So. How DO I dual boot Windows and Linux?

10 January, 2008 at 12:11 pm Quintin No comments

The story on the OLPC project developing a dual boot module for Linux and XP convinced me to wright this.

Getting two operating systems to live together on the same hard-drive, or even on two different hard-drives on the same computer is laughably easy if you use Linux.

For my example I am going to use Ubuntu and Windows XP living together on my laptop’s 20Gb hard drive. I know, I know, it’s a tiny drive by today’s standards, but if you have something bigger lying around why not donate it to me to -ahem- “test” teehee…

Right, Onto the actual Installation…

First, a warning:

BACK UP YOUR DATA!

This installation involves wiping your hard-drive. If you have a cute picture of your ex-girlfriend holding your basset-hound the day before you broke up and you’d rather die than lose that picture, save the picture. I don’t want you to end it all because you tried to install two operating systems. mKay?

Right, let’s get to work.

First off, boot your computer and enter the BIOS. This is achieved by either hitting F2, DEL or any other key as prescribed in your Motherboard Manual. You could also watch the top of the screen during post, it should say something like: “Hit DEL to enter setup” or suchlike.

Set your boot1 device to CDROM. The way of achieving this differs from motherboard to motherboard, so hunt around, you’ll find it.

When you are finished, save and exit.

If for some reason your PC won’t boot, don’t panic, open the case and remove the CMOS battery, this will reset your BIOS to default settings and you can try again. Before you do this however, check the manual, some motherboards require setting a jumper to achieve this.

INSTALLING WINDOWS

Right, insert WINDOWS XP cd in CD/DVD rom, boot. The Windows installation screen should pop up after a while, and you can just follow the prompts for the most part, right off the bat XP asks you how you want to partition your drive.

Read Carefully.

Now, you want to be able to run two operating systems, right? Hokay, you have to partition your hard-drive accordingly.

Using the (relatively) easy to use XP partitioner, you will create four partitions. One for XP, one for your Docs (this is optional), one for Linux, and a SWAP partition.

The XP partition should be at least 5gb. Directly after install you may notice XP takes up only about a gig or so, but XP tends to grow with time. I have a 4Gb partition for XP and after installing Antivirus, Firewall, Antispyware and the service packs it started complaining that I had to little space.

Now the partitioner asks you what file-system you want to use for installation, select FAT32, if you are a bit more tech-savvy you may leave it at NTFS, it’s up to you.

Your Doc’s partition should be about 10gb. You will use this partition from both Linux and XP, so I would suggest that you use FAT32 for this one, I know Linux can live happily with a NTFS partition, but is even happier with FAT32.

Now in my case there is about 5GB left. Make a 512mb partition, this will be your Linux SWAP drive, and format the rest as you please, Linux will reformat those anyway.

Right, run through the install and reboot into Windows at least once, I don’t know why but my machine seems happier if I do this before installing Linux, go figure, it seems to have a little personality all of its own…

INSTALLING LINUX

For now you will not tweak XP, it is just a safeguard in case you wipe the DOCS partition by accident. It happens, trust me, I once wiped a whole working Linux partition just because I clicked on the wrong radio button…

Insert your UBUNTU disk and boot. At the prompt select “Start or install Ubuntu” and gently tap enter. (I once told a guy to “Hit Enter” over the phone and the genius broke his keyboard)

Now things here work a little differently. Ubuntu will not enter into an installation sequence as Windows does. You will boot into a working OS as if it was already installed.

Select “Install” from the desktop.

Follow the prompts and answer the questions until a screen appears asking you how you would install Ubuntu. Do not select “Guided” partitioning, you will wipe everything and have to start over with XP. Do not select “Automatically use largest drive (in some versions it actually states the drive name and size)” because that will wipe your DOCS partition. (See why I told you not to bother with that right now?)

Select “Manually Partition Hard Drive” and you will be offered a plethora of options. First off, untick all the drives, lest you accidentally format your XP installation.

Next tick the 512mb partition, and select mount point as “swap”. The other drive will probably be in the region of 4.5gb in this example, tick it and select mount point as “/” and file system as EXT3.

Click “Forward”, and answer “YES” when asked if you want to reaaaly format those drives. Now the installer will continue to copy the files and install your Linux OS. When all is done you will have the option to reboot or continue with the live disk. Reboot.

CONFIGURING WINDOWS

When your PC reboots (Linux should have automagically popped the disk out for you) you will now have what is called a “Grub Menu”

The options should include Ubuntu, Ubuntu non FB Ubuntu text only and then right at the bottom Windows XP.

Be quick, you normally only have 10sec’s to select one before the boot loader boots automatically into Ubuntu.

