How to dual boot Windows XP and Linux (XP installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

judy mackenzie:

Thanks for a great tutorial to dual-boot XP and Ubuntu! All went well with the install, then tried to change boot sequence to make Windows XP default, removed 'saveddefault' from Ubuntu, but did not work, still wanted to boot Ubuntu first. Tried to go back into the terminal to see if I missed something, but now it will not allow me to put the password in, I can type in sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst no problems, and it worked before, so what has happened?hope you can help,want to learn Linux so can ultimately get rid of Windows!'thanks

James Bannan:

The other way to load Windows XP by default is to change the value for “default” from a numerical value to “saved”. Then, GRUB will load whichever boot entry has been marked with “savedefault”.

Hi Judy - don't forget that to use the "savedefault" value to modify the boot menu, you have to use "saved" as the value for "default" instead of a numerical value.  Otherwise the boot menu will pick the default boot option based on the "default" number value.

judy mackenzie:

Thanks for the quick reply James but still not working.Heres an exerpt from the menu.lst, if u send me your email address I can send you a cop y of the lot.

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-10-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-generic root=/dev/sda2 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-generic
quiet
boot

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-10-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-generic root=/dev/sda2 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-generic
boot

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

thanks, Judy

Sweedenburg Field:

At the top of the .lst file (while editing) change the value after default to the value for the slot for XP. I had:

0 - Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic
1 - Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (recovery)
2 - Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
3 - Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery)
4 - Ubuntu, memtest86+
5 - Other OS's Divider(YES, this one is numbered)
6 - Windows XP

So this is my default:
"# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 6"

Along with that, I also edited the groot, which grub assigns as the default root. When I did only this, it didn't help but as it works now, I'm leaving it.:

"## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)" <~ 0,0 is my Windows root value

On a side note, I changed my time limit to 45 seconds because I always seem to look back at my computer when I actually want into Ubuntu as it goes 2, 1...
______________________________________________

Given, there may have been overkill done in this, but it sure fixed my problem. Anyone needing help understanding any of this feel free to e-mail me at Sweedenburg@Gmail.com or SweedenburgField on AIM. I really would Love to help.

panos (New user):

plz help!!
I followed the instructions given with ubuntu 7.10. Linux works fine but now, when i choose to boot with WIN Xp the message,"windows is starting up", appears, but the windows never start up!

Can you plz tell how to fix this?

WhiteKnight (New user):

so I started the install, and at the end of the process, I have a screen that says "Install 99% complete" "Removing All Of Ubuntu Art Work" and its been in that state since last night! Hard drive light occasionally lights (once per 20-30 seconds), mouse moves, but now what do I do? Force a hard boot? Looks like I can hit "back" or "cancel" from the install window. Should I just do a hard reboot and hope for the best?? I thought Ubuntu was more stable than windows? What gives? Please help!

CCCY:

Well : The above guidelines worked for me but not for my friend - now his XP is ruined and can't install ubuntu again ( Don't ask me why ). So people who want to try , it should work , but its slightly risky - What I would do is to think twice before you install - try not to install when you do not really want/need it as its slightly dangerous . But if you install it , I should say : Good Luck ! ( Note : 99.99% sure it will work ) !

AdminGuy:

There is nothing you can do to your MBR that is not recoverable using grub and some basic troubleshooting. Altering the MBR does not change the information on your windows partition AT ALL. The MBR simply points to where the pc should look for an OS. If it is corrupted, or contains incorrect config data, the pc will not boot. This can always be solved non-destructively by writing a correctly configured bootloader (grub, GAG, windows, etc.) installed.

I recommend anyone not familiar with working with MBR's (and anyone who is, for that matter) _BACKUP_ your MBR first, and know how to restore from that backup (boot disc/cd/usb, utilities, etc.) before they proceed.

If you take your time in understanding what you are doing and how/why, you will have a nearly 100% success rate.

tinge (New user):

Hi Adminguy - can you point to any resources on doing this (leanring to fix the MBR) my NTLDR goes missing when I install Ubuntu (in three separate installs) and I'd like to avoid starting from scratch AGAIN...

Jamie:

Hi James,

Thanks for providing the article above. I am hoping to try out Linux for the first time and this looks like it may provide a way in and Ubuntu also looks like a good starting distribution for a novice...

One thing I wanted to clarify about the article before I go ahead is this bit:

"Fortunately there’s almost no preparation needed from the perspective of the XP partition. Of course it needs sufficient space to install Ubuntu, and you can certainly create this space manually using either the latest version of the GNOME Partition Editor (available here), or use the application from the Ubuntu Live CD.

However, Ubuntu will use the same partition managing tools during installation, so we can leave it until that stage of the install."

Does this mean that I can effectively NOT worry about doing any partitioning - getting any other programs apart from the Ubuntu iso (I don't know whether the way Ubuntu does the partioning is any better than another program so I would prefer to follow JUST your instructions). Therefore, can you confirm that I can essentially skip that paragraph and head straight on to the next one starting "Install Ubuntu"

Thanks, Jamie

Augusto:

Thanks for the copy of Ubuntu7_04 included in the latest 'apc' issue (vol. 27, No.6). I followed the instructions to burn a bootable version of Ubuntu but my machine (Dell Dimension 5150) does not boot from the CD. I press F12 at booting time and select option 'boot from CD' but the machine doesn't recognise the CD and sends an error message.

I wonder if I didn't burn the CD correctly. I have checked and all files and directories seem to be there including the file 'start.exe', but still my PC doesn't boot from the CD.

Any help is appreciated.

Augusto

Numto:

You must download the iso file from ubuntu website and use a software like 'Virtual daemon manager' to manage iso file then you can easily burn with a burn sotfware

aj:

I am having the same problem while trying to boot from my CD drive. Could you please let me know how you solved this problem?

Thank You!

chessmaster2000:

check the bios settings. you want the boot sequence to be cd drive first, then hdd or floppy, finaly the drive still left. i have mine set as follows:
cd
hdd
floppy

to do this at initial start-up, access the bios using f-8 before any os starts to load.
you can then scroll down and find the exact application which opens the menu for boot sequence. i have win xp pro, and i use the second or third down the list. if it isn't the correct one hit esc to get back to the original list and check the next. once you set the boot sequence, you want to exit and save the bios settings.
you can then boot from the cd. (if no cd is in the drive, the bios tries to use the next boot entry and so on. if your hdd is second, it will boot from there, so don't worry about not having boot for the hdd os. you do, and it may take just a few short seconds to go through the sequence.)

jbussell:

you can use a basic cd/dvd burning programm to create a live cd like linux i use sonicDigitalMedia Plus but any programm will be similar i just choose the location of the .iso so say i select ububtu7.iso(has to be a .iso file) and click burn image and it burns it i check the cd and it should only have ubuntu.iso (or sam as downloded iso) then restart and boot from a CD it works!!.

Anonymous2:

Ordinary burners don't work because the create another .iso file and put the Ubuntu one in it. you need a .iso burner. these are free. do a google search under ".iso burner free" and use that to burn it. It should work.

ham_radio_rules (New user):

hey use imgburn!
google it an download it then make an chose the frist option
(burn image)the iso will come out as an image file then burn it
then boot on computer to make sure it works

Majkl (User):

Hi, Augusto,

check your BIOS settings - there is a set order in which the boot sequence goes. The PC can boot from the HDD, from DVD-ROM, even from a copy. To boot from the CD/DVD you need to have the optical drive set as the default first option.

