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This article is about adding linux to a Dell Latitude 3190 laptop if you already have one with windows on it. If you do not have one and might want to buy one, it is available with linux already on it. If you google "latitude 3190" the main Dell website will be near the top of the list. But the 3190 is a student computer and is not listed on the main Dell website. It is not an inferior computer, just a smaller computer with smaller screen and keyboard. If you look further down the list, you will see a special Dell website only for the 3190. That website shows it available with windows. But if you look at options that are available, you will see that it is also available with Ubuntu linux.
The Dell Latitude 3190 is a small laptop computer. I did not get the "2 in 1" version that has a touch screen. I doubt that the touch screen would be compatible with linux. It has a screen, keyboard, two USB ports, one HDMI port and wifi and bluetooth capability. It does not have an internal optical drive for CD or DVD use. An external optical drive can be purchased for it. It does not have an ethernet port. I bought it with the Timbuk2 carrying case and the optical drive found on the Dell website. It is available with a hard drive or a solid state drive. I bought it with the solid state drive because I think that would be less likely to be damaged by rough handling while the computer is turned on.
It comes with Windows-10 installed. This article is about adding linux so you can choose between windows and linux when you boot up the computer. The hard drive or solid state drive will be divided into a windows partition and a linux partition. This article also shows how to put linux only on the drive if you do not want windows.
To do the installation you will need a wifi connection to the internet, and one empty USB stick. If the wifi connection is secure you will need to know the password. The ubuntu linux installation iso file is 2GB, so the stick should be larger than that.
If you have not already done so, go to dell.com/support and search for the Latitude 3190 user manual. Download it to your computer for future reference. The file has a long name. You probably should change the name to a short name. Section 5 of the manual is what you may need to refer to to help with this installation procedure.
Get a "composition book", which is a notebook 9.75 by 7.5 inches with pages blank except for horizontal lines to write on. It will be available in the school supplies section of your local grocery store. Number the first 12 pages for now. Leave the first 10 pages for a table of contents that you will fill later. Starting on page 11 write down everything that happens as you go along. It is best to write the date each new day.
The first step will be to defrag the hard drive to move all scattered files to the front, and free up lots of empty space on the drive. In the windows search window in the lower left corner of the screen enter "defrag". In the widow that pops up see that your drive is selected and click "optimize". This will defragment your drive. If you have used your machine for some time and have put lots of stuff on the drive, it may take some time. If you machine is new, it will take less than one second.
Some settings in the BIOS must be changed to allow booting from a USB port to install linux. The BIOS is a chip on the motherboard that contains a firmware program that tells the CPU where to find the software to boot up the computer. The changes will not harm the way your computer works.
Turn the computer off. Then turn it on while repeatedly tapping the F2 key at the top of the keyboard. This will get you into the BIOS. In the BIOS at the bottom of the display will be a "restore settings" icon. If you click that you will be presented with four options: BIOS defaults, factory settings, last known good settings, custom user settings. Select BIOS defaults. Now it will be able to boot from a USB port.
Click "apply" then "exit". Your computer will continue to boot into windows. As soon as it does, shutdown and reboot to make the changes take effect.My computer was shipped with the BIOS set to make the screen too dim when the computer is plugged into AC power. To correct this, click on the "video" section of the BIOS table of contents. You will see two screen brightness sliders. One is for operation with battery power, the other for operation under AC power. Both should probably be in about the center position. You do not drag the slider with the cursor to move it. When the slider is highlighted, use the left or right arrow keys to move it.
We need to download the linux install program. Go to ubuntu.com and download the ubuntu iso file. It is large, 2GB, so it will take a long time to download.
We need to write the iso file to the USB stick in a special way that will permit booting from the USB stick. This would be easy if we had a linux computer, as eplained in the USB section of the linux terminal article at this website here. But this article explains how to do it from Windows. We need a special program that can write the iso file we have already downloaded to a USB stick in the proper way so we can boot from the USB stick. Go to the website rufus.akeo.ie. Click on the current version of rufus and in pop up window "save".
Now to see what we have downloaded, click on the folder icon at the bottom of your screen. Click on "downloads". Now you can see what you have downloaded. In addition to rufus files you should see the ubuntu iso file.
Put a USB stick in. Click on "rufus". "do you want this app to make changes to your device?". Yes. Rufus window pops up. In boot selection select "disk or ISO image". Click on the SELECT box. A window opens up showing the iso file. Click on it then "open". Click "start". It will take a while to write your ubuntu file to the USB stick. Then remove the stick.
Shut the computer down. Now put the USB stick in the USB port of the computer. As you turn the computer on repeatedly tap on the F12 key. The boot process will stop and display choices of where you can boot from. Use the down arrow key to highlight the one you want to choose, then press enter to choose it. The choices are:
ubuntu UEFI:......FMAP partition 2
You want "UEFI:.....FMAP. After you make your selection you will be given more choices. Select "install ubuntu". It will take a while to get started because there is so much stuff on the stick. You will choose your language. You will be given a choice of wifi signals you want to use. Choose the one that you know the password for.
When asked, choose "normal installation" and "download updates while installing ubuntu".
You will be asked to choose whether you wish to install ubuntu alongside windows or erase disk and install ubuntu. The first choice will leave you with both windows and linux on your computer. The second choice would mean you only have linux, you no longer will have windows.
After a while a window will pop up asking for name, user name, and password. After this go back to where it asks for your computer's name. If you are going to use a terminal window a lot you will want to use the backspace key to reduce the computer name to only one character. This is because it will appear at the beginning of each line on the terminal, leaving you not very much room to type what you want to in the terminal.
When it says installation complete click "restart now". It will then say remove USB stick and press enter.
Enter your password and go into linux. Click on "activities" in the upper left hand corner of the screen. At the bottom of the drop down list of icons see an icon made of 9 dots. Click on that. A bunch of icons will appear. At the far right of the screen see dots in a vertical column. As you click on each dot you will see a different array of icons. Two icons are gray rectangles. One is the system monitor and the other is a terminal. Right click on the termianl icon and click "add to favorites". After you allready have one terminal, to get more than one terminal click on the "terminal" word at the top left of the screen, scroll down to "new window".
Most of the power and fun of linux can be accessed in the terminal.
If you are new to linux, read the article how to use the linux terminal. The article contains a wealth of very useful information. The article tells how to download additional ubuntu packages of software.
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