Ubuntu Dual-Boot Tutorial

[Man of Steel]

I got a PM asking me, of all people, how to go about dual-booting Vista and Ubuntu, and after writing up a rather lengthy response, I figured I may as well post it here where somebody else might get some use out of it, too. NOTE: Follow these instructions at your own risk. I STRONGLY recommend that you do some research through Google and Google Linux, as well as reading through the Ubuntu Forums, before attempting this. As your common sense should tell you, I'm not responsible if you mess up your computer trying this. As far as I know, everything in this post is correct, but it certainly won't hurt to double-check things. I'm no expert at such things, but I have set up a dual-boot before on a few different machines. It's actually far easier than you might be thinking. First you'll need a working CD of the latest version of Ubuntu/Kubuntu. You can download the CD image from their site, HERE or have them send you CDs in the mail, they don't cost anything. Just burn the CD image to a CD using your CD burning program of choice. I've heard Alcohol120% works well. I used InfraRecorder I think. Make sure you burn it as an image and not a data CD, and also be sure to burn it at a slow speed (4x-8x) rather than maximum, as burning it at faster speeds can cause it to hitch during booting or installation, or just plain ruin it. Then you want to boot from the CD; you do this by putting in the disc and restarting your computer (before you restart, make sure the CD burned correctly by letting it run in Windows. It should pop up with a window telling you a little about Ubuntu, and listing a few programs you can use in Windows as well.). It should automatically boot from the CD. If it doesn't, you have to set your BIOS boot order. Start up your computer, and watch with bated breath and lightning reflexes for that BIOS screen. Press whatever key is needed to get into your BIOS as soon as you see the screen (usually it says at the bottom of the screen what key to press, if not, or if you don't want to risk missing it the first five or six times, go here for a list of what keys to press for what BIOSes/computer manufacturers: LIST). In fact, start pressing it repeatedly as soon as you press the power button. That way you might actually get into the BIOS on the first boot. Then just find the setting for boot order, raise your CD drive to priority #1, and save and exit. Then put the CD in and restart. Once Ubuntu loads up (it may ask you a few questions while booting, such as what language to use, what keyboard layout to use, screen resolution, etc., not sure if it still does that these days) go to the equivalent of the Start menu, look in I believe it should be the System, or possibly Utilities submenu, and find QTParted. That's what you'll use to partition your hard drive. You need a separate partition for Ubuntu to install to. You might want to do a little research on partitioning before starting. A quick Google Linux search should turn up plenty on that. You will need to unmount your hard drive before partitioning. That's easy enough to do. Open Konsole (Linux equivalent of Command Line) and type: sudo passwd This allows you to set a temporary password for root (su means switch/super user, do is obvious). After setting the password, type: sudo umount -f /media/sda1 This unmounts your hard drive so that QTParted can access it. Check to be sure it's unmounted with: mount That should list all mounted filesystems. QTParted is pretty easy to use, and if you have any questions there is plenty of online documentation. Using it, you'll need to resize your existing Windows partition, to about half the size of your hard drive, or two-thirds, depending on how much space you want for Ubuntu. I'd make sure you have at least 10GBs for Ubuntu. Then make a new partition in the newly opened-up space, however big you want for Ubuntu minus 1.5-2 times how much RAM you have. So say you have 2 GBs of RAM, save out 3.5-4 GBs space. Make the main (root) Ubuntu partition use the reiserfs file system. Then use that 3.5-4 GBs (relative to your RAM) to make a swap partition for Ubuntu. The file system type should be swap (It may say Linux Swap Partition or the like). This works like virtual memory in Windows. So say your hard drive is 100 GBs, and you have 2 GBs of RAM, you should have say: Windows Partition - 60 GBs (NTFS) Ubuntu Root Partition - 35 GBs (reiserfs) Swap Partition - 4 GBs (swap) A small bit of leftover free space With me so far? Good. It gets easier now. See that little icon on the desktop that says Install? Click that. Then just follow the steps until you get to the partition bit. Make SURE you opt to do that manually, or it could wipe out your Windows installation. All you have to do is select the fresh-made partition you just created a few minutes ago for the root partition, and the smaller (swap) partition for your swap partition. Then follow the steps and prompts from there. Should be a piece of cake, really. PM me if you have any questions, or better yet, PM one of the other guys, like Ynot or possibly wasup or one of the other more Linux-savvy folk that frequent the Tech Talk forum. Also, if anybody sees that I said something wrong here, speak up; I don't want to be responsible for turning someone's computer into a nice paperweight with a shiny screen. Hope this helps, MoS

[Identity X]

Here's what I did. Wubi There is no two

[Replicon]

Yeah, and be sure to understand all those commands. Not every primary hard disk will live under /media/sda1.

