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

Mike:

Hey Joe, you could always boot off of the Live CD and access the GRUB file and see if you just have a weird 0 second time "delay" on the loader itself and Defaulting to Windows Vista, OR, I'm wondering if there's a BIOS option on your Laptop that protects the HDD from having it's MBR modified.

melocotone:

I have been struggling against Vista Business for the last 3 weeks since I bought the newest Sony Vaio TZ11MN laptop (1,19 Kg) which included the newest Microsoft flagship – Vista – pre-installed.

Sure, on the cosmetics side of things Vista is very nice and fancy, but who wants to have trouble with things that previously worked well under XP and are now broken under Vista ?

If we forget the super sluggishness of Vista running under 1GB of memory with boot times of up to 10 minutes loading lots of bloat, the biggest problem I was subjected to was accessing the Internet.

After having configured Vista to use my Linksys WRT54G wifi router under WPA-PSK, having supplied the correct pass phrase, and having indicated to Vista that this device belongs to a private (thus trustfully) network I would have the greatest trouble to reconnect again and again, to the point of despair... Every time, again and again, either returning from a hibernation, sleep or rebooting again, Vista would declare that the network was “undefined”, thus not trusted, and would block me from reaching the Internet (allowing only “local access”), even if it had previously connected successfully to the access point and the SSID was displayed correctly. No, I had to be protected from the dangers of Internet. This is the new heralded security policy....

After visiting lots of sites with other victims reporting the same troubles (some folks had even reinstalled Vista because of this...) and trying several things I discovered that the way to go was to click the red “X” barring the way from my acess point to the Internet, then click “repair” then after some “analysis time by the repair tool” choose “request new IP adress from the DHCP server” and voila: Then I would have the way free to the Internet. Thank you Microsoft for protecting me from the dangers of the Internet and forcing me to do all those things to reach the Internet. What a fantastic Vista experience ! Even coming back from a hibernation (or sleep) it would cost me (with these steps, and the waits between steps) around 4 to 5 minutes to reach the Internet.

I had assumed that this laptop being so new (it reached the market end June in Europe), Ubuntu would not support it. But, driven by despair, I had to try. Thus I reached for the Ubuntu 7.04 CD which I had burned some months ago and voila: Ubuntu detected the 1366 x768 screen resolution, I connected to the Linksys access point in no time and was Firefoxing after some seconds.

The next step was how to dual boot Vista with Ubuntu, and there your tutorial was decisive for success. But before that, I had to suffer more frustration with Vista.

In order to try to obtain a so large as possible free partition (in order to get room on the HD to install Ubuntu) from the Vista partition using the Vista Disk Management utility, I decided to defragment the drive before “shrinking”. To my frustration the Vista architects have decided to remove – for Vista - the user feed back functionality that was previously built into the Windows XP defragmenter. Now, with Vista, you can either schedule the defragmentation (not a option for me, I want immediate defragmentation) or then press a button “defragment now” and keep staring at a small icon twisting around. Information like previously available – how much % done, estimated time to completion, hard disk representation showing the fragmentation and the like - is completely gone ! If the Microsoft architect that invented this was in charge of managing train systems he/she would probably decide to blind all windows in trains to prevent the travelers (users) from getting distracted by looking outside through the train windows and have an idea of how long they still had to travel to destination. Besides continuing defragmentation to completion, Vista would - after some time - abort the defragmentation spontaneously, forcing me to press again the button to proceed. This is Vista deciding for me...

Now I have a working Ubuntu (with still some minor problems – screen brightness changes do not work, the built in SD reader does not work, but a USB SD reader works perfectly) but it is many times better than the frustration I was getting with Vista. And it is much quicker, because the 1GB memory offers plenty of juice – with lots to spare – while under Vista it was not enough, even after having removed memory bloaters like MS Office (3 month trial), Symantec anti-virus (it felt like a virus itself, warning me every minute to do “live update” not withstanding my repeated “cancel” pressing), Symantec Save and Restore (with outrageous licence conditions – like the right to remove other software from the computer....) etc.

Thanks a lot for the very clear and instructive tutorial which was instrumental in solving this frustrating Vista experience.

nick:

...I was aamused to read your experience of Vista -exactly what I am going through now!!!
I have just downloaded Ubuntu - done a 'test run' and my new 'Vista' cobbled laptop purrs like a cat - amazing - thanks to all the guys out there!!!
and tomorrow I should try a full install of Ubuntu.

all I can think is 'Vista' ...why??!!!!

newscience (New user):

the problems with vista can be easily solved with proper confuguration, your boot times are slow because the laptop you are using has insufficient power to run vista (so ubuntu is better for you, even runs well on pIII systems) and the disk defragmenter has changed because it is hardly neccessary anymore, system files and page file are defragged automatically by vista, and seek/read times have been greatly improved but i guess some poeple still like to defrag and ware out hard disks so they can feel like they are doing something techy, (DO NOT DEFRAG SSD's UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE) lastly, a little research can go a long way, and stop you whinging on some stupid blog, it's your fault tou bought a sony!

joey:

i have the cd with ubuntu 7.04 and burned it with roxio...and the pos will not boot. what am i doing wrong and what can i do to fix it? i have tried the boot order thing in setup at startup, and its like my comp doesnt recognize it... i have a sony vaio n320e btw...and i am getting very frustrated with this. can someone please help?