As to explain: When started, the PC is seeking some instructions. It checks the first medium (say CD) and when it finds something bootable, it boots up. If the drive is empty, it goes to the second medium (HDD) and boots from there. ... and so on. So, if you have the HDD (where your Win is) set as the first option, it will never boot from your CD.

Also you may wanna seek something about the "MD5 checksum" - a characteristics to make sure your burned CD is a complete match with what is on the Ubuntu site.

wwilliam.klein (User):

Thanks mate, this is done now with dedicated hosting. Really helpful now.

Ismail:

Hi, I installed Ubuntu 6.10 to your instructions, but when I now try to boot to Windows XP my machine just restarts. The GRUB boot menu looks ok from what I can tell. The Windows XP entry is:
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

Do you have any idea what could be wrong and how I can fix it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

jiangzt:

I am Lenovo's

windows dual:

can i instal Ubuntu on an external hard drive instead of partitioning my internal one?

goo321:

yes, you can install second OS on external hard disk.

Fox:

I have followed this tutorial perfectly. I have followed countless other guides as well. I am able to install ubuntu perfectly fine, but on next boot up grub does not take over. Windows still loads without any grub boot loader... I've been working on this issue for days. Anyone have any suggestions why grub isn't starting?

-Fox

John Gilmour:

I have the same problem and no solution either.
I find that if the Unbuntu CD is in the drive, I get a choice of boot. Without the CD, no choice.

John

tim:

I too am having the exact same problem and have followed other guides as well (except I have Vista and XP not just XP). Grub never takes over. I have XP on my second hard drive. And I install Ubuntu on the same drive as Vista (different partition of course).

funkyidol:

I am also experiencing the same problem. I just install ubuntu 7.04 from the live CD but the computer directly boots to windows without giving me the option to boot to ubuntu.
Plz help

shang:

I got the same problem before, so I chang the BIOS setting let the PC boot from HDD first instead of CD, it works, may be work for you.

Majkl (User):

Hi Fox and guys,

as for the issue with smooth installation and dabaged GRUB booting, make sure the GRUB is enabled. Currently using Mint (Debian/Ubuntu - based) myself, I recall there is "Advanced" button in step 6 or so of the installation. There you can tick "Anable GRUB" or "Allow Ubuntu to create a GRUB". I think this might be it.

Majkl (User):

Hi Fox and guys,

as for the issue with smooth installation and dabaged GRUB booting, make sure the GRUB is enabled. Currently using Mint (Debian/Ubuntu - based) myself, I recall there is "Advanced" button in step 6 or so of the installation. There you can tick "Anable GRUB" or "Allow Ubuntu to create a GRUB". I think this might be it.

Fady:

windows xp is not in the list nor is other operatin systems.....any help plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz?

Someone else who had this problem:

I had this problem. You need to follow some of the instructions on this page: http://apcmag.com/5459/dualboot_ubuntu_and_windows_xp

But also... it depends a bit on what your system looks like and this can be different depending on whether you put Ubuntu on before Windows or vice versa or perhaps like me you had Windows first, then installed Ubuntu, then upgraded Ubuntu... that messed up my config a bit.

What worked for me was:

Step 1 - make sure GRUB is used as master boot record - see instructions in link above

Step 2 - check the order of the partitions on your hard disk
Open Terminal (Applications, Accessories, Terminal) then type: sudo gparted
You want to know which drive and partition is Windows - first drive, first partition or whatever. Probably you've only got one drive, but perhaps you've got several partitions... one for Windows, one for Linux, another swap space partition for Linux and perhaps a PC recovery partition.

Step 3 - Open up the boot record with:
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
(in step 1 you made sure this was what would be referred to when your machine boots up).
Just after (or just before) the Ubuntu startup options, put an option for Windows XP like this:

title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

BUT - where I've put (hd0,1) you must refer to the disk and partition numbers you found out in step 2, remembering that Ubuntu starts counting at 0 - so in my example above, hd0,0 means disk 1, partition 1.

Also just a tip - don't put anything else in the file after the last operating system option in the list or it gets confused and says "Unrecognized command"

V Karpuram (New user):

I had the same issue over the weekend where ubuntu doesn't start after installing ubuntu. Here is what i did
1. Installed ubuntu again.
2. Made sure that the disk space allocated to ubuntu is around 50% of the drive.
3. Make sure that you change the boot location of ubuntu to be picked up from the new partition you have created for the ubuntu. Otherwise, the boot information will be defaulted to the xp boot location.

jimmy:

do you need xp pro or will it work on home ed as well tha!

sean:

no, uBuntu will work with any windows operating system, just read the tutorial on the site very carfully.

James L:

I had this all sorted - by PC had Ubuntu 6.04 installed in one partition of the hard drive and Windows XP Pro installed on the other partition.
I just upgraded Ubuntu to version 7.04 using the auto upgrade and suddenly Windows XP is no longer an option in the Boot list. I cannot figure out how to load Windows XP. Anyone got any ideas?
Is pretty terrible, if you ask me, that an upgrade of my second operating system should wipe out my ability to get to my primary operating system... but nice back door attempt to take over the world!
Please Ubuntu sort this out - it shouldn't happen.
Please anyone else help me figure out how to get Windows back. I'm sure it must still be there somewhere. Not that I love Windows, but I have several vital apps that simply aren't supported on Ubuntu.

mrlarone:

same thing's just happened to me, you need to re-write the menu for the grub to add the option to access windows, don't worry it's still there.

1) boot to ubuntu
2) type: sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst
3) at the end of the file type the following:

title XP
root (hd0,0) #note (4)
makeactive
chainloader +1
savedefault #note (5)

4) (hd0,0) means (first hard-disk, first partion) this needs to point to the hardrive with the windows folder loaded (typically c:) for me my c: drive is on the second partion of my first (only) hard-disk so i use, (hd0,1) use qparted in ubuntu if you need to find out what partitions you have.

5) if you want the grub to automatically load to XP then add this line

CHINX21:

How about providing a guide in partitioning when Installing Linux?

palaskas:

Your article on installing dual-boot XP-Linux was very useful. But can you suggest how to uninstall Ubuntu and Grub to end up with original XP clean installation with no dual-boot options at bootup?
Thanks, TP

Skidpad:

Just a comment for all those experiencing difficulty. You can search the Ubuntu Forums and find answers to your questions almost immediately. If not, post your question and people will jump in to help.

The creator of these tutorials here has done a great job and provided a wonderful service to the Linux community, but I bet he doesn't have time to keep up with the demand for help.

www.ubuntuforums.org

Francis:

I burned ubuntu with Roxio, everything was perfect, but when i select start or install from the ubuntu menu, it says : Error reading boot CD. Can someone plz help ?

mahbub_007:

I want to make install linux redhot as a second os on my computer, but i dont know how. My harddrive is already split with ten gigs left to linux, but I'm unsure how to install it without wiping windows. Can anyone helpo me through it?
Thanks

chrisk:

I messed up my linux, so i tried to uninstall it. THE ONLY WAY to completely erase linux is to use the windows recovery console and use the fixmbr command. this will remove GRUB so be sure before you use it.

3qeafkl:

How do you get the partition on an external hard drive to work?

Anonymous121:

it shuld work the same

Josh Warry:

hey i am printing this page now and all the pages are out of order and all stuffed up!

Sally:

How much room do I need to partition for Ubuntu? I have 74 gb free.

The Penguin (Cornerstone member):

You need to have at least 4GB to install Ubuntu.