[Ynot]

there's not really any need anymore to manually partition things I'll do a screenshot tutorial type thing ********* Burn Ubuntu CD http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/01.png Reboot The Ubuntu Live CD will kick in http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/02.png Choose "Start or Install Ubuntu" Ubuntu will boot up http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/03.png When it's booted, it'll look like this Notice the "Install" icon http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/04.png At this point, you can play around with it, if you want Webbrowsing / email / etc. but it's running off the CD, so will be quite slow To install to your hard drive, click the "install" icon http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/05.png Choose your language, and click forward Choose your location, and click forward http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/06.png Choose your keyboard layout, and click forward http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/07.png Now, the disk partitioning... http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/08.png This will depend on how many disks you have and what your personal preferences are http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/09.png If you have one disk (currently with Windows on it) and you want to dual boot you'll need the first option This will shrink the windows partition, so there's room for the linux partitions If you have one disk (currently with Windows on it) and you want to get rid of Windows altogether you'll need the second option This will delete the windows partition, and the Linux partitions will use the whole disk Then there's the manual partition option Use this if you know what you're doing Seeing as I only have one disk on this virtual machine and I don't want to lose windows I'll be using the first option, and resizing the partitions It'll warn you before making any changes http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/10.png If you're happy, press continue Now the resizing begins This will take some time So be patient http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/11.png Next, you can migrate settings and things over from your Windows install if you wish (email accounts, documents, etc.) I've never really used this feature, but anyhow http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/12.png Now, you get to choose your account name & password also a name for your computer, for networking http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/13.png Don't forget your password... Next is a confirmation screen, before actually installing the system you have the option to go back and change things if you want http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/14.png If you're happy, click Install Ubuntu is now being installed http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/15.png You can still use the Live CD, even while it's installing to the hard disk While you wait, you can pass the time by surfing the net or playing the various games that come with Gnome http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/16.png When it's done, you can reboot into your new operating system http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/17.png You'll have a snazzy new boot loader With options to boot into Linux or Windows http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ubuntu/18.png Enjoy

[Sornaensis]

Here's what I did. Wubi There is no two QuetzacoautalOWNED.

[Man of Steel]

Wow, Ynot, great post, man. I didn't realize that Ubuntu would automatically resize your Windows partition for you now, that's great. I never did get around to installing last night, got tied up doing other stuff. But yeah, that's awesome. Edit: Heh, apparently Kubuntu doesn't do that; I had to manually partition my HDD just now. Got Kubuntu up and running now, though, and KDE 4 installed, though I haven't tested that yet.

[Ynot]

Never used Kubuntu I'm a Gnome guy, always have been but, Ubuntu & Kubuntu would (or, should) be the same (just using different desktop environments) Maybe they're not?? I don't know At any rate It really doesn't matter which you install (and I've never understood the split between the different desktop environments) Install Ubuntu You have Gnome Open up Synaptic Uninstall Ubuntu-desktop Install Kubuntu-desktop You have KDE

[Identity X]

Uninstall Ubuntu-desktop Install Kubuntu-desktop This may sound stupid, but are ou sure these should be the other way round? You wouldn't want to unistall GNOME when using it, would you? Anyhow, GNOME is always sufficient, except for Nautilus, which is shit.

[Ynot]

This may sound stupid, but are ou sure these should be the other way round? You wouldn't want to unistall GNOME when using it, would you? Anyhow, GNOME is always sufficient, except for Nautilus, which is shit. I don't think it really matters too much (admittedly, I've never tried it) uninstalling Gnome (or any other DE) when it's in use will mean it's necessary to log out and log back in again - that's all Using gnome uninstall gnome install KDE log out log back in Now using KDE

[Man of Steel]

I don't think it really matters too much (admittedly, I've never tried it) uninstalling Gnome (or any other DE) when it's in use will mean it's necessary to log out and log back in again - that's all Using gnome uninstall gnome install KDE log out log back in Now using KDE Or you could, you know, not uninstall Gnome, and then you'd have both.

[Ynot]

Or you could, you know, not uninstall Gnome, and then you'd have both. yeah, you can but I find it gets quite messy multiple apps installed for common tasks menus clogged up you'll end up with both gedit (gnome) and kate (KDE) visual text editors, for example

[Oros]

i got my computer dual booted before but i did get tired of linux. i didn't know how to install programs with the command thing so i just got the programs that is installed from the beginning.

