Ubuntu

You're not trying to run *.exe files, are you?
Those won't run, due to some major differences between Linux and Windows. It is possible in theory (see Wine) but for now you'll want to get familiar with the package management system that comes with Ubuntu (apt). If it's not already installed, get Synaptic, an easy to use frontend for apt.

You can do this by typing

sudo apt-get install synaptic

into the terminal (it'll ask for your password). If this does not work, post the content of the file /etc/apt/sources.list here (or PM me) and I'll help you edit it for use with Ubuntu's FTP servers. From then on installing new software will be as smooth as you can imagine.

Edit:
There might be a problem with the configuration in /etc/fstab that causes the access issues. Again, post it here so that the Linux folks here can take a look at it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

In Synaptic, choose "Settings" and then "Repositories". There you deactivate the CD sources and enable every source that says "deb" at the beginning. deb-src is for downloading source-code, obviously. (Note: This is an equvivalent to editing the sources.list file I mentioned before.)

Exit this dialogue with "Ok" and then click on "Reload". It should fetch the infromation for available packages from the Ubuntu servers. Use the the search function (CTRL+F) to look for whatever software you might want. If anything you need isn't featured there ask here or on the Ubuntu forums.

Btw, "Mark All Upgrades" queues security fixes and updates for installation (they're downloaded and installed once you press "Apply", just like anything else you've selected). You might want to do this from time to time.


Edit:
Hm, according to your fstab, only the root (hdb2) and the swap partitions (hdb5) are mounted upon boot. Could you post the output of "sudo fdisk -l" ?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Try adding

/dev/hda1       /media/hda1    	ntfs	 defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
/dev/hdb1       /media/hdb1    	ntfs	 defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

to your fstab. You can edit it by entering "sudo nano /etc/fstab" in the command line. You might have to create the necessary mount points (folders where those partitions are integrated into your file system) with the mkdir command.

sudo mkdir /media/hda1
sudo mkdir /media/hdb1

Just reboot the system after that.


Edit: Those partitions will be read only since NTFS support in Linux is still somewhat shaky. Creating an FAT32 partition might be a good idea to move date between both operating systems.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm not sure wether you still need this but I wrote up a sources.list that should give you the maximum Ubuntu omph:

## Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper)

## Packages
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted universe multiverse
#deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted universe multiverse

## Updates
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted universe multiverse
#deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted universe multiverse

## Security
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted universe multiverse
#deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted universe multiverse

## Backports
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-backports main restricted universe multiverse
#deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-backports main restricted universe multiverse

And here's an fstab, that'll let you read your NTFS drives on Linux as well:

#/etc/fstab: static file system information
#
#<file system> <mount point> <type>      <options>                          <dump> <pass>
proc           /proc         proc        defaults                           0      0
/dev/hdb2      /             ext3        defaults,errors=remount-ro         0      1
/dev/hdb5      none          swap        sw                                 0      0
/dev/hdc       /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto                        0      0
/dev/hda1      /media/hda1   ntfs        defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0      1
/dev/hdb1      /media/hdb1   ntfs        defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0      1

Be sure to leave an empty line at the end of those files when you save them. Some config files require this.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

@ dragon_87
How is it going?
Did you get some software installed with apt/Synaptic? Are your NTFS partitions showing up all right in /media/hda1 and /media/hdb1 ?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Why bother with that tar.bz2 file, Wine's available through apt. What exactly did you do with your /etc/apt/sources.list so far?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Hm, those sources work fine for me. Guess there's still something wrong with your sources.list.

Btw, I wouldn't bother with Wine at your level of experience anyway. It takes some time to set up, results tend to be unrewarding and it really distracts from the most obvious task at hand: Finding real (read: Linux native) replacements for your Windows software. Wine's nice to get that one tool to run which just doesen't seem to have a Linux equivalent in a million years. (Strangely enough, Avidemux became very usable by the time I got VirtualDubMod running with Wine).

Anyway, I'd really move Wine way down on your to-do list.

FELIPE NO

Um, no offense but are you trying to do everything extra complicated?

Just make sure that one line of the file /etc/apt/sources.list says

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt dapper main

then type

sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install wine

into the command line or press "Update" in Synaptic and then look up the program with CTRL+F.



Edit:
Forget about that, just remembered that Wine is x86 architecture only.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?