So here is what it is. I have a Dell machine which has Win 10 as the default OS. Now, I created an equivalent of the partition I had installed Linux on, the last time.
I ran Clonezilla successfully but after it finished the process, Windows (at the boot prompt) simply said, “Repairing the E: drive” (the one which I chose to restore my Kubuntu on) and took me to Win10 login page. So, this means, I don’t have a proper recovery of Linux.
Now, I did some looking around on the internet. Some are suggesting that maybe I should do a fresh install of Kubuntu and then somehow use it to restore the previous Linux clone/backup. Can this be done? Is there some other alternative?
Mine is a Dell laptop and comes with a customized/standardized, licensed Win10 OS. While I don’t care if Win10 is lost, I would prefer to not damage it and have a dual boot.
I’m confident that there must be a very simple workaround/action for achieve this.
There may be nothing wrong with the restored filesystem. You may just need to update grub if you have a dual boot. One operating system has to control grub, and I assume it was your original linux before the clonezilla recovery. That now needs to be taken over by the new linux.
Use a recovery cd or knoppix cd to get a linux booted, then see if you can reinstall grub.
If you do not have a dual boot at present, you need to set up a dual boot with grub. The easiest way would be what you suggest, use a kubuntu install DVD to install a fresh new kubuntu on your new partiton, and tell the install process to install grub. Where it installs grub depends on whether you have an mbr disk or a gpt disk. After that the computer should boot into the new linux. It may not see Windows until you go into the new linux and do update-grub, that will configure grub to see all os’s on your disk. Grub will be controlled by kubuntu, not Windows.
If you were to then recover the clonezilla copy of your personal ubuntu onto the same disk partition, you would probably lose all the grub configuration again and it would not boot.
You need to decide what you want to recover the clonezilla copy for? If it is just your /home directory, it would be better to recover it to somewhere else, then copy /home over to the new kubuntu.
If you want settings from /etc you could probably copy that over too, but there may be issues especially if the versions of kubuntu differ. It is generally easier to reinstall software with the package manager than to try and recover it.
This is answers my questions – thank you. So what I did was that I did recover using clonezilla. This time, I did it using advanced user mode and gave specific instruction to the best of my knowledge, and it did restore the old OS exactly as it was. However, it broke Windows.
So–and since I didn’t have anything critical in it–I reinstalled Win after I installed restored the Linux clone and the grub works fine now (with my old Linux image+Win).
Nonetheless, what you shared regarding the /etc and /home folder is very helpful. Thank you!
That is good news Rohit.
It is worth learning about grub. Google grub bootloader and read about how to install and configure it. Use grub2. The original grub is dated now.
An alternative to multiboot systems is to boot just one linux, and run everything else in containers. I have not tried it.
Regards
Neville
Yes, I must learn more. Linux is so good, virus free and easy to use – with all basic things an average user needs.
But, there is one nagging issue. I thought this is a rather simple issue so not starting a new thread but asking here: how to get better audio/video/graphics drivers for Linux. My laptop has intel UHD 620 graphics chip. The video has somewhat choppy quality to it and audio is also not as good as what Windows plays.
What is the way out? Continue using Windows for video/audio and linux for all other work? Please advise.
Hi Rohit,
You should be able to get linux performing well with sound and video, especially with Ubuntu, it is a well configured distribution.
I use Debian. One thing I have to do is tell Debian to include non-free packages. Debian excludes them by default. So it could miss out on things like propietary video drivers. Not sure what Ubuntu does with non-free software?
If that does not help , you may have to get a driver from the manufacturers website, for example for your video card. Then you have to install it yourself, but it will usually come with instructions. This is usually only needed with very new hardware for which linix has not yet set up drivers.
Before you go to that trouble it is worth checking configuration details, especially the audio stuff. I find that Pulseaudio never seems to install in a well configured state so I have to fiddle its settings. I have not had to fiddle video settings with any recent linux install.
One further issue. When you made the clonezilla backup, was it on the same computer that you have now installed it on? If not it could well have video and audio settings for the wrong machine. That might explain your poor video performance. To fix that I think an upgrade of the system using the package system of Ubuntu might help. Does ubuntu use the apt package manager? If so just run apt- get update to update your repository files, then apt-get upgrade to download and install up to date package versions.