[Ynot]

use the command line if you're confident it's quick, easy (after a while) and above all, consistent What you're looking for, is Synaptic - the GUI front end for installing packages (assuming Debian based distro)

[ninja9578]

If he's installing Ubuntu for the first time I'd assume that he's not proficient in the command line. lol Ubuntu has a nice synapsis manager, it's the best package installer that I've ever seen. Must easier than Windows' Installation manager and more thorough than OSX's drag and drop installation.

[Man of Steel]

yeah, you can but I find it gets quite messy multiple apps installed for common tasks menus clogged up you'll end up with both gedit (gnome) and kate (KDE) visual text editors, for example Well, I did it, and despite my former liking of KDE, I find myself really digging Gnome these days. The clogging of menus really doesn't bother me; if it starts to get on my nerves it's easy enough to edit the menus to put the apps in separate submenus. i got my computer dual booted before but i did get tired of linux. i didn't know how to install programs with the command thing so i just got the programs that is installed from the beginning. use the command line if you're confident it's quick, easy (after a while) and above all, consistent What you're looking for, is Synaptic - the GUI front end for installing packages (assuming Debian based distro) If, like me, you can't find it it the menu for some reason, open Konsole and type: sudo synaptic

[Identity X]

If, like me, you can't find it it the menu for some reason, open Konsole and type: sudo synaptic It's in the System menu.

[Oros]

If, like me, you can't find it it the menu for some reason, open Konsole and type: sudo synaptic ok. thx But it doesn't matter for me anymore, cuz i took away ubuntu from my computer.

[Man of Steel]

It's in the System menu. I knew that... >_> ok. thx But it doesn't matter for me anymore, cuz i took away ubuntu from my computer. But you're going to give it back once it stops being bad and learns its lesson, right?

[Out of the Blue]

Yo MoS, can you run Ubuntu (or any distro for that matter) of an external? I have a pansy-ass internal HDD which would be annoying to partition due to size restriction. Though I could always move everything to my external. Also, what are the limitations of just running it off a CD?

[Man of Steel]

. Yo MoS, can you run Ubuntu (or any distro for that matter) of an external? I have a pansy-ass internal HDD which would be annoying to partition due to size restriction. Though I could always move everything to my external. Also, what are the limitations of just running it off a CD? Yep, you sure can. I found a thread with some good info over on the Ubuntu forums. As for just running it from the CD, you're fairly limited in that unless you have an existing Linux partition, you can't save anything, even bookmarks, as far as I know. It's also a bit slower than installed, as it loads the OS into RAM.

[Oros]

I don't know if i'm going to try it again. i just burned it our on a dvd again, but i don't know if i'll try it again.

[Ynot]

I don't know if i'm going to try it again. i just burned it our on a dvd again, but i don't know if i'll try it again. If you are happy with Windows, you know your way around, and find it to your liking, then great Switching for the sake of switching is not really in your best interests - You need a reason to migrate away from MS. If / when you find a reason, then you're free to give any other OS a try

[Ynot]

Yo MoS, can you run Ubuntu (or any distro for that matter) of an external? I have a pansy-ass internal HDD which would be annoying to partition due to size restriction. Though I could always move everything to my external. Also, what are the limitations of just running it off a CD? Both Windows & Linux view external hard disks in the same way as internal disks and modern (within the last 5 years) bios's can boot off of USB drives in the same manner as internal drives Having said that, I personally would advice you to keep any operating systems on the internal disk depending on how your USB is setup, you can get performance bottlenecks (USB hubs can be an issue) but If you're confident on your setup (external disk connected directly through USB 2.0, then you will have no problems) From a partitioning point of view, /usr will take up the most space for the core system /usr will contain all the programs you install (think of it like Windows' "program files", in terms of contents) Install a lot of programs, and /usr will be quite large your home folders (/home/whatever) may also eat up a lot of space depending on how much stuff you produce, download, etc. etc. plus, if you have multiple user accounts (my home folder is approaching 1Tb in size - all the usual crud - documents, images, music, stuff I've downloaded, etc. etc.) With a bit of forethought, you should be able to install the base system of both OS's on the internal drive, and user programs and documents on the external (which I think is the best way to arrange things) additionally, I always try to get the /home on a separate partition anyway this way, you can dual boot between different Linux distros and have them share the same desktop, documents, settings, etc. plus if you accidentally hose your linux system, you can wipe and reinstall without losing any of your music, documents or application settings & preferences

[Oros]

ok, i gave it sa second chance. The computer is using Ubuntu atm, but there is still problems. I cant find codec and such a things to Ubuntu, and the keyboard doesnt work as it use to. *not using a american keyboard* The reason im back to Ubuntu is that Whax, Whoppix, Knoppix or Kubuntu couldnt find my wireless internet card. Someone know how I make them find it?