation

A workaround for Trying Lubuntu without Installation. Please see this.

Install Lubuntu on 4GB USB Drive

Please see this.