1. so i have xp installed allready
2. i did resize one of the disks to get empty partition (around 20 gigs of unallocated space at the end of the 160 gig drive) using partition magic 8.
3. did the kubuntu install (amd64 version), selected the free space manually and tell the installer to do an autopartitioning on this section.
4. it did a 20 gig main and 1 gig swap partition, everything seems fine
5. grub does something, no error was seen.
6. system boot straight to xp :/ - any clues how to fix that? /btw, the machine doesnt have a floppy drive at all/

tnx.

p.s. iam a complete linux noob basically, i did work some with irix in the past, but not really any admin tasks.

next thing i plan to try is:
1. small fat32 at the beginning (for optional bootmagic if grub fails again.)
2. 20 gig empty space for kubuntu
3. another small 20 gig fat32 for win2nix transport
4. whats left - big partition (ntfs) for windows use

additional questions, any ways for a noob to setup:
- wacom tablet properly
- wireless (via usb) network (install doesnt see the device at all.)

edit:
forgot to mention: the linux disk is first.

Do you know there's a whole forum dedicated to this?

The only thing I can think of is if you installed Grub to somewhere other than the MBR, or something like that. In that case Windows' MBR boot would take precedence. Ask at the Ubuntu forums though; unlike me people there know what they're doing

lol, actually yes, there are certain reasons to not post on official forum just yet, you may guess from my post what could be those (hint: i need someone to answer, which doesnt speek completely 'linuxed' just yet)

Yes, you must install GRUB on the MBR (hd0). If you have several hard disks, check out the BIOS to boot on the first one.

For wireless support : you need to install gcc/gcc-base/cpp-3.4 first then ndiswrapper. At last the driver of your wireless usb key. For me, wireless support doesn't work on AMD64. That's why i switched to x86.

As far as I remember, ubuntuforums isn't actually official and there is a "beginner" section. It certainly got my Ubuntu up and running when I knew nothing about Linux, anyway

Did you happen to answer "no" in the section that mentioned "install grub as the main loader in the MBR" ??

Grub reportedly fails on XFS partitions (which is a shame, IMO, it's by far the best file system for Linux these days). What file system did you use for your Linux partition?

kurtnoise, tnx
rjamorim, i used deafault filesystem suggested by installer (will try from start today and will do some notes... :/)

edit: it was ext3, still no go.

You should make the partition you installed grub on to to be the active partition.
So in your case you now probably have the second partition, on which you have windows marked as active.

To change this from windows would be to:
Right click "My Computer->Manage"
Under Disk Management it says active on the partition that is, well, active :-)
Right click the partition you want to be active and choose "Mark partition as active"

That ought to make it boot from the partition with grub on it and then you can choose
among your available operating systems.

beej, linux one is allready active.

screenshot:
http://somestuff.org/manage.jpg

And it boots windows straight away anyway?
Then grub must have been installed on some other partition.
You can try to boot from the install CD and at the linux boot prompt write:

linux root=/dev/hda1

If you use sata disks then it would be:

linux root=/dev/sda1

If it boots OK then check (I think it's called grub.config) in /boot/ (I think)
I can't check exactly where it puts it's config file at the moment but i will later.

In this file you should be able to see exactly where it puts its boot block, and then you would know what partition should be made active.

Edit:
The "linux root=/dev/..." doesn't seem to work with the ubuntu install disk.
The config file is menu.lst and is located in /boot/grub
You could try the rescue mode from the install CD and try to fix things or reinstall it
and be sure to check exactly where grub puts its boot block.
Then you would know the correct partition to make active even if the ubuntu install didn't.

i did reinstall, and put (hd0,1) <- which should be 1st disk, 2nd partition no?

still no go...

btw, after install the list of recognized operatins systems only lists xp (kubuntu cant find itself...)

and btw2 - the partitioner shows all kind of scsi devices, thought this system is purely sata.

well, this is turning into a rather retarded chalenge as it seems...

could it be something with bios or maybe windows should be on 1st disk, or something like that?

Yes, in grub (hd0,1) is the first disk, second partition.
Under linux the device would be /dev/sda2, "a" for the first disk and 2 for the second partition.
Sata disks are listed as scsi devices, so that's alright.
Maybe something happened when you resized your disk that confuses grub.
Do you get a grub prompt at all?
If so it's possible to edit in where the kernel is located and where the root partition should be at the boot prompt.
But this should have been automatically set up when you did the install.
Or have you given up on it? :-)

nope, didnt give up yet, just dont have much time, but ill try some more, and iam not sure how to use the command line supplied with the install cd.., i mean i know those 20 unix commands ala ls, cd .., ect

but thats not enough, will do some reading