Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Desktop Installation Guide with Screenshots

Good News for Ubuntu fans ,after all the wait canonical has released its latest and stable version of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on 26th April 2018. Code name for this release is “Bionic Beaver” and it has come up with various interesting features. In this article, we will be looking about how to install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS in a desktop with screenshots.

Table of Contents

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS – New Features:

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS has been released with a lot of new features and improvements, some of the important features are listed below:

Support and Updates of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS for next 5 Years (April 2023)
New latest and stable Linux Kernel version 4.15
Installer offer a new option of “minimal Installation”
Updated LibreOffice 6.0
The Bionic Beaver supports attractive and beautiful color emojis
18.04 LTS also comes with a new Suru icon theme that will make your desktop much more colorful
Updated GNOME (3.28) desktop environment
XORG is the new default display server and replaces Wayland
Fast and improved boot speed
Along with other major improvements and bug fixes

Minimum System Requirement for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Desktop)

2 GB RAM
Dual Core Processor (2 GH)
25 GB free Hard disk space
Installer Media (DVD or USB)
(optional) Internet Connectivity if you are planning to download third party software and updates during the installation

Step-by-Step Guide to Install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on your Laptop or Desktop

Step 1) Download Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ISO File

Please make sure you have the latest version of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, If not, please download the ISO file from the link here

https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Since Ubuntu 18.04 LTS only comes in a 64-bit edition, so you can install it on a system that supports 64-bit architecture.

Step 2) Create a Bootable Disk

Once the ISO file is downloaded then next step is to burn the downloaded ISO image into the USB/DVD or flash drive to boot the computer from that drive.

Also make sure you change the boot sequence so that system boots using the bootable CD/DVD or flash drive.

Step 3) Boot from USB/DVD or Flash Drive

Once the system is booted using the bootable disk, you can see the following screen presented before you with options including “Try Ubuntu” and “Install Ubuntu” as shown in the image below,

Even though when you click “Try Ubuntu” you can have a sneak peek into the 18.04 LTS without installing it in your system, our goal here is to install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS in your system. So click “Install Ubuntu” to continue with the installation process.

Step 4) Choose your Keyboard layout

Choose your favorite keyboard layout and click “Continue”. By default English (US) keyboard is selected and if you want to change, you can change here and click “Continue”,

Step 5) Preparing to Install Ubuntu and other Software

In the next screen, you’ll be provided following beneath options including:

Type of Installation: Normal Installation or Minimal installation, If you want a minimal installation then select second option otherwise go for the Normal Installation. In my case I am doing Normal Installation
Download Updates While Installing Ubuntu (select this option if your system has internet connectivity during installation)
Install third party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware, MP3 and additional media formats Select this option if your system has internet connectivity)

click on “Continue” to proceed with installation

Step 6) Select the appropriate Installation Type

Next the installer presents you with the following installation options including:

Erase Disk and Install Ubuntu
Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security
Use LVM with the new Ubuntu installation
Something Else

Where,

Erase Disk and Install Ubuntu – Choose this option if your system is going to have only Ubuntu and erasing anything other than that is not a problem. This ensures a fresh copy of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is installed in your system.

Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security – Choose this option if you are looking for extended security for your disks as your disks will be completely encrypted. If you are beginner, then it is better not to worry about this option.

Use LVM with the new Ubuntu installation – Choose this option if you want to use LVM based file systems.

Something Else – Choose this option if you are advanced user and you want to manually create your own partitions and want to install Ubuntu along with existing OS (May be Windows or other Linux Flavor)

In this article, we will be creating our custom partitions on a hard disk of 40 GB and the following partitions are to be created:

/boot 1 GB (ext4 files system)
/home 18 GB (ext4 file system)
/ 12 GB (ext4 file system)
/var 6 GB (ext4 file system)
Swap 2 GB

Now, Choose “Something Else” and Click on continue

You can see the available disk size for Ubuntu in the next window as shown below:

Now in order to create your own partitions, click on “New Partition Table”