Now scroll down to Windows XP and hit (remember – gently) Enter. If all went well you will be able to boot into XP.

Now for the fun, when booting into XP, you will not be able to see the Linux Partitions. XP simply does not recognise SWAP and EXT3 partitions. No biggs though, you will not be needing them anyway.

First of, go into My Computer, and click on Drive D. Create a folder called “My Documents”. This will be your DOCS folder for both setups.

Next click on “Start”, and click on “Run”. Type in “regedit”, make a backup and search for “My Documents”. Be careful here, regedit can mess up Windows no end, so have your wits around you. Edit the values of the My Documents entries to point to D:/My Documents.

Now when you click on “My Documents” you will go directly to the folder you created on the D: drive. Doing it from the Menu Bar is a bit problematic though, I struggle with that.

Now, to set you up with free software in order to make you work easily in both environments.

Windows Updates.

Install SP1 and SP2 for XP. That should take care of many issues you might have with hardware.

E-mail.

XP uses Outlook Express for mail management. It’s a mail manager. That’s it. No frills. Want more? Read on.

I will recommend Thunderbird, and Evolution. Yes Evolution is available for XP! The links for all these will be at the end of the article. The Windows installers are very easy to use.

I recommend a change though. Go to your D: drive and create a “Program Files” folder. Whenever an installer prompts you where to install a program, select D:/Program Files/$”the program you are installing”.

The start menu should automatically list those programs no matter where they are installed.

Setting them up is easy,Thunderbird is a bit easier than Evolution to set up, the only difference being that Evolution is a very complete equivalent to MS Outlook, including a calendar, Address book, Tasks manager and all that the full outlook suite provides for free.

Office Suite.

If you want transparent usability from either OS can MS office immediately. It does not support opendocument formats. Besides there is a free alternative.

OpenOffice. It is also easy to install and set up and includes equivalents to Word, Excel, Powerpoint and has a Database editor to boot.

Graphics Editing.

The gimp. Even if you are heavily into creating professional designs and graphics the Gimp should do it for you. And it’s free!

Internet.

Mozilla Firefox, made by the same people who gave you Thunderbird is a brilliant option. It offers features that are only now available in IE7, and is still years ahead the MS offering.

Antivirus.

AVG free is the best option for me. You could also try CLAM AV.

Firewall.

You could stick with the default Windows Firewall, or try Zone Alarm free. I’d go for Zone Alarm. It allows much more user control and is quite good.

Anti Spyware.

One word – Spybot. That is a brilliant package right there. Spybot Search and Destroy is effective, free and powerful. Look nowhere else.

That takes care of XP, not Ubuntu.

CONFIGURING UBUNTU
Now this is much easyer, except for the My Documents Issue. Linux doesn’t like filenames with a space in them, and I have not been able to reliably symlink (the equivalent of a windows “Shortcut”) to the folder, so for now you will have to manually click on the folder and save documents. Whenever you want to access the folder from a terminal, or make a shortcut, you must either type “My Documents” (including quotation marks!) or My\ Documents. That will let Linux “see” the folder and use it.

As for office e-mail, office suite, and graphics editing – it’s all there. Evolution, OpenOffice and Gimp. Pre-installed. Beautiful hey?

If you prefer Thunderbird as a mail client, no worries, it is easy to install.

SYNAPTIC PACKAGE MANAGER.

In Ubuntu, there is a program called Synaptic Package manager. We will work from there to add the two lacking programs, and Thunderbird should you choose.

Fire up Package manager from your “Administration” Menu, and type in “Thunderbird”. Click on “Search” and it should appear. Mark for installation. Next type in “Firestarter” for your firewall. Mark for installation. Next type in “Antivirus” (I chose Aegis Virus Scanner) and choose one you like and mark for installation.

It’s that easy.

Now click on “Apply Changes” and allow Ubuntu to download and auto install your software.

There, done. With Aegis Virus scanner you might need to run the program from the terminal. Simply type in “sudo aegis-virus-scanner”, enter your password and it will do a complete virus scan.

UPDATING UBUNTU

On the taskbar (which is on the top of the screen as opposed to the bottom with Ubuntu) there should be an “Update Programs” icon, it is orange with a little white star in it. I will be there whenever updates are available. You need only click on that to install the latest updates.

There, nothing else needed. You now have a dual boot PC with fully integrated software allowing you to work with files created in either environment!

Links:

Evolution Email client for Windows

Thunderbird For Windows

OpenOffice for Windows

Spybot Search and Destroy

All Linux Packages should either be installed or available through Synaptic Package Manager.

Enjoy!