Installing Ubuntu on an AMD HP Laptop

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I'm happy with espeak and don't run a full desktop, so I can't really
help with those aspects, but what I can say is that the ext partition
definitely wasn't the old Windows install.

Windows uses NTFS for its system partitions and has done so since at
least the XP days. Most Linux distros default to EXT3/4 for both root
and home partitions, though other formats are supported by some
distros.

Without knowing more, I suspect Ubuntu's installer might have done
some guided partitioning that used the entire disc, creating small
root and swap partitions in sda1 and sda2 and putting most of the
drives contents into sda3, which is a fairly common set-up for single
boot Linux machines. Again, without knowing more, I can't say for
certain, and I'm not sure which command would be best for getting a
print out of all partitions on sda.

As for the Boot Loader, I haven't set up a dual boot since the XP
days, but even if you have a properly setup dual boot, one OS is going
to boot by default, and I would think most OSes would put themselves
as the default when installing the boot loader(though it could be
worse, since unless Microsoft has gotten their act together, which I
highly doubt, the boot loader Windows installs can't boot Linux at
all). Sadly, as far as I know, grub has no accessibility features at
all, so even if you had a properly configured dual boot, I'm not sure
a blind user could reliably boot the secondary OS without
assistance(or even boot an alternative kernel on a Linux-only system
with mutltiple kernel versions installed).

I don't know if things have changed since the XP days, but the last
time I setup a dual boot Win/Lin machine, the recommended procedure
was:
Off load anything you don't want to lose to external media.
Install Windows, leaving at least half the disc unformatted.
Install Linux using the unformatted space leftover from the Windows install.




-- 
Sincerely,

Jeffery Wright
Bachelor of Computer Science
President Emeritus, Nu Nu Chapter, Phi Theta Kappa.