Linux Basics (H1) Very Basics, or Why Most of the Girls Are Afraid of BIOS?

Linux Basics (H1)
Very Basics, or Why Most of the Girls Are Afraid of BIOS?

Now here is the good news -  you do not have to install Linux on your hard drive - just create a Live CD or USB drive and run Linux from it. This is called a Live USB - you can run a Linux distro on literally amy computer just by booting it from your USB flash.
As I am a completely new to Linux - I decided to to this from my own Toshiba 2 GB flash drive and see what happens.

The most helpful thing about it is gooling things, when in doubt. So excuse me being a dummie, WikiHow was what I turned to in the first place. Personally, I have found this article useful , though, it does not explain Xubuntu per se, it covers all the important steps we should take.

The first thing I did was a back-up, of course. In my case (as I do not work with big files and store most of my documents on a cloud storage - mostly Google Drive or Dropbox), a 16 GB Kingston USB was more than enough.

So the idea is pretty simple - upload all your valuable files on an external storage media, and feel free to try Linux.

Especially for me, who never tried such a thing before, this task seemed to be daunting. 

First, we need a  Xubuntu being downloaded. There wasn`t a doubt about the advantages of getting the last Xubuntu 13.10  64-bit version.

Torrent client download was my choice - mirror would be too slow, as I am using free HOAS 2 MB Internet))))

Then I found a link for the USB Ubuntu installer. There is no way we could run Linux from USB drive without it. Installer is actually what forces your computer BOOT from a madia, otherwise a USB stick would only contail a bunch of folders.

A good tip would be to save both apps in the same place/folder, to access them later.

The rest is pretty simple)))

Double click on installer app, and you will see the menu pretty much like here:

Here is my confession: this is not my photo - shame on me, I have forgotten to take screen shots while installing.

But the idea is to agree, select the Ubuntu version and the USB drive where you want to upload (In my situation they were Xubuntu 13.10, Toshiba USB)  it, as shown below.

By clicking Create you agree that all the information on your USB drive is deleted and the Linux OS is installed.

Once installed, select Close and reboot the computer.

Now that was the main problem I encountered: HOW TO ACCESS MY BOIS?

Having read lots of horror stories about Windows 8 vs Linux incompatibility, that part was a hard one.

The most common keys for accessing BIOS (F2 and Delete) didn`t work.

A friend of mine enlightened my at last (just 3 hourd before the assignment deadline):

pressing Esc worked and F10 directed me to Boot Order options (on my PC is was hidden within System Configuration section):

Here I set USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk as UEF1 Boot Order and same for Legacy Boot Order.

F 10 -Save changes, [Yes] + Enter and suddenly  magic happens!

My PC rebooted and a beautiful Xubuntu interface appered on the display.

I selected the  Try Option - maybe the next time I will have more courage to install it.

Conclusion:

For me, the hardest part was to figure our how to set up BIOS settings to make my computer upload OS from a flash drive. That was my very first time I faced work with BIOS, and it was an intimidating experience to some extend. Turned out, it courage comes with practice and experience.