Bevore you start installing make some space on your harddrive for the linux installation. I reccomend using Partition Magic since it is really easy. If you don't want to mess with changing the partition tables during the installation to much you can already create a swap partition (two times the size of your RAM is the rule of thumb from what I heard) also using Partition Magic.
This may sound stupid but make sure you have your power supply pluged in and a stable netwok connetion. The installation takes quite some time and you don't want to mess it up in the middle.
So now we got some unallocated free space and everything plugged in and woking - lets rock!
The netboot approach
Create a directory called boot in the root directory of the first primary partition of your hard drive (usually drive c:\, which it will be referred to as from now on).
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Download linux and initrd.gz from http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/breezy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/ and save them to boot.
Windows NT/2000/XP (using Grub)
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Download Grub For Dos from http://sarovar.org/download.php/672/grub_for_dos-0.4.1pre22.tar.gz
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Extract grldr from the archive to c:\.
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Create a new folder in c:\boot\ called grub.
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Extract menu.lst (Should be in the /boot/grub folder of the archive) to c:\boot\grub The rest of the files in the archive are unnecessary. (If your default compression/archive program doesn't like *.gz files, try 7-Zip from www.7-zip.org or TUGzip from www.tugzip.com.)
- Append c:\grldr="Install Ubuntu" to c:\boot.ini.
To view and edit the Boot.ini file on WindowsXP: 1. Right-click on My Computer, and then click Properties. 2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery. 3. Under System Startup, click Edit.
Note: Eventhough c:\boot.ini is not shown by the explorer, this file exists and can be also opened in the notepad. Just write the path c:\Boot.ini at the open dialog.
I edited my windows properties so I could see all files - went to c:\boot.ini rightclick on the file go to properties and remove the read only switch and added the line at the end.
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Open menu.lst in a text editor and paste the following text in the file:
title Install Ubuntu kernel (hd0,0)/boot/linux vga=normal ramdisk_size=14972 root=/dev/rd/0 rw -- initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.gz
due to some strange reason (maybe because i exchanged my hardrive once) it always said that it could not find the files (error 17... linux file not found) even though i put them in the right folder. Later I found out that the c drive was not hd0 but hd2. In addition to that when I got it to boot it ende with a some error messages of which one said that the image is to big for the ramdisk so i changed the size to something bigger (no idea if there are ruels to what the ramdisk_size should be). Anyway i fixed it by adding the following instead.
title Install Ubuntu (jvc mp xp 7210/3210 works :) kernel /boot/linux vga=normal ramdisk_size=24972 root=/dev/rd/0 rw -- initrd /boot/initrd.gz
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Save menu.lst, reboot, and select "Install Ubuntu" in the windows OS chooser then in GRUB. You now have a network installation of Ubuntu going.