Ade Malsasa Akbar contact
Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.
Friday, October 23, 2020 at 23:09

This tutorial explains Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla computer installation. You will prepare at least two disk partitions, finishing it all in about twenty minutes, and enjoy! Let's start right now.



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About This Tutorial


This tutorial is practicable for normal installation as well as dualboot, UEFI, and even external drive ways. 

  • Normal: most computer users will need this.
  • Dualboot: users who wants both Ubuntu and Windows in one computer will need this. This needs separate partitions prepared beforehand.
  • UEFI: users with >=2011 computers will need this. This needs one additional partition called efi.
  • External: for users who want to install, not only make bootable, Ubuntu into a pendrive or external hard disk drive. The only difference is where you put the bootloader on.


Preparations


Ask experienced knowledgeable computer users near you guidance in following this if you have no prior experience in partitioning and doing backup.

Partitioning example

First preparation, Download Ubuntu 20.10 and create a bootable flash disk drive using tools like Unetbootin or Rufus, GNOME Disk Utility, or GLIM.

Second preparation, with GParted on LiveCD, create three hard disk partitions: 

  • first one tiniest, a FAT32 by 100MegaByte with label FOR EFI;
  • second one a little bit larger, a FAT32 by 1GB with label FOR SWAP; and
  • third one the largest, a FAT32 by >=20GB with label FOR ROOT.

For Dualboot mode, make sure you properly backed up important data from Windows and its data partitions to external storage drive. For BIOS Legacy users, you do not need and simply ignore the making of EFI partition above. For UEFI users, you do need to make those three partitions. For disk partition size, I recommend a 100GigaByte ROOT for serious and permanent use. For external installation, you can install Ubuntu into a USB Flash Drive or similar device by choosing correct bootloader location as explained in partitioning section below.


Booting & Entering Setup

Make sure your BIOS ready, now boot up your computer to USB > then, select Try It instead of Install It on Ubuntu selection screen > you see a pink orange desktop with a gorilla picture, that is "preview" or LiveCD session, then double click Install Ubuntu 20.10.

 

1. Select Language


First page, select English and continue.

2. Select Keyboard


Second page, select English (US) and continue. You can change it later to Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, etc. anyway.

3. Select Networking


Third page, select 'I don't want to connect' and continue.

4. Select Normal


Fourth page, select Normal Installation instead of Minimal and continue.

5. Select Manual Partitioning


Fifth page, select Something Else also known as Manual instead of others and continue. You might be asked to do unmounting then do it.

6. Create Disk Partitions & Bootloader


Here you will utilize 3 partitions you have created beforehand.

  • 1. Create EFI partition(*): click the smallest sized partition > Change > switch Use as: to EFI System Partition > OK.
  • 2. Create SWAP partition: click the middle one > Change > switch Use as: to swap > check mark Format the partition > OK.
  • 3. Create ROOT partition: click the largest one > Change > switch Use as: to EXT4 Journaling Filesystem(**) > check mark Format > select mount point / > OK.
  • 4. Select bootloader install(***): choose the same disk address where you made ROOT partition above, for example, choose bootloader /dev/sda if your ROOT is /dev/sda1.   
  • 5. Click Install Now. 

 

*) BIOS Legacy users do not create this.

**) Choose EXT4 for hard disk, but instead choose EXT2 for installation into USB flash disk. 

***) For external install, do not choose internal hard disk address but choose your external drive address where your ROOT partition is made.


7. Fill User Profile


Here you determine own timezone then username & password pair.

  • 1. Timezone: click a point on the world map to choose yours. As example, mine is Asia/Jakarta, Indonesia. Go next. 
  • 2. Username: determine username > determine computer's name > determine password > determine either Login Automatically to mimic most Windows computers (for convenience) or Login with Password as usually Ubuntu user's do (for security) > go next.


8. Wait


Now you will only need to wait up to fifteen minutes while enjoying beautiful slideshow. You can have a cup of coffee or chit chat with friends here. The secret is, here thanks to you chose Try It (aka LiveCD) earlier, you can even write documents or play audio as you can run all the programs on your screen.


Finish


Once finished, Ubuntu 20.10 says Installation Complete so click Restart Now to enjoy your new computer. Congratulations!


This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.