How to: Dual Boot Windows/Linux

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:


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