Installing Linux, Part 3

Continued from Installing Linux, Part 2.

After rebooting, you get a welcome screen indicating that you have a few more steps to do to complete the installation. Click Forward.

At this point you create your own user id and password. I clicked the checkbox to add my user id to the Administrator group.

At the next screen, confirm that the system has the correct date and time set. And finally, I elected to send my machine profile back to the Linux folks. This helps them identify the types of machines and internal devices using their downloads. Click Finish. The install is complete and you can login.

First Login

After logging in with my new user id, I was able to use Firefox to access the internet. I was not able to view YouTube videos, I need a Flash plug-in for that. We'll leave that for later.

I looked around to see what files were available. The Windows C: drive shows up as /WINDOWSXP, which is nice. My external hard drive also shows up.

Rebooting the System

Now it's time to reboot back to Windows. Click Logout -> Reboot.

Everything seemed to shut down fine and then restart as usual. At the first 'To interrupt normal startup, press Enter' screen, I press Enter. After that, I see the usual screen to select the load source. Hmm. I select the hard drive and hit Enter. The machine then goes to a blank screen with at blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner. This looks bad. After waiting a while, I figure that it must be hung and power off with the power button.

So then I power back up. This time I don't do anything to interrupt the reboot, just to see what happens. It boots up Linux just fine, which is a relief. At least that much works. I'll have to figure this out later.

Rebooting to Windows

In the meantime, I've received inquiries from the family:

• Dad, what's wrong with the computer? (Ans: Wrong? Nothing is wrong with it. It's functioning perfectly normally.)
• Dad, why can't I watch YouTube any more? (Ans: I'm working on that. There's another computer upstairs. How about you use that one?)
  
• Dad, what happened to Windows? (Ans: I believe it's still in there somewhere. I just have to figure out how to get to it.)
• Dad, when is the computer going to be working again? (Ans: It's working now. All you have to do is log in with the userid/password that I've provided for you. See? Right there.)

You get the idea.

Anyway, in the Fedora Installation Guide there is a section on GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader. Here is the relevant information (click to enlarge):


The gist of it is that you want to get to the GRUB boot menu. In order to do that, you need to do nothing during the 'To interrupt normal startup, press Enter' screen. After that you get the initial Fedora screen. At that screen, you've got three seconds to hit the Shift Key. If you do that in time, you get the GRUB boot menu, which allows to you select the operating system to load. My list currently says:

• Fedora
• Other

If I select Other, Windows boots up as expected and everyone is happy.

Reading elsewhere, it sounds like GRUB has a configuration file which allows you to change Other to something meaningful, like Windows XP. You can also set the wait time to something longer than three seconds.

ToDos

Meanwhile, I've collected a list of things that I need to figure out:

• How to boot to Windows
• How to put the system in standby mode.
• Find Adobe Flash plug-in
• Find PDF plug-in
• ITunes?
• Find VNC Server/Viewer download
• Find Lexmark printer driver download
• Download OpenOffice
• Tunneling software?
• Customize GRUB
• Download Perl
• Download git
  

Just on the basis of the Flash, PDF and printer drivers alone, I have a strong (and vexing) suspicion that Microsoft does not have to worry about being pushed out of the home user market. But maybe it's easier than I think it is.