Kimi:

Partitioning part is too short. It must be detailed bacuse
it's the most important for a healthy drive management.

meox:

yeah.. true a healthy drive is really important.. (downloading linux ubuntu 7.10 gutsy gibbon... hope everything goes well..) also sweet tutorial cause i
use windows for programming but linux is awesome!
:)

binger:

I had XP running fine on my laptop with a SATA hard drive and a IDE cd/dvd drive. I resized XP and installed Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. Everything went great installing and being able to dual boot. But my DVD/CD drive was gone! in BOTH OSes. the hardware wasn't even found in XP's device manager, and I could't find a trace of it in Ubuntu command line lspci/dmesg/etc. I confirmed it was not a bad drive, because I bought a new one, and same thing. Also, I can boot to the CD/DVD drive fine. HELP! does this have something to do with GRUB? MBR? or the scsi/ata drivers in Ubuntu? Why does linux effect hardware in XP?

Dave:

I managed to install everything, got into Ubuntu, set up my 'root' but as soon as I tried to set anything up in the 'usr' directory (I need to use linux for work) it just said 'permission denied' so I tried to log in as root, it said I couldn't log into root from here, so I re-booted and now it just says 'GRUB ERROR 21' at boot up. I found this page and this but none of these things work, or I didn't understand what the hell they were talking about (I'm a C++ programmer, and have used command line linux before) - is there any way I can just get a command line up like you can in Windows recovery mode? Is desktop linux usually this fragile? It booted about twice before self-destructing.

Corey:

I installed another Distro of Linux on my computer.

Unfortunately the version I installed dint give me any kind of bootloader. Disc or otherwise.

Where can I find a step by step guide on how to boot Linux now that I have it without a bootloader?

I've tried to find one, and they all assume I know waaay more than I already do. I am very new to using multiple OS' and partitioning. D:

andrej:

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/ubuntu/releases/7.04/ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso

this link works not. well, the link works, but the file seems corrupted.

try this instead

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Majkl (User):

Hi, Tierro,

YES, Mandriva can dualboot perfectly and YES, there is a neat bootloader. At least myself I had the Mandriva spring upsplash screen appearing with a couple of options such as Mandriva - Mandriva safe mode - and Windows XP. If you are not touching the Win partition, toy are taking no harm. And YES, you can read the Win data from linux.

One remark: from Linux you can read ALL the Win files, even the hidden and system ones. Make sure you do not touch your C: too much - I had difficulties booting up Win after I moved the NTLDR and booot.ini (basically Win booting files) on C:/ to a different folder. Make sure you have a backup copy of every system-looking file that you are touching.

tierro:

Now, i don't have a doubt your tut will not work. But i'm not going to do this yet, because i am not sure if Mandriva Linux can also be dual booted with Windows Xp. (Is there a good bootloader? Will it handle the NTFS partition of XP?)

So let me know, Tierro

Send me a mail

verkeerslicht[## AT ##]gmail[## DOT ##]com

Alex K:

I put the disc into the cddrive and it starts loading the cd, and a window appears that says: Launching Browser, Please Wait..." the window disappears, and nothing else comes out.

Boberick:

I followed the tutorial and I lost all my xp!!!

I can reinstall XP and try again but does any one know why this might have happened?

Thanks

Anonymous-999:

I installed XP on my new assembled PC.
Expecting to install a Linux, I partitioned the HD
into C (200GB) for Windows XP and the rest as D(120 GB- not sure about the name).

Now the Windows XP does not see the patition other than C.
How do I insatll Ubuntu on the partion D I prepared during
the XP installation ?
The Ubuntu CD does not see the D partion either.

Thanks for help.

Anonymous99:

did you forget to format your new partition in windows?

Dexter:

It seems like I can't connect to the internet on Ubuntu. I'm trying to get on the wireless network at home, but it does not seems to connect for some reason. The system can find my network card, so that's not it. Could it be that my network card driver isn't working, because this is Ubuntu instead of Windows XP?

My network connection is as far as entering the passphrase. A while after that, the button 'Login to Network' comes up, but when I click it, my computer still won't connect to the internet.

I haven't tried Windows yet, by the way. I installed Ubuntu next to Windows XP Home and first thing I did was booting Ubuntu.

[Focus]:

the tutorial says that you can remove the savedefault value from the ubuntu so that XP will be the one to automatically boot. another option stated in the tutorial is the ability to hide the GRUB loader.

now, if i do both: make XP the only default, hide grub at the same time (and possibly set xp to the first position), how would i be able to load ubuntu?

trigger:

i have windows xp installed on my system and i want to install likux kubuntu 7.04 on my system as the 2nd boot. but it seems that it wont install. i followed the intructions but still it wont. i need help from you guys! thanks!

McKenna:

Having a problem with kubuntu 7.10 live cd, boots fine and I get the menu to start kubuntup.

I get a box appear and it says loading kernel gets to 100% and then my system sits there doing nothing and my monitor goes to standby. Have ben told by another forum to shut off splash and quiet in the f6 menu and I can see where it seems to stop which is at;

*running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local) [OK]


Anyone know of this problem. I downloaded the iso a couple of days ago, and burned it to disc with image burn

Henrik:

Hello McKenna

Have exactly the same problem as you had 72 days ago. Did the problem solve?
Need some help with this.

taqeem:

hello everyone
i had a little problems with grub
i need to change the grub everytimes i turn on the computer
help me please

Mauricio:

Hello, sorry I need some help.
I have a hp laptop pavilion dv8000 which uses xp media center and I want to install ubuntu 7.10
So when I am installing it has no problems
but never run the ubuntu neither appear the menu to choose the os to run
After have tried a lot of different possibilities I finally try installing ubuntu alone but then when is trying to load appears a message telling that the partition table is wrong and nothing else happened
Have some one a possible solution?

josh:

Hi. I follow the instructions on changing windows to default os but when I open my menu.lst file it is blank and I cannot edit anything. Any ideas?

Susie:

I would like to install ubuntu on a 2nd hard drive and creat a dual boot. I understand I can do a dual boot using the same hard drive with a partition. Can I choose what hard drive I want to install this on?

steved88998:

BEWARE! DO NOT USE THIS TUTORIAL WITH THE NEWEST UBUNTU VERSION (7.10)

It IS MISSING SOME STEPS for version 7.10

I have XP installed in a 60gig partition of my 250gb hd. When I get to the "Prepare disk space" screen, the screen looks different and only shows me 51% on slider bar.

When I select forward as this tutorial recommends, I get a ""Migrate Documents and Settings" screen that shows my xp partition. This is NOT mentioned on this tutorial and I was completely LOST. If you continue as this tutorial tells you, your whole XP will be destroyed.

I have searched and found MANY others who have WIPED OUT their XP partition using this tutorial with version 7.10


BEWARE! DO NOT USE THIS TUTORIAL WITH THE NEWEST UBUNTU VERSION (7.10)

Anonymous94488383:

will not work for 7.10 Inconsistent screen shots

AsdF:

This tutorial is missing 1 step but i dont think that someone who wants to install Ubuntu 7.10 wont be able to install it.