Another thing you can do for diagnostics is run dmesg as superuser and look through the output for messages about missing drivers. dmesg is a log of what happens while the linux is booting so it should tell you if there are things your hardware needs but it cant find.
That is about all I can think of.
Learn to use google searches to find out about linux issues
Regards
Neville
Appreciate your detailed and prompt replies Neville!
I use Kubuntu and yes it gives you and option at the moment when you’re installing it as to whether you wish to install proprietary drivers. I select yes.
I did check the manufacturer’s website but it is not as straight forward as just downloading a file. Some amount of customization/minor script editing etc. has to be done. I remember around 2014-15 you could easily install/create ‘.deb’ packacages in Linux Mint, that model of software installation is apparently gone now. You’ve to manually create it using the source code (and I’ve miserably failed at doing it, agan and again). So, I don’t attempt using the manfacturer’s webpage to get my driver pack.
In general, yes, there is no serious problem with audio or video playback. But a discerning listener/viewer will tell you the quality is much better in Windows. For example, I connected my laptop to my TV and played the same movie using the same player (VLC) in both WIndows and Kubuntu and there were some visual artefacts in Kubuntu. I’m now going to experiment with Opengl etc. in Kubuntu to see if it improves.
Audio too (regardless of the pulseaudio settings) is not the same quality as MS Win. I recall reading on various fora that perhaps LInux community should stop creating scores of distros and focus on creating better drivers (on par with Win). Now with that said, I’ve recently come across people who do audio/video content creation on Linux – which means they must be getting decent quality, to say the least, on their Linux OS (for example, where is the dedicated GUI based equalizer in Linux – do you know one, can you please suggest?). I’ve used studio quality speakers/headphones and can notice the difference betweent the two OS. There is a distinct solidity/materiality (not an audio engineer so just using the words I can think of to describe what I want to say) to the sounds produced in Win.
It is the same laptop – no difference. And even in the original, installed Kubuntu, the issue persisted. Not much to add here other than what I typed above already.
Hi Rohit,
One further thought.
You might try another linux distribution. I have Solus on my desktop ( along with Debian and Void). Solus seems to be well configured for multimedia. You would not have to install it to try it, just boot from a live dvd or usb drive. My version has the Budgie desktop, it is very elegant.
I agree Windows does do a really good job of video display. I have Win10 on one of my desktops and its background screen images are superb. I dont use it much.
I still think you might have an issue with settings rather than hardware drivers. Do some internet searching . I am not expert in sound or video. I mostly do statistical analysis, and I use R for that.
So, I did do some updates on some specific features (dont recall now) and yes, the video performance has improved discernably. No more dithering/ anti-aliasing effect on my TV (though I’m not sure if it was updating those packages or changing the compositor to Opengl from what it was previously). Audio seems to be slightly better as well.
Thank you for writing about Solus – wasn’t aware of it. I’ll play around with it.
I’ll check and come back on it.
I mostly do statistical analysis, and I use R for that.
I was told once that “Rohit, you’ll make a great programmer/analyst”
Thanks Rohit,
Yes my Australian slang has got me into trouble again. With your permission we shall ignore this character who wants to dwell on ambiguities, and get back to linux.
It would seem, when we say ‘yes’ to non-free software during an install, all it does is put an entry in /etc/apt/sources.list indicating that the nonfree repository can be accessed. It does not install anything. We have to do that manually after installing the system. It is difficult to find out what nonfree packages need to be installed. I took a guess with the package I suggested. There may be others needed. You need to embark on package hunt.
And yes I am going to try using Julia functions called from R. I want to speed up some R software , and it is a good excuse to learn the Julia language. No ambiguities this time I hope.
Regards
Neville
Actually, I didn’t get the pun until I read @Rohit 's message. I was celebrating the fact that you are trying to get into Julia.
There are also several other posts showing that I recommended Julia quite a few times. So, it wasn’t ambiguous to me, until @Rohit pointed out, that it might sound ambiguous.
