This tutorial will explain how to install Ubuntu 21.10 into your computer. The result of this tutorial is your computer will run Ubuntu operating system and can be viewed as alternative to Windows or macOS. This installation is flexible, as you may choose to install normally (to the internal hard disk) or externally (to USB flash drive or external HDD) in either BIOS Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT mode, for either dualboot or singleboot purpose. You will start everything by downloading the operating system itself, make required preparations, make a bootable medium, then booting and finishing the installation procedures step by step. Good luck!

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What You Can Do With This Tutorial

Install Ubuntu operating system into your computer with:

• a USB flash drive storage (default in this article)
• an internal hard disk drive storage, or
  
• an external hard disk drive storage
  
• do it in dualboot mode (default in this article), or
  
• do it in singleboot mode
• do it in UEFI-GPT mode, or
  
• do it in BIOS-MBR mode
  

 

Requirements

A 64-bit Intel or AMD computer with minimum 2GB memory.

• A blank USB flash drive (as bootable medium) >=8GB.
  
• A blank USB flash drive (as target installation storage) >=16GB or,
• A free disk space >=20GB in the internal hard drive (as target installation storage)
• GPT-formatted storage if the computer is in UEFI mode
• MBR-formatted storage if the computer is in BIOS Legacy mode
• Knowledge and experience in operating system installation, otherwise ask someone with knowledge to accompany you.

Preparations

1. Format your target installation storage (the blank USB flash drive) as GPT if your computer is UEFI. If you don't know how, follow this tutorial.
2. Make backup of your important data if there is Windows in the computer or you want to do dualboot.
3. Once your preparations are ready, continue to the next section.

GPT Formatted Disk

Download

Ubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri can be downloaded in this link address. Once downloaded, you should have the file named ubuntu-21.10-amd64-desktop.iso by size about 3 GigaByte. Continue to the next section.

Make a Bootable USB

Firstly, you should have a bootable medium of Ubuntu that will act as an installer. This is the same requirement as any other operating systems. The cheapest medium today is USB flash drive. To make a bootable USB, if you have Windows or MacOS, follow this tutorial, otherwise if you have already a GNU/Linux system, follow this tutorial instead. Once you made a bootable USB, continue to the next section.

Boot Up Computer

1. Turn on your computer and immediately enter the BIOS user interface.
2. Check up if your computer is booting in either BIOS Legacy or UEFI.
3. Switch the booting priority to USB as the number one.
4. Save and reboot.
5. You should see Ubuntu running on screen and welcoming you.
6. You are ready for Ubuntu installation.
7. Continue to the next section.

Installation

Once all preparations and booting finished, do the following procedures:

Step 1. Select Language

Choose English and click Continue. This can be changed later once it is installed.

Step 2. Select Keyboard

Choose English (US) keyboard layout and click Continue.

Step 3. Select Network

Choose "I don't want to connect..." and click Continue.

Step 4. Select Updates

Choose "Normal installation" and click Continue.

Step 5. Select Partitioning Type

Choose "Something else" and click Continue and answer Yes if asked to mount a disk drive. This will open the Disk Partitioner window. Now, do the following procedures:

• 1. Create an EFI System Partition
• 2. Create a SWAP partition
• 3. Create a ROOT partition
• 4. Select Bootloader Placement
• 5. Start Install Now

EFI SYSTEM PARTITION

1. Create EFI System Partition:

• Select free space under your blank USB flash drive.
• Click Add... button.
• Fill the size 200.
• Select the location Beginning.
• Select Use as: EFI SYSTEM PARTITION.
• Click OK.
• An EFI SYSTEM PARTITION by 200 MB size and FAT32 filesystem created.
• A free space remaining available as a result.

SWAP PARTITION

2. Create SWAP Partition:

• Select free space remaining in your blank USB flash drive.
• Click Add... button.
• Fill the size 1000.
• Select the location Beginning.
• Select Use as: SWAP AREA.
• Click OK.
• A SWAP PARTITION by 1000 MB size (1 GB) created.
• A free space remaining available as a result.

ROOT PARTITION

3. Create ROOT Partition:

• Select the free space remaining.
• Click Add... button.
• Let the size as is, as the remaining free space = root partition size.
• Let the location as is.
• Select Use as: EXT2 Filesystem.
• Select Mount Point: as slash ( / ).
• A ROOT PARTITION by remaining GB size and EXT2 filesystem and slash mount point created.

4. Select Bootloader Placement:

Under Boot Loader Install section, select /dev/sda if the target USB flash drive is /dev/sda, or select /dev/sdb if it is /dev/sdb, accordingly. Place your bootloader in your USB if you install the OS in USB, place it in HDD if your install OS in HDD, and so on, accordingly.

5. Start Install Now:

• Click Install Now and read carefully all the summary on screen.
• Make sure the planned to be formatted disk is only the target USB flash drive.
• Make sure the planned to be formatted partitions are only partitions in the target USB.
• Otherwise, go back, fix the mistakes until you see this summary shows no mistakes.
• Click Continue once everything is correct.
• The actuall installation starts and you cannot go back anymore.

For Hard Disk Drive installation:
Do the same procedures as above, except select Use as: EXT4 Journaling Filesystem instead of mentioned EXT2 Filesystem.

For BIOS-MBR installation:
Do the same procedures as above, except do not create EFI SYSTEM PARTITION.

For dualboot installation:
Do the same procedures as above, but to hard disk drive's blank partitions you have already prepared instead to the USB, and please note to not select Windows partition(s) to be deleted.

Once everything done correctly, continue to the next step.

Step 6. Create User Identity

1. While the installation is taking place, now select your timezone, for example Asia/Jakarta then Click Continue.
2. Create username and password for the use with the operating system, and select Login Automatically, then click Continue.

Step 7. Wait for The Process

After creating user identity, you will now wait for about 15 minutes for the installation to finish. You can have a cup of coffee or play with kids for a while.

Step 8. Finish

Once finished, Ubuntu will say "Installation Complete, Installation has finished..." on screen then click Restart Now, then once you saw black screen saying Remove the installation medium, please remove the bootable USB, and finally let your computer reboot using the target USB flash drive still plugged in.

The Result

Once installed properly, your Ubuntu Impish Indri computer would look like this one as the one on our computer. Congratulations!

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This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.