I installed without problem to my machine that is running Windows XP Home.

qhawk:

I had to fix the boot sector using this step 6 of this guide, but then is worked fine. http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6031733.html?tag=nl.e138

Sergio:

I followed the instructions for the Vista/Linux dual boot since I had installed Vista on my orignally XP computer. I did a system restore to bring back XP since Vista was not exactly what I hoped. Now when I go to manage disks I see that I still have the healthy partition where Ubuntu was installed. How can I load Ubuntu since I apparently don't have GRUB anymore (it just starts the computer on XP without any list to choose which OS to run)? I have no way to access the partitions on which Ubuntu is installed that I know of. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Majkl (User):

Hi, Sergio,

I think as you had Ubuntu running and reinstalled he XP, I think the XP took over completely, including the bootloader (it does not recognize other OSes, unfortunately). You may be able to work something out about the fixmbr and the Win recovery console - but clumsy as it is, I would personally consider reinstalling the Ubuntu.

tez (New user):

hi all when i try to install ubuntu with windows xp already installed I get the ubuntu screen up press enter it loads the kernal then i get a blank screen. it is a disk from sourceforge. any offers

tez (New user):

hi all. tried to follow the guide with a sourceforge disk. get the first page up press enter then it loads the linux kernal and I end up with a blank page. how long does it take to load. or do i need to enter a command.

panos (New user):

plz help!
I ve followed the rules, ubuntu 7.10 works fine!
but when i try to enter windows a message appears: starting up!!
but nothing happens!? what's wrong? plz help me!!!

Leandro Faraudo (New user):

I'm wondering if the partition manager will let me create more than 1 partition (my understanding it it creates only 1 additional when preparing disk space if I choice the firts option). Is this a choice in the "manually edit partition table?"

Majkl (User):

Hello, Leandro,

the partition manager will of course let you create as many partitions as yo wish.

If you have some Win OS partition on the disk already, you can resize it to get free space and then hit "create a new partition" as long as yo have free space. Anyway, you will need one partition created for the mountpoint (the linux space) and one gor swap.

Bwalya Darius (New user):

These instructions are very much credible.Things worked so well even with ubuntu 7.10 Gatsy Gibbon.Thanks for the guide

hsoJosh (New user):

I need Help RIGHT now !!
Im at the part where i have to change a value to 4 ??
Which value.. Its just a huge table of Algorithms or something..

Majkl (User):

Hi, Josh,

you are changing the GRUB boot options in the menu.lst, right? open terminal, peck in "sudo gparted /boot/grub/menu.lst", insert password at a prompt and when the file opens, look at the "default" parameter. Indeed, the line only reads "Default 0".

If you change this number incorrectly (i.e. if you type "2" by mistake), do not worry, you`ll get the splash screen as usual, only the default item will be different. You will have to chose Ubuntu and edit the menu.lst again.

hsoJosh (New user):

I need Help RIGHT now !!
Im at the part where i have to change a value to 4 ??
Which value.. Its just a huge table of Algorithms or something..

SLi (Regular user):

pfffft!
why ubuntu ?
why not OpenSuse? :)

jasmeet (New user):

When i try to install Ubuntu on Dell inspiron 6400 I am not getting an option to resize hard drive

jasmeet (New user):

When i try to install Ubuntu on Dell inspiron 6400 I am not getting an option to resize hard drive

jasmeet (New user):

When i try to install ubuntu from the live CD i never got an option to resize existing partion. Just got an option to use the entire disk for installation. What should i do to make ubuntu partition

Majkl (User):

"When i try to install ubuntu from the live CD i never got an option to resize existing partion. Just got an option to use the entire disk for installation. What should i do to make ubuntu partition"

re you sure the liveCD is not corrupted? When downloading the ISO, you should allways check the MD5 checksum to make sure it is flawless. Whatever I have tried so far (Ubuntu 7.07, Mandriva, Fedora, Mint), it offered me Manual partitioning too.

blade1312 (New user):

so does installing it need grub installed already or does it automatically do that.And can you install linux in a second hard drive instead of doing it in the same HD because i don't have alot of space in the primary one?

nuuuurrrrrrrrr (New user):

NEED HEEELLLLPPP PLEEASe, i have 2 partitions, 1 with linux mepis antiX 7.2 and 1 with windows xp. i installed linux after, and installed the grub boot loader that the installation prompted me to install. however, now when i boot my computer the grub menu goes directly to the mepis boot menu where it asks me wat type of mepis i want to boot (lite, no net, etc). i cannot get to windows xp! i have read about changing the menu.lst file but i can never get to this file. there is no gedit folder or nano folder, i dont know if menu.lst file exists! when i try to execute 'sudo nano/boot/grub/menu.lst' it says that user is not allowed to execute /usr/bin/nano/boot/grub/menu.lst as root on localhost. i cannot access the /usr folder. maybe this problem is simply just to change that menu.lst file, jus help me find this stupid thing! thankss

Majkl (User):

Hi, nuuuurrrrrrrrr,

first of al, "gedit" is a command, not a folder. The menu.lst is usually stored in boot/grub/. It is a text file but cannot be updated unless you have the admin privileges.

Now, "sudo" gives you the privileges (will ask you about your password), "gedit" will edit the file, the rest is a route to the file itself. Instead of logging in as Roor, I suggest you try a Terminal command.

nuuuurrrrrrrrr (New user):

i finally found menu.lst , i opened it and changed it, but when i save it, it says 'Cannot open file to write' i alredy have it openned in the leafpad/notepad app, so i dont kno what its saying! thanks

Majkl (User):

"i finally found menu.lst , i opened it and changed it, but when i save it, it says 'Cannot open file to write' i alredy have it openned in the leafpad/notepad app, so i dont kno what its saying! thanks"

Hi,

the menu.lst is a protected file, you need to open it as a Root. Open the Terminal, type "sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst" (or whatever the path is in your distro) and it will open for editing. Change the default OS, change the timestap (how many seconds the bootloader will wait for your decision) and save. Easy as this.

mscir (New user):

I installed ubuntu to the 2nd hdd on a system with xp in the 1st hdd, no grub menu - always boots into windows. Ran the following commands, no joy:

sudo grub
root (hd0,0)
sudo (hd0)

suggestions?

viking61 (New user):

please tell me how to open july apc cd i am new to this

Adrian De Ratt (New user):

See my other post. The old double post got me on this one. Sorry about that Chief! (-:

Adrian De Ratt (New user):

Hi there. I've found that the easiest solution to this whole trip is to physically disconnect all your other hard drives, before installing Linux on a separate hard drive completely. Then when you want to change OS's, change the boot order in the BIOS. This way you will never have any MBR/boot order problems what so ever, ever. I know some people will think this method a little extreme, but it's almost fool proof. And if you only occasionally change OS's (like me), it works like a dream. HTH. -Adrian

Blaine (New user):

I done all this.. when rebooting.. Grub loads immediately.. no option for windows

Harapa (New user):

I did all this except I used Unetbootin to install the Ubuntu. But I did creat a mess that I ask your help to deal with.


In preparation for installing Ubuntu on my system, I prepared my HD as below using Gparted. It worked fine without any problems.

Partitioned as
40 MB FAT
40 GB, primary, NFTS, WINXP OS installed
30 GB, primary (reserved for Ubuntu) NTFS formatted
20 GB, extended, NTFS, for my Data
10 GB, extended, NTFS, for my data
12 GB, extended, not formatted

Then I installed Ubuntu using Unetbootin and Ubuntu 8.4 iso file. I had to use Unetbootin as I couldn't burn the ISO image to a CD for one reason or the other. Installation went well but I ended up creating following partitions, as I let the system decide on partition sizes the 30 GB reserved for Ubuntu.

40 MB FAT
40 GB, primary, NFTS, WINXP OS installed
3.0 GB, primary, Ubuntu OS installed ext 3 ad /dev/hd3
1.12 GB Drive as SWAP, in extended partition
26.93 GB Drive as extended partition
20 GB, extended, NTFS, for my Data
10 GB, extended, NTFS, for my data
12 GB, extended, not formatted

Just to mention I wanted to use 30 GB for SWAP and Ubuntu OS (other programs that I might install) and 12 GB free in the extended partition for storage of personal data linked to Ubuntu exclusively.

