If you are reading this, you are probably a new member of the ARCOS-Lab, so welcome! We hope you can learn a lot with our other members.
Installing Linux is a delicate and potentially dangerous activity. Your current OS (windows, OSX, or another Linux distro) could die in the process, So PLEASE back-up all important information.
Do not install Linux Before making a back-up
Download an ISO. The ISO is a compressed version of the Operating System (OS). We recommend that you download xubuntu, because it has a simple and efficient graphical interface. If you want you can download other versions as well.
Make sure that you download version 20.04 (ubuntu focal)
{X,K}Ubuntu Focal 20.04 is the supported version of Linux in the Lab. Please use this one to avoid many problems.
Once you have backed up your data, you can prepare a USB for installation. Here you can find the instructions for creating a bootable USB from Windows. Here you can find the instrutions for MAC.
Now lets prepare Windows. THe first step is to disable fast boot. THe problem is that Windows is so inefficient that it never truly shutsdown to make boot faster. We want Windows to be completely down when installing Linux. So we have to disable that. Here you can find how to do it.
Windows is super inefficient with how it stores data. It stores data all over the place! So before installing Linux we want to make sure that windows is in a single place. TO do so you will need to defragment the disk. Follow this link for further isntructions. video guía defragmentación (Guía Ajena. No nos hacemos responsables por perdidas de datos siguiendo estas guías)
MAC OS is not as nasty, so you don't have to do any of the above.
Make sure that you have at least 50 GB of free space in your hard drive.
It is preferable to shrink the windows partition from windows. For this, remember to first do a Deframentation (look some points above). Then head to the "Disk Manager" in windows. Follow this guide (Esta es una guía ajena. No nos hacemos responsables por perdidas de datos en sus discos u otros problemas). If you have problems in this step, keep reading.
If the shrinking process is offering a very small reduction, this is happening because windows can't Defragmente the disk completely and you are unlucky to have non-movable files near the end of the windows partition. Follow this guide to get rid of these nasty files (temporarily). If you still have problems in this step, keep reading.
It may be that you "Bitlocker Encryption" is not allowing you to shrink the partition. To disable "bitlocker encryption". Follow this guide (Methods 5 and 7 are probably the most effective ones). You may need to constantly reboot after each of these steps for changes to really apply.
Remember back-up your data
Insert the USB sick into the computer. If you have an ethernet cable availabe use it! It is better to have wired connection.
Boot the computer and enter the BIOS setup. All computers are different, but the key ususally is "f2", "f12" or "f12".
Disable any option for secure boot. This feature will prevent your computer from booting another OS.
Select the USB for boot. This could be by changing the Boot order or by selecting it as boot drive directly.
Now boot and follow the instructions of the installer.
Be extra careful when you arrive to the section of partitioning! Be extra sure before moving partitions! this is the part whe you can distroy your computer!
If your are not COMPLETELY sure how to partition your computer, please ask for help.
Enjoy.