How to: Dual Boot Windows/Linux - Overclock.net

Higgins · 03-07-09

After venturing into the wonderful world of Linux, and reading all the questions on dual booting Windows and Linux, I've decided to compile an easy guide to help fellow OCN members accomplish this goal.

Disclaimer: I used different, and more time-consuming methods on my own, so for simplicity sake, some information was taken from apcmag.com

Part 1: Dual booting Ubuntu/Vista with Vista installed.

What you'll need:

Windows Vista Installed
Linux w/liveCD capabilities (Used Ubuntu 8.10)
EasyBCD by Neosmart Technologies - download it here
Harddrive partitioner (Used LiveCD portion of the Ubuntu CD)
Computer

Splitting/resizing partitions:

Boot off the Ubuntu CD and select the first menu entry "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer"
After Ubuntu is finished loading, open System, Administration, Partition Editor.
Right click your Vista partition, click "move/resize," and change the value to reflect a 30GB or so deduction.
After you click "Move/Resize" exit the program and restart the computer.

Installing Ubuntu:

insert your Ubuntu cd you burned, boot from it, and select 'Install Ubuntu' from the menu.
Continue through the setup wizard until you get to the partition step. Select 'Guided - use largest continuous free space'
Continue yet again through the setup wizard and it will begin the installation.
After the installation is complete, your computer will reboot and the GRUB bootmenu will appear for 10 seconds before automatically booting into Ubuntu. If this is sufficient for your needs you may simply stop here and use it that way, if not follow these instructions from APCmag.com:

Quote:

Originally Posted by apcmag.com

Firstly, boot into Ubuntu and go to Applications --> Accessories --> Terminal. Then, type in sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst.
This text file contains all the information GRUB uses to configure various boot options. Scroll down and the entries between "## ## End Default Options ##" and "### END DEBIAN AUTOMATIC KERNELS LIST" are the LInux boot options. Slightly further down is the option for the Vista/Longhorn bootloader.
We'll need these entries for use later on, so dump them out to a location accessible by the Vista partition. Alternatively, Ubuntu can access the Vista partition directly - go to Places --> Computer, and double-click into the option marked "xx GB Media". This is the NTFS Vista partition. Ubuntu will prompt for authentication (your Ubuntu password) and then you can either copy the entire menu.lst file into it, or create a new text file on the fly, open it with gedit and copy in the boot entries.
Then restart the machine and boot into Vista
Now we need the latest version of EasyBCD by Neosmart Technologies - download it here. Install the application and launch it.
First, go to "Manage Bootloader" and select "Reinstall the Vista Bootloader", then "Write MBR". This puts the Vista bootloader back into the MBR, but the machine will only boot into Vista.
To enable access to the Linux partition, the best option is to install NeoGrub. Go to "Add/Remove Entries", go the NeoGrub tab and select "Install NeoGrub". This adds the "NeoGrub Bootloader" option to the Vista bootloader.
Once that's done, choose Configure - this launches the NeoGrub menu.lst file, location at C:NSTmenu.lst. Use Notepad or Wordpad to open the file, and then paste in the boot entries. Save and exit, then reboot the machine.
The system will come up with two boot options. Select "NeoGrub Bootloader" and then the Linux boot options will load. Choose the relevant option and the system boot into Ubuntu.

Part 2: Dual booting Ubuntu/Vista with Ubuntu installed.

What you'll need:

Windows Vista Installation DVD
Ubuntu Installed
Linux w/liveCD capabilities (Used Ubuntu 8.10)
EasyBCD by Neosmart Technologies - download it here
Harddrive partitioner (Used LiveCD portion of the Ubuntu CD)
Computer

Vista's bootloader will overwrite GRUB, so as before both options will be explained.

Before you do anything, you must first backup GRUB so there will be a safety net if something were to go wrong and for modifying the bootmenu.

In terminal type in sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst.
Save the text file to a USB flash drive or something for easy recovery.

Splitting/resizing partitions:

Boot off the Ubuntu CD and select the first menu entry "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer"
After Ubuntu is finished loading, open System, Administration, Partition Editor.
Right click your Ubuntu partition, click "move/resize," and change the value to reflect a 50GB+ or so deduction.
After you click "Move/Resize" exit the program and restart the computer.

Installing Vista:

Boot into the Vista DVD and continue through the setup wizard until you reach the partitions section.
The free space you created in the Ubuntu LiveCD will be shown as "Unallocated Space."
Click the link below the white space "Drive options" and create a new partition in the 50GB or so of free space.
Click next, enter your Activation key and such, and initiate installation.
After installation is complete your computer will restart and present you with your new installation of Windows Vista. When you are finished dabbling, we can get the bootloader sorted out.

Setting up the Bootloader:
More indepth explaination of the program in step one, so refer up there if you encounter any problems.

Using the Vista Bootloader:

Install EasyBCD by Neosmart Technologies, and launch it.
On the left panel click "Manage/Remove entries" which should only show "Vista Bootloader" in the selection window. At the bottom under the NeoGRUB tab click "Install NewGRUB"
Browse to where you saved the backup of your GRUB bootloader (Menu.lst), open it in notepad, and copy its contents.
Browse to C:\NST\menu.lst and paste the boot entries. ( between "## ## End Default Options ##" and "### END DEBIAN AUTOMATIC KERNELS LIST")
Now the Vista bootmenu will have "Vista" and "NeoGRUB" as entries during boot. Selecting "NeoGRUB" will launch the GRUB bootmenu.

Using GRUB:

Boot into Ubuntu liveCD environment and open Terminal
To enter the GRUB configuration mode, type in "sudo grub" and press Enter. Type in the following commands in sequence:
- root (hd0,0)
- setup (hd0)
- quit
- exit
GRUB will be installed once again, but as you may notice Vista's boot entry is absent.
open up another Terminal session, and type in sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
Type this at the bottom of the file (Below ### END DEBIAN AUTOMATIC KERNELS LIST):
"title Windows Vista
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1"
A vista entry will be present now in the GRUB menu
To make the bootmenu show every boot, open menu.lst again and change "hiddenmenu" to "#hiddenmenu"

I hope this may have helped someone, and saved them the time it took me to figure out all the bootmenu stuff. Thank you for looking nonetheless.

Please PM me with any input you might have

~Higgins

dpawl31 · 03-07-09

Very well done,will really answer some questions! rep+ deserved.

EDIT- Might want to also throw in there how to uninstall a dual boot setup

Swazi88 · 03-07-09

i take it that it will be about the same if i want to put them on two different drives?

Higgins · 03-07-09

Thank you sir, and that is what the guide is for.. the members.

I will definitely put in how to uninstall, but maybe tomorrow

EDIT: if i'm not mistaken having two seperate partitions would act the same as two drives.. atleast on the user end.

Swazi88 · 03-07-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Higgins

Thank you sir, and that is what the guide is for.. the members.

I will definitely put in how to uninstall, but maybe tomorrow

EDIT: if i'm not mistaken having two seperate partitions would act the same as two drives.. atleast on the user end.

woot woot

thats what i thought thanks and off to install

dpawl31 · 03-07-09

Yes, two drives is really two seperate partitions anyway, just @ two locations.
Will work just the same. Ran my dual boot Ubuntu/XP like that, two drives.
Because I didn't trust the 80gig seagate I had Ubuntu on and didn't want it to take my XP with it lol.

SyncMaster753 · 03-07-09

i'm too afraid to mess up the 550gb's used on my HDD, but this does answer does quell the curiosity

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How to: Dual Boot Windows/Linux

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