Having created a smaller then desired Ubuntu partition I tried to play with partitions using Gparted and ended up deleting all data on all partitions created during the installation process.

Now when I boot the system stalls during the boot with the following message

Grubb Load

Error 15

Any help to boot into XP or regain the control of the system will be greatly appreciated

Majkl (User):

Hi, Harapa,

I am not sure here but your disc repartitioning looks rather wild. If you are running a dualboot, I suggest you have the primary Win partitions in one piece at the beginning (left side) of the disc and the free space reserved for Ubuntu (which you will further divide to get the swap and things...) again all in one piece on the right side. The confusion you have may generate some mess.

BTW, are you still able to see your Win files if you reboot with the liveCD?

x (New user):

agnish :
can you please tell a way to restore the xp boot menu after installing linux. i have tried

Majkl (User):

"can you please tell a way to restore the xp boot menu after installing linux. i have tried"

You`ll need to restart with the Win install CD, hit "R" to enter the Recovery console, enter your User ID and admin pass and follow with the "fixmbr" and/or "fixboot" commands.

By the way, it takes less than a minute to google this up...

lad (New user):

how do i get XP to start as the default

lad (New user):

how do i get XP to start as the default

Majkl (User):

"how do i get XP to start as the default"

Open Termional, type "sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst" and the linux bootloader file will open. Find the line saying "Default .....0" and change the number according to where your XP is in your boor menu. 1st position is 0, 2nd position is 1, etc.

By the way, have you checked any linux forum`s FAQ?

madzach2000 (New user):

is it safe to get XP SP3 after doing this

madzach2000 (New user):

is it safe to get XP SP3 after doing this

Kari (New user):

I have tried to install Ubuntu within Windows and when I chose to boot from Ubuntu I get a black screen for the menu which is in code, where do I go from here. Can someone please help me.
Tx Kari

rayb (New user):

I am trying to dual boot my current system which is-

1/ Hddo drive c 80gb xp pro sp3

2/ hdd1 drive d 40gb me

so I want instructions on how to make my drive d hdd1 40gb Me
system as replaced with dual boot Ubuntu 8.0.4 , thus keeping
my xp pro sp3 on Hdd0 drive c, so I can have a dual boot Hdd0 xp pro sp3
on drive c 80gb and Ubuntu drive d Hdd1 40gb, can you help,
as not sure where I load up the iso disc I made of the Ubuntu onto what
current systems on either xp pro or Me, and does it pickup that I have two
seperate drives????????????

ray

rayb (New user):

I am trying to dual boot my current system which is-

1/ Hddo drive c 80gb xp pro sp3

2/ hdd1 drive d 40gb me

so I want instructions on how to make my drive d hdd1 40gb Me
system as replaced with dual boot Ubuntu 8.0.4 , thus keeping
my xp pro sp3 on Hdd0 drive c, so I can have a dual boot Hdd0 xp pro sp3
on drive c 80gb and Ubuntu drive d Hdd1 40gb, can you help,
as not sure where I load up the iso disc I made of the Ubuntu onto what
current systems on either xp pro or Me, and does it pickup that I have two
seperate drives????????????

ray

rayb (New user):

I am trying to dual boot my current system which is-

1/ Hddo drive c 80gb xp pro sp3

2/ hdd1 drive d 40gb me

so I want instructions on how to make my drive d hdd1 40gb Me
system as replaced with dual boot Ubuntu 8.0.4 , thus keeping
my xp pro sp3 on Hdd0 drive c, so I can have a dual boot Hdd0 xp pro sp3
on drive c 80gb and Ubuntu drive d Hdd1 40gb, can you help,
as not sure where I load up the iso disc I made of the Ubuntu onto what
current systems on either xp pro or Me, and does it pickup that I have two
seperate drives????????????

ray

rayb (New user):

I am trying to dual boot my current system which is-

1/ Hddo drive c 80gb xp pro sp3

2/ hdd1 drive d 40gb me

so I want instructions on how to make my drive d hdd1 40gb Me
system as replaced with dual boot Ubuntu 8.0.4 , thus keeping
my xp pro sp3 on Hdd0 drive c, so I can have a dual boot Hdd0 xp pro sp3
on drive c 80gb and Ubuntu drive d Hdd1 40gb, can you help,
as not sure where I load up the iso disc I made of the Ubuntu onto what
current systems on either xp pro or Me, and does it pickup that I have two
seperate drives????????????

ray

kel (New user):

Hmmmm, think maybe something weird was going on with my posting there !! Only meant to post once DOH!!

kel (New user):

Hi I've had a look at your linux/xp dual boot how-to and tried to access the menu.lst file from the terminal but I keep getting a 'command not found' msg. I've even tried cd'ing to the directory that this file is in and then typed sudo menu.lst but still get the same error msg. Any idea why this may be?? I'm the only user on my laptop and have admin privilages I think. (ps I'm usuing ubuntu v.8)

kel (New user):

Hi I've had a look at your linux/xp dual boot how-to and tried to access the menu.lst file from the terminal but I keep getting a 'command not found' msg. I've even tried cd'ing to the directory that this file is in and then typed sudo menu.lst but still get the same error msg. Any idea why this may be?? I'm the only user on my laptop and have admin privilages I think. (ps I'm usuing ubuntu v.8)

LeeC (New user):

Great tutorial but I am having some really strange problems. I am running a twin drive system, a SATA drive and an IDE drive. The IDE drive was installed first and XP was installed at that time. Then I added a SATA drive after it became spare from another machine. Windows still recognises the IDE as Drive 0 and the additional SATA drive as Drive 1.

When I installed Ubuntu, it showed the drives the other way round, i.e. the SATA drive was sda and the IDE was sdb. I had set up my drive with multiple partitions ready so I had to do the "Make space for Ubuntu" step under "Manual" settings to make sure things got installed where I wanted them to go.

The first time I left the default hd0 setting (in the "Advanced" settings during Linux install after entering your details) and the Grub loader didn't appear. The next time, I changed it to hd1 and the Grub loader appears but every option in the boot menu gives me an "Error 22: No such partition" message.

Have never installed Linux before this so the whole thing is as new as new can be. Can anyone offer any suggestions to resolve the problem at all?

jra (New user):

When I get to the prepare disk screen I do not have the Guided: resize partion option. I only have Guided: Use entire disk, Guided: use largest continuous free space and Manual. I have 96MB free on a 1.6 GB disk. I did the defrag and the graph looked good. I tried the largest continuous space option and it only recognized 8MB.
I just read an earlier post by majkl who had this problem and the reply said to "you sure the liveCD is not corrupted? When downloading the ISO, you should allways check the MD5 checksum to make sure it is flawless". I'm not sure how to check that.
Okay I found the checksum utility on the help page and the file checked out fine. Now What?

Charles (New user):

Trying to install Ubuntu 8.04 for dual boot on WIN XP SP3 box. When I get to Step 3- Prepare Disk Space, I do not show the first partitioning option-- Guided Resize. I only show the Use Entire Disk, Use Largest Contig. Free Space or Manual options. What do I do?

TIA

Majkl (User):

Quoting Charles:
Trying to install Ubuntu 8.04 for dual boot on WIN XP SP3 box. When I get to Step 3- Prepare Disk Space, I do not show the first partitioning option-- Guided Resize. I only show the Use Entire Disk, Use Largest Contig. Free Space or Manual options. What do I do?

Hi, Charles,

there may be some mishmash on the live CD, you may want to check the MD5 checksum characteristics against the Ubuntu website (works with Linux Mint, should be the same with Ubuntu).

