Installing Ubuntu 12.10

Installer

The Ubuntu installer opens in a window as shown in Figure 3. The first step is to choose a language. The next window checks whether your computer meets the installation requirements, which is at least 4.9GB available drive space (for the DVD version), plugged in (important for laptop and netbook installations), and preferably connected to the Internet.

Figure 3: The installer provides options, among other things, to prepare for MP3 support and for downloading updates.

In this window, you can set two check marks. If you mark Download updates while installing, Ubuntu uses the idle time during installation to download patches and security updates from the Internet, but doesn't install them yet.

Marking Install this third-party software loads a few important codecs for playing MP3 files and flash content on the player during Ubuntu installation. These two options can always be set later, but for now, Next takes you to the next window.

If no wired connection exists to the network and Ubuntu recognizes your wireless card, the next window displays the discovered access points. Using the correct password, you can connect to the access point. If no choices are available, a wireless connection is not possible, so use a wired connection instead.

Choices, Choices

A new window then appears that was not there before. If Ubuntu doesn't find another operating system installed, it provides the options as before, to Erase disk and install Ubuntu or to do Something else (Figure 4). Now, there are two additional options: Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security and Use LVM with the new Ubuntu installation. If you encrypt Ubuntu, the performance is a bit less than optimal, although it secures data to prevent theft. There is also a later opportunity to encrypt your home directory.

Figure 4: Choose to erase the entire disk for the Ubuntu install, or make a different selection.

If you have another resident operating system, such as Windows 7, the option Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7 will appear, which you can invoke using Continue. In this case, the options for encryption and LVM are grayed out and not available. If you have an older Ubuntu version, additional options appear in the installer window.