About Ubuntu

Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions. It is a good choice if one wants to try out linux or use linux without compromising too much of user interface. It is open source, versatile and has all the productivity tools one needs. It doesn't have as many supported applications as Windows does, as far as day to day use is concerned, but is very developer friendly. Most of the open source projects are easily installable on Ubuntu. Currently, the Canonical company and a large community of voluntary developers develop Ubuntu. It has various flavours, which are basically looks (user interfaces), the most common being the official ubuntu.

Official site: https://www.ubuntu.com

Note: This page is to help you install Ubuntu on your entire system (clean wipe), to install it alongside Windows (or another OS), check out the page to dualboot.

We'll be installing the Ubuntu Desktop variant of Ubuntu for this page. Let's get started with installing it...

Installing Ubuntu

The most common way of installing Ubuntu is by creating a bootable drive, think of it as a program on a drive that can install an operating system. Just that the installation procedure is a little different compared to an ordinary app, as we will soon see.

Pre Requirements

Before we get started, we need the following

1. A PC with the following minimum hardware specifications
   • 2 GHz dual core processor or better. Use a 64 bit processor for the latest versions of Ubuntu.
   • 2 GB system memory (RAM). Ubuntu doesn't use a lot of RAM, so you can do quiet a lot with just 4 GB of RAM, but going to 8 GB is a better choice, just to be a little more future proof.
   • 25 GB of free hard drive space. Keep in mind that this is just for the operating system and that you'll be using it with a lot of applications and stored files, so it's suggested that you keep the hard drive space at about 75 GB if you're trying it out and 300 GB if you're using it as your main operating system. These estimates can differ from application to application, however.
2. A bootable Ubuntu ISO drive. Basically, a USB drive from which you'll be able to install Ubuntu.
   • To see the steps required to create a bootable drive for Ubuntu, check the Additional > Create a bootable USB for Ubuntu section of this page.

Procedure

Follow the following steps for installing Ubuntu on your system

1. Shut down (power off) the system if it's already running
2. Plug in the bootable USB drive that we created into the system
3. Boot the system (power on)
4. On the boot screen, observe the key(s) that you have to press to select the bootable drive
   • Most of the systems put this in the BIOS menu, and you enter it either by pressing DEL (delete) or ESC (escape) key on the startup screen
   • Some systems call it BBS POPUP (old american megatrends ones), for that, the key is F9
   • If none of the above works, check the documentation for your motherboard or simply google the key for disk selection while boot for your system. Some systems have it through BIOS and some keep it as a separate option. We'll need to boot into the USB drive for your system.
5. The first page after a minute would be the Welcome page for the installer, wait for it to load if it hasn't loaded yet
   • All steps after this can also be found in the link Official document in Additional > Installation Process tag (scroll down or click here)
6. Click on Install Ubuntu (you could also try it if you want but in this tutorial, we're installing it)
7. Select your language and test your keyboard layout. Make sure that you test the special characters and that they display correctly. Most of the times, it detects the correct keyboard layout. Click Continue.
8. Select the type of installation that you want and other options to install. You can do a Minimal installation now and install whatever you need later. If your system is connected to the internet through LAN or something, it's a good idea to choose installing updates while installation (if you have time). Click Continue.
9. If your system already has an operating system, the installer will detect it and ask you want to do with it. Select the options that goes with your liking and click Install Now. It might prompt you about changes being made, click Continue.
   • If you're dual booting, then you'll find your existing system detected here.
10. Select you time zone and click Continue
11. Choose a username and password that fits your liking and click Continue. This will begin the installation, it takes about 20 minutes to finish the entire process
12. You might get a message at the end asking you to restart, click Restart Now.
13. If the bootable USB stick is still inserted, you will be asked to remove it and press ENTER. Do the same.
14. The system will reboot and the login screen will appear. Login with the username and password that you had choosen in step 11. The first run might take some time, but it gets a little faster next time onwards.
15. You will be greeted with the Welcome to Ubuntu program, proceed with the greeting

That's it, you've finished installing Ubuntu on your system. Congratulations 🎉🎊

Just before you get started, in case you didn't choose to install updates in the previous steps, you can update your system by doing the following

1. Connect your system to the internet
2. Open terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T)
3. Type in the following commands and press enter after each one to execute them:
   • sudo apt update
   • sudo apt upgrade -y

And your system has been updated...

Additional

Creating a bootable USB for Ubuntu

Let's see how to create a bootable USB for Ubuntu. Follow these steps:

1. Download the ISO file of the Ubuntu version that you want
   • To get the latest versions, go to the download section of their official website (link here). It's suggested that you download an LTS (Long Term Support) version
   • To get the previous versions of Ubuntu, go to the Ubuntu release archives, select the version and download the correct image for the correct system
2. Plug a USB drive with minimum 4 GB storage into a USB port. We'll be formatting it later, so backup any data onto it.
3. A special tool is required to load the contents of the ISO onto a drive. There are several tools for this, etcher and rufus are a few good ones.
   1. If you're using rufus:
      • Download rufus and run the app
      • 
        
   2. If you're using etcher:
      • Download etcher and run the app (install it and open it)
      • Select image and then select the ISO image that you just downloaded
      • Select the USB drive (it might have selected it automatically)
      • Click on Flash button. Etcher might ask administrative privilages (just to write some protected files on the ISO), grant them.
      • The entire flashing process takes about 3 to 5 minutes (this might differ)
4. Eject the USB drive after the process is finished

You now have a bootable USB for Ubuntu

Installation process

• Official document