Apart from that I suggest you go with Manual as I did my very first time. It will give you an option to resize tour existing Win partitions, then you create a Linux partition (ext3 system, mount point "/") and the swap. (you may wanna write details about your Win partitions down on some paper to make sure they are left aside) and off you go! There is not much to worry.

Majkl (User):

Hi, Charles,

there may be some mishmash on the live CD, you may want to check the MD5 checksum characteristics against the Ubuntu website (works with Linux Mint, should be the same with Ubuntu).

Apart from that I suggest you go with Manual as I did my very first time. It will give you an option to resize tour existing Win partitions, then you create a Linux partition (ext3 system, mount point "/") and the swap. (you may wanna write details about your Win partitions down on some paper to make sure they are left aside) and off you go! There is not much to worry.

Majkl (User):

Quoting Charles:
Trying to install Ubuntu 8.04 for dual boot on WIN XP SP3 box. When I get to Step 3- Prepare Disk Space, I do not show the first partitioning option-- Guided Resize. I only show the Use Entire Disk, Use Largest Contig. Free Space or Manual options. What do I do?

Hi, Charles,

there may be some mishmash on the live CD, you may want to check the MD5 checksum characteristics against the Ubuntu website (works with Linux Mint, should be the same with Ubuntu).

Apart from that I suggest you go with Manual as I did my very first time. It will give you an option to resize tour existing Win partitions, then you create a Linux partition (ext3 system, mount point "/") and the swap. (you may wanna write details about your Win partitions down on some paper to make sure they are left aside) and off you go! There is not much to worry.

Majkl (User):

Hi, Charles,

do not be a softie and go ahead with the manual. ;o)

Write down name of the Win partition (to make sure you do not accidentally delete it), then resize it to get free space, then Create a new linux partition, determine mountpoint, create swap and off you go.

fathhi (New user):

I just see the comments but i i can't get the tut, I think something wrong with my internet.

fathhi (New user):

okay guy I' beginer in linux world, and I dont know anything about it.
what should I press when i insert the cd of ubuntu. f1 or .... i dunno what.

Majkl (User):

Hi, fathhi,

the MD5 is basically code (for linux Mint it is "b19dd5164828c9725b30fb6394ce29f2") describing the file contents to make sure that your linux ISO is (flawlessly downloaded and burned) exactly what was published on the distro website. There needs to be match between your ISO and the website source. There is a neat description in the Linux Mint Elyssa user guide so lemme paste something in:

If you happen to run Windows, chances are you don’t have md5sum installed. You can get it from here: http://www.etree.org/md5com.html
Place the ISO file and the md5sum.exe in the same place (let’s say in C:\) and run these commands in the Win command line:

C:
cd \
md5sum LinuxMint-5.iso

...this will give you the MD5 code for the ISO you actually have. Compare the signature to the one present on the website. If they are identical, the ISO is good and the error is elsewhere.

Note: I cannot tell if the distro you are up to is providing any MD5, you may need to check the specific forum.

jra (New user):

Quoting Majkl:
...this will give you the MD5 code for the ISO you actually have. Compare the signature to the one present on the website. If they are identical, the ISO is good and the error is elsewhere.

My md5 checked out good but I still do have the guided: resize partition option available. What else should I check?

Azy84 (New user):

this is for ubuntu.. how bout the others? fedora and centos?

rayb (New user):

I have already dualbooted with xp pro sp3 and Kubuntu
but running into problems with modem not regonized and cant
find a driver??????

ray

Majkl (User):

Tried Google? Ever heard of ubuntuforum.com?
-
Please let me gently note that driver- or specific issues are rather beyond this site.

jra (New user):

GRUB Issue:
I am using a MS USB wireless keyboard. It is not live when GRUB loads so I can't select my OS. Is there any solution other than a hard wired keyboard?

John Shewsbury (New user):

I need help, when I try to install the Ubuntu (on my Vista laptop), it stuck on the screen where they show Ubuntu logo and progress bar - stuck at 25% for half an hour and after several attempts, I decided to abort the installation. The same happens when I just want to "Try Ubuntu"

By the way, when I try the CD in my other laptop running Windows XP, it works fine, I can "Try Ubuntu" and "Install" it accordingly, so I guess it's not the CD but maybe something else.

Is it something to do with my Vista Home Premium?

Can any of you help me please????

fine4u2say (New user):

Ubuntu 8.04 does not import my windows XP wireless driver. It will not connect. Kubuntu sees my network but doesn't use the drivers and doesn't connect. Downloading goes to my D drive but still no driver. Running from the CD causes the wireless network to never start. HELP!

The geek (New user):

I assume your talking about dual booting from the same hard drive.. What about if your like me and are dual booting from different hard drives? Isnt the BIOS supposed to detect different drives-0/Ss and give you the option which to choose?

Thriell (New user):

My 80 gig hard drive is already split into several partitions:
Primary: 8 gigs (C: drive)

Unallocated: 10.5 gigs

Extended containing the following logical drives:
D: 12 gigs
E: 8 gigs
F: 5 gigs
G: 12 gigs
H: 23 gigs

How do I convince the install to just use the free space after my primary partition? By default, it wants to eat my whole hard disk.

David_VW (New user):

Thanks for the nicely-done guide; however, installing 2 OS on one disk is not nearly as desirable as doing so on 2 separate disks. May I request a HOWTO for Linux/Windows on multiple disks? I there one coming?

I have read some HOWTOs on this, but they all lack certain details and are not very descriptive, concise or professional. Need a bit more guidance I guess.

thanks

bbah (New user):

Hello,
Anyone there to help. I successfully installed both ubuntu and win xp. I just editted the menu.lst file in grub in my ubuntu and placed the win xp above the other OS so that it boots first. I changed (hd0,1) to (hd0,0) for the win xp and the other ubuntu hernels I changed from (hd0,0) to (hd0,1). Now my system could not start. It gives me the OS's but if I choose win xp it will say error 13 and if i choose ubuntu it say error 17. I desparately need help. email: bbah74@gmail.com

Joe G (New user):

I've tried on three different computers (after changing boot order) and am unable to get any of the three computers to bring up Ubuntu installation. I continue to get either XP or a black screen suggesting I choose one of three options to start windows. I would really like to explore Linux but am apparently unable to get my computers to boot it from a disc. Will anyone help a dolt out on this? Thanks....

DannyP87 (New user):

I've burned the CD and everything seemed great. But when I got to the partition phase I don't think it reconsigned that I had XP already on so it said it would use the whole 320GB of my HDD to install Linux on with no slide bar to choose how much I wanted just for Linux.

I still need XP!

Anyone help pleeeeeease!

Majkl (User):

Hi, Danny,

two questions:
Have you defragmented you disc before you started playing with the ISO?
What about checking the MD5 checksum (google it up - it is a code that will show you whether your ISO has been downloaded and burned correctly).

Gary Hedberg (New user):

I needed to repair a customer's PC that had Linux and Windows XP dual booted. Linux was on a separate partition already. The XP installation was hosed. Tried for hours to do a recovery. No dice. Had to do a complete fresh install of XP. In the process the boot menu to choose Linux or XP was hosed so now no boot menu is presented and the system only boots to XP. How can I repair this without doing a complete reinstallation of Linux?

Thanks for any help or advice.

Gary Hedberg
gary@hedberg.org

GERARD (New user):

Hi, i have follwed this and both xp and ubunti work fine, but to erestore peace back into my home! How do you move XP up to the top of the boot menu

Majkl (User):

Hello, Gerard,

you need to edit menu.lst.