Hopethishelps:

Download the free program Infrarecorder. Once you install that open it up, and put your ubuntu.iso in what you want to burn. Lastly go to action menu and select Burn Image. Once that is done, reboot computer and should load up from your CD/DVD player. If not adjust in Bios for reboot order.

Gokool:

Sounds like your ISO image isn't burned properly. Get ImgBurn to burn your iso. I used other programs to burn .iso but only wasted my CDs. ImgBurn is a great image burner and it is free. Leave your iso CD in your cd drive and restart your computer in order to boot the CD.
http://www.imgburn.com
Good luck.

0per4t0r (New user):

You have to use a certain disk burner that can burn iso images to cd/dvds. Infra Recorder works fine, but Roxio probably doesn't.

Surinderjeet Singh:

I have an Inspiron E1505 notebook with ATI Radeon x1400 and it came with vista preinstalled.
I tried to install ubuntu as per your advice but after freeing the space for it and booting from the live dvd, i do not reach the demo screen.Instead i recieve an error message saying X server output not found(the display)and i am left to the command prompt of ubuntu.
Can somebody help?

linux user:

For me Ubuntu has always just worked, the thing is, you MUST install windows first give windows about 1/2 of your hard drive, finish the install, THEN boot up and install ubuntu, only issue is the built in cameraa in my sony vaio doesn't work but i am just lazy/don't care to go ask for help , there are much better sites than this for ubuntu help. google is your friend, type whatever promlem, system you have + ubuntu i have always been able to find the answers, if you install windowz after linux windows will wipe out the MBR leaving no GRUB/LILO you could boot from floppy/CD and fix this. google.com has the answers. if you live in Savannah GA and wan't linux installed info@forsythcomputers.com

medusa26:

Hi,
I upgraded my xp to vista a few days ago and just now finished installing sabayon 3.4a. Now the problemis,right after the installation was complete, it gave me the option to reboot which i did. After rebooting, instead of getting a boot screen or it booting into sabayon, it automatically booted into vista. The vista and linux are both installed on the same harddrive, so i have no way of loading the linux. I read somewhere that the program easybcd helps, but the only option it shows meis the vista and no sign of the linux. So i was wondering if the installation didnt get completed? Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this problem or can tell me what i did wrong?
Thanks alot

Rick Berry:

If you are getting no choice for the Linux install in the bootloader or you don't get GRUB showing at all, it usually is because you didn't follow the directions above to edit GRUB before rebooting. Its a common mistake.

Aluizio Oliveira Jr:

Hi all,
I am following your Linux installation steps. But in the 7th step, I don't have the "window vista/longhorn (loader)" under migration assistant.

I am afraid to continue my installation and find further problems. Can anyone help me?

Cheers, Aluizio.

kurt:

when is grub installed, im new to this and i want to try linux so please help

Cieran:

I follow all the steps of this manual, but I don't get the "Windows vista/longhorn (loader)" under migration assistant.
Thoughts?

Lai En:

Don't continue unless you only want to end up with ubuntu on your computer. I went through with it before when it didnt recognize the loader and when it rebooted I only had ubuntu that loaded at startup. I dont know how to get it to recognize the loader though.

B_Dauterive:

I own a Compaq V6110us with Turion 64x2 and 100G HD. I have already installed Vista Business and have set up two empty 8G partitions to try different flavors of Linux.
Is there a way to direct Ubuntu and Xubuntu to install into these empty partitions?

peterH:

I am able to follow the instructions up to the Ready to Install page, here migration assistant does not show Windows Vista. Looking back I guess that Ubuntu is not picking up the free space (10GB) created earlier. I have tried to use the Manual option and redirect to this space however I get the error message about not being able to create a root menu.

My set up is,

Asus F3F laptop
1 HDD split in to
C(vista) 57.3GB
D(data) 39.8GB
and 10GB of free space.

Please could somebody suggest a method to overcome this problem.
Thanks in advance.

Lapland1:

After 23 years I decided to go back to school. I needed a new laptop (Acer Aspire 5610z). It had Vista installed so I dual booted with Ubuntu according to this article...worked like a charm. Problem is Vista doesn't want to connect with wireless at school properly and they only support XP officially. I don't know anything about Linux, which is why I installed it, and it doens't recognize the wireless at all. I want to install XP which I am familiar with and could probably get to work at school and then I can learn on the other two OS's. How do I tri-boot to XP, now that I have Vista and Linux.

SteveS:

Ran into problem - I just bought an HP Pavilion dv