Click on Continue

Create /boot partition of size 1GB, Select the free space and then Click on the “+” symbol to create a new partition

Click on “OK”

Let’s create /home partition of size 18 GB,

In the same way create / & /var file system of size 12 GB & 6 GB respectively

Now create last partition as swap of size 2 GB,

Click on OK

Once you are done with the partition creation task , then click on “Install Now” option to proceed with the installation

Now click on “Continue” to write all the changes to the disks

Step 7) Select Your Time zone

Choose your favorite time zone and then click on “Continue”

Step 8) Provide your User Credentials

In the next screen you will be prompted to provide your user credentials. In this screen provide your name, computer name, username and the password to login into Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Click “Continue” to begin the installation process.

Step 9) Start Installing Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

The installation of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS starts now and will take around 5-10 mins depending on the speed of your computer,

Step 10) Restart Your System

Once the installation is completed, remove the USB/DVD from the drive and Click “Restart Now” to restart your system.

Step:11) Login to Your Ubuntu 18.04 desktop

Once your system has been rebooted after the installation then you will get the beneath login screen, enter the User name and password that you have set during installation (Step 8)

And that concludes our step by step installation guide for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and it’s all up to you now to explore the exciting features of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and have fun 🙂

Mr.Anderson

December 3, 2018 at 10:58 pm

Good info! Thx for that! Can you give more information please?
Why you use
/boot 1 GB (ext4 files system)
/home 18 GB (ext4 file system)
/ 12 GB (ext4 file system)
/var 6 GB (ext4 file system)
/Swap 2 GB”??
A lot of tutorial say use 3 partitions:
/
/home
/swap

What about SSD?? Does it need swap (why?, How much?)??
It’s wery interesting question for me and I hope for other people too. Please, give me the answer if you know.

Jose Oliveira

January 26, 2019 at 11:00 pm

On my installation New Partition Table button is not enabled… help please.

malagasy

March 18, 2019 at 11:09 pm

@Mr.Anderson,
separate root partition is necessary if you want to encrypt your disk.
Root partition as ext4 is not the best idea, I would stick with ext2

Zero

April 1, 2019 at 2:13 am

@malagasy do you care to please explain your reason for advising the use of ext2 instead of ext4?

indyubuntu

May 6, 2019 at 10:41 am

my hdd 120gb howto setup?

Chris

June 23, 2019 at 8:37 am

Hi, just wondering, which partition should I put the biggest if I have 500GB SSD?

Thanks

Pradeep Kumar
June 24, 2019 at 1:54 am

Hi Chris,

You assigned most of disk space to /home file system if you are planning to use it as desktop workstation, because all the user’s data will be saved under /home partition in their respective home directory.

1. Chris
  June 24, 2019 at 9:52 am
  
  Thank you for your reply.

Nitesh

July 10, 2019 at 5:43 am

I want to partition whole 1TB harddisk what should I do

Shiva
July 19, 2019 at 12:46 am

In Step 6, click Erase Disk And Install Ubuntu. The installer will take care of everything else.

Rakitha

July 29, 2019 at 2:19 pm

I cant type anything at the step 8.

Andrew

November 28, 2019 at 12:16 am

Hi Pradeep,
Thank you for this helpful post, it is really very helpful. Could you please guide me that I want to partition my whole 320 GB harddisk, so how much spaces should I allocate to the above mentioned partitions?

Pradeep Kumar
November 28, 2019 at 1:54 am

Hi Andrew,

You can try following partition scheme for your 320 GB hard disk,

/boot – 2 GB , /home = 370 GB , /var = 10 GB , / = 30 GB , swap = 2 GB

1. Andrew
  November 29, 2019 at 1:35 am
  
  Thank you so much Pradeep for your reply. Stay blessed..

Asko Karjalainen

December 14, 2019 at 3:42 pm

Cannot instal. Step 6 never appears to my screen, so I cannot choose any options and the Program stops, Only the preview Works. What to do? Processor is ok, core 2, terabyte room in hard drive..??