Open terminal and type "sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst". Insert your root password. The file that opens contains a list of OSes present in the PC ... and items such s "default" and "timeout".

"timeout" is how long (sec) the loader will wait before it picks the defaults OS.
"default" is number of the OS the loader will load. So if you have "0 - Ubuntu / 1 - Ubuntu memtest" / 2 - WinXP", change the Default value to "3". Yes, 3 - the order is 0 - 1 - 2, so XP is 3rd system in a row.

Computergrl27 (New user):

Want to dual-boot XP and Ubuntu. I have a 20GB HD as my primary master with XP already on it.(Yeah I know, I've had this computer for 7 years!!) I just installed a new 320 GB HD as the primary slave(there is nothing on it as of yet). This is the drive that I intend on installing Ubuntu on but I am unsure if it going to work the way I have it set up. I don't want to sound stupid, but will a dual boot work if the second OS is not on the master drive? I am very new to all this and I need help!!

Majkl (User):

Hi, girl,

I have not had much experience with different physical disc - but by advice would be go on and try. ;o) The installer will ask you about the partition where you want your linux placed so just make sure you do not format your Win and follow the instructions. If yo are installing linux after the Win, it should recognize present systems automatically - it will most probably map the Win partition on C: as "hda1" (1st sector on master) and linux as hdb1 (1st sector on slave). Good luck!

stash124 (New user):

I got the cd and downloaded and I'm impressed with the features. Now I've been using to ubuntu and with my wireless setup it detected the wireless card and picked up the wifi that I get at my wireless cafe but I'm having problems with linux xp it detects the card but when I start firefox it gives me an error no network found. Can you offer any suggestions?

TechMata (New user):

I just want to say Thanks for this post!
I have just finished dual booting my laptop with xp installed first without any problems. ^_^

http://techmata.blogspot.com/

MacGyverDB (New user):

Was not able to complete the installation of Linux on my Dell Inspirion 6000. Ubuntu partitian adjuster had an error and I was forced to abort. Took quite a long time to get XP Home SP3 to come back up. It said the drive was dirty & went through a battery of tests & whatever it does to put it back. Any ideas?

MacGyverDB (New user):

I was unable to get this to work. Ran into an error in ubuntu for adjusting the partition. I aborted the install. Would the problem be because I have XP Home SP3? UPDATE: I had a thought after I'd posted. I went and defraged the system. Hope to try again soon.

MacGyverDB (New user):

Me again. Big point that needs added to this process. DEFRAG BEFORE YOU BEGIN ANY OF THIS! I defraged with MS's verson & then with a free downloadable version. The install process as described here worked perfectly.

Majkl (User):

Hi, MacGyver,

yes, this can be done. You may encounter some adventure dealing with the bootloader (the tab when you select the OS after a bootup) - I think in some cases the Win bootloader may not recognize neighbour OS. For this reason you may either want to install linux as the last OS (it should auto-pick all Win and hopefully your illegal MacOS too), or do some magic (adding an item for every OS on the disc) in the menu.lst.

MacGyverDB (New user):

Now that I have this dual booting of Ubuntu & XP Home working. How do I make a multi-boot...I'd like to add Vista at some point & later add Windows 7 then add MacOS. Is it even possible, given a large enough hard drive, or should I just get System Commander instead?
This is a learning experience for me and I want to add these OS's in order to learn them.

AndyCee (Advanced member):

You can boot into as many OS's as you like, but you might want to look into something like "supergrub" for complicated boot options.

And just mentioning, you can't legally install OSX on a non-Mac computer, though if you wanted to you'd have to look into making what's called a "Hackintosh".

Majkl (User):

Hi, MacGyver,

yes, this can be done. You may encounter some adventure dealing with the bootloader (the tab when you select the OS after a bootup) - I think in some cases the Win bootloader may not recognize neighbour OS. For this reason you may either want to install linux as the last OS (it should auto-pick all Win and hopefully your illegal MacOS too), or do some magic (adding an item for every OS on the disc) in the menu.lst.

MacGyverDB (New user):

As I eluded to in an earlier post.
Add a step that emphasises defragging the XP partition BEFORE attempting to install Ubuntu.
Add a comment that states that once running XP as your choice at start up, it's ok if it says the drive is dirty & goes thru it's verificaitons to satisfy itself. It will then load. It will then say it's found new hardware. My guess, since it's not talking about it, is it's found the new partition. You reboot again and THEN XP ought to work ok when selected.
Reboot again and give it a few moments to tell you that your Ubuntu has about 224 updates to take care of. Not to mention if you try to play an MP3 it will need to install a codec for that.
Outside of that I'm really liking this Ubuntu...

Majkl (User):

Absolutely! Actually, I would consider it obvious that I defrag AND BACKUP before I start cuddling with partitions - even if it is as easy as installing a linux OS. ;o)

The Big Baboo (Advanced Forumologist):

Cute icon "Majki" :) I like muchly :)

Gflatman (New user):

I have Windows Xp installed and on my first installed sata drive (sddc) and Linux installed on my 2nd Sata drive (sddd) now the pc only boots to Windows xp and can i change that?

smileyme74 (New user):

I am following the above steps to dual boot windows xp already installed and when doing the step of resizing partition using the ubuntu live cd is not doing anything and taking forever. Could someone tell me what to do?

stargazer418 (New user):

I'm on the part where I should partition the disk, and it's not showing the option to resize. My options are "Guided - use entire disk" and "Manual." What should I do?

The Big Baboo (Advanced Forumologist):

Quoting stargazer418:
My options are "Guided - use entire disk" and "Manual." What should I do?


Hi "stargazer418" If you go back one page,I think it shows you how to do this :) I'm pretty sure that a slider bar comes up and you just drag it to however much you want assigned to Linux :)
I reckon about 50% should do the trick so you still have some room left if you want to add more stuff to the Windows section and because later and I could be wrong here you have to partition that size as well again. I'm definitely going to try this Linux soon because I'm getting awfully sick of Windows :(
I think if you use the "manual" method you have to specify the amount in Kb's or Mb's or whatever and it's too much of a head-f..k. Go for the "Guided-use entire disk" option.

stargazer418 (New user):

I'm at the part where I prepare the disk for Ubuntu, and the option to resize the disk isn't there. The options are "Guided - Use entire disk" and "Manual." Please help!

Weasal167 (New user):

My Xp Wont Boot Into Linux But It Did And Worked Fine On My Vista Laptop

Weasal167 (New user):

My Xp Won't Boot Into Linux But My Other Computer Did Fine It is A Vista Laptop. Pls Help :(

Weasal167 (New user):

My Xp Won't Boot Into Linux But My Other Computer Did Fine It is A Vista Laptop. Pls Help :(

tgibney (New user):

I use partition magic to image my xp partition. What can be used to image the ext partition of different linux installs?

k_graham (New user):

Quoting tgibney:

tgibney I use partition magic to image my xp partition. What can be used to image the ext partition of different linux installs?

gparted, also works as replacement to partition magic uses a bootable CD.

Also for Backup before any partition moving use www.Clonezilla.org , Clonezilla for free backup to external drive or network drive.

karthik (New user):

i have two os xp and linux in a hard drive, initially it will prompt for choosing the os, one day i will reload the windows xp. Then the machine automaticallly loading win xp, i have no option to boot linux. Please say idea to prompt for xp and linux

Madd Dogg (New user):

I have a question. I am running a custom built win XP system. Its an MSI K9MM-V mobo, AMD dual core processor with 2 gig of ram and a seagate 500 gig hard drive that is partitioned into 3 drives. C(XP) D (Storage) E (Music).
I would like to dual boot my system with a Linus so that I could eventually get away from windows. But THe set up is for a hard drive that has only one drive. All C. What can I do and which version of Linux would be best for me. I run Nero, Office 2007, and Quicken 2009 for the most part.

The Big Baboo (Advanced Forumologist):

Quoting Madd Dogg:
What can I do and which version of Linux would be best for me. I run Nero, Office 2007, and Quicken 2009 for the most part.

Hiya "Madd Dogg" The only thing I can suggest here is you get yourself an external hard drive. They're pretty cheap nowadays and move your Storage and Music over to them and then you can divide up your C:\ drive to just handle XP and Linux. I'm seriously looking at the latest copy of Ubuntu myself but if you go to one of the sections on this site there's a link that shows you which Linux is best for you :)

The Penguin (Cornerstone member):

Time to update this for 9.04

The Big Baboo (Advanced Forumologist):

Hi everyone :) I want to try this dual-boot with Linux however I have a problem.My CD burner bit the bullet awhile ago and so I was thinking of downloading Linux to a USB drive and going from there.
Is this possible and I think I'd like to keep WinXP as first boot option till I was familiar with Linux ( either Ubuntu8.04 or Mepsis6 )
I understand that I would have to install to a separate partition and would probably have to create one with GpartED or something like that.
I'm thinking of creating 2 equal partitions and having the two OS's share equal space on the PC. Any help will be appreciated :)

Irfan0403 (New user):

how to increase time of os selection of dual boot in linux & xp

Irfan0403 (New user):

how to increase time of os selection of dual boot in linux & xp

Selden (New user):

I've done this experimentally to an 8gb SDHC card on an Acer. Before attempting it on the 160gb HDD, I want to be certain that NO DAMAGE will be done to the Windows installation; it appears that the Ubuntu install simply resizes the Windows partition, and creates the necessary Unix partitions -- pretty neat!

Aubrey (Advanced member):

Seldon - provided you follow the instructions, there will be no problem with your windows partition - just leave enough free space on it to allow for additional programs and data. That should not be a problem with a 160Gb drive (though goodness knows how you managed it on the 8gb Acer SDHC!)

The "trick" with dual booting is not so much the set up - its what you need to do if you ever want to uninstall Linux and reclaim the space - it isn't difficult except that you will need your Windows CD to reclaim the MBR (Master Boot Record) for the Windows bootloader. There's plenty of instructions available on the net for that.

One other thing - this article is now pretty old and more recent Linux live CDs are now even more helpful when setting up dual boot systems. You could not go wrong with (eg) Ubuntu 9.04 and I'm pretty sure that Fedora 11 or the latest Mandriva would be just as easy.

Good luck with your penguin.

The Big Baboo (Advanced Forumologist):

Quoting Aubrey:
One other thing - this article is now pretty old and more recent Linux live CDs are now even more helpful when setting up dual boot systems. You could not go wrong with (eg) Ubuntu 9.04 and I'm pretty sure that Fedora 11 or the latest Mandriva would be just as easy.

Hi "Aubrey" :) I was looking at that Fedora 11 and I may be wrong but that looks to have a lot of that "command line" stuff in it which I'm really not familiar with :'( So would you say it would be better to load whatever Linux I decide on from a Live CD rather than go through all that download .iso stuff,burn CD ( which I can't do anyway ) or try
to boot from a USB stick which I'm not too sure how to do :'(

By the way,have you ever heard of a program called "EASUS PARTITION MANAGER 3.5 HOME EDITION" and would you recommend this?
I used to have an original copy of "Partition Magic" before Symantec got their feelthy hands on it but I downloaded this instead. I have a 74.52Gb hard drive of which 77% is free so I would like to split this into two and have 37.26Gb on each :) Is this good enough ? And I still reckon Mepsis6 might be better for a complete beginner like me but maybe I'm wrong.
Thank you for any further help you can give me on this :)

Devendra Suryavanshi (New user):

How to install Linux on the XP OS

JQ (New user):

Can the instruction be use for installation on separate Sata Drive?I have currently 1 Sata Drive with XP install and is thinking of buying a 2nd Sata HDD Drive to install ubuntu 9.04

Aubrey (Advanced member):

Quoting JQ:
Can the instruction be use for installation on separate Sata Drive?


There should be no issues with a separate drive. The installer will give you a couple of preset options and you can also organise the partitioning however you like.

The bootloader (GRUB) will still overwrite the MBR on your Windows partition (the existing SATA drive). If you don't have a Windows installer disk, you may want to take a backup of the MBR just in case you want to ditch Ubuntu later.

When installing, you can use the whole of the second drive for Ubuntu or create separate partitions for "/" (root) and for "/home" to give yourself maximum flexibility to try different distros and to do full upgrades without overwriting your data. If you go that way, give "/" 10Gb max and "/home" can be as big as you like (the rest of the drive if you want to).

Garry Kerluke (New user):

Your article was very good.I have decided to take the plunge and load a dual boot system with ubuntu and Xp Pro.Thanks for the help.

ilstupendo (New user):

I installed Ubunto today assuming from what it said about sharing disk space that I can switch back and fro. Now my PC is on Linux and cannot as yet, find anyway to boot back into windows xp. Help!

ian.eurovantage@gmx.com

The Penguin (Cornerstone member):

Do you get anything similar to the following?

GRUB Loading stage1.5.

GRUB loading, please wait...
Press 'ESC' to enter the menu... 1

Boot from (hd0,0) ext3 1cc15c80-5467-45cc-bf56-e456aa67jjf4
Starting up...
Loading, Please wait...

GRUB menu
Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
Other operating systems:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional

or

GRUB Loading stage1.5.

GRUB loading, please wait...
Press 'ESC' to enter the menu... 1

the GRUB menu below should appear if you pressed ESC to enter the menu when prompted as shown above

Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+

If you get this windows is not accessible from the menu(this command may help fix it)In an Ubuntu terminal(Applications>Accessories>Terminal) Type sudo update-grub. GRUB will then search for available operating systems.

The Penguin (Cornerstone member):

Do you get anything similar to the following?

GRUB Loading stage1.5.

GRUB loading, please wait...
Press 'ESC' to enter the menu... 1

Boot from (hd0,0) ext3 1cc15c80-5467-45cc-bf56-e456aa67jjf4
Starting up...
Loading, Please wait...

GRUB menu
Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
Other operating systems:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional

or

GRUB Loading stage1.5.

GRUB loading, please wait...
Press 'ESC' to enter the menu... 1

the GRUB menu below should appear if you pressed ESC to enter the menu when prompted as shown above

Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+

If you get this windows is not accessible from the menu(this command may help fix it)In an Ubuntu terminal(Applications>Accessories>Terminal) Type sudo update-grub. GRUB will then search for available operating systems.

The Penguin (Cornerstone member):

Do you get anything similar to the following?

GRUB Loading stage1.5.

GRUB loading, please wait...
Press 'ESC' to enter the menu... 1

Boot from (hd0,0) ext3 1cc15c80-5467-45cc-bf56-e456aa67jjf4
Starting up...
Loading, Please wait...

GRUB menu
Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
Other operating systems:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional

or

GRUB Loading stage1.5.

GRUB loading, please wait...
Press 'ESC' to enter the menu... 1

the GRUB menu below should appear if you pressed ESC to enter the menu when prompted as shown above

Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+

If you get this windows is not accessible from the menu(this command may help fix it)In an Ubuntu terminal(Applications>Accessories>Terminal) Type sudo update-grub. GRUB will then search for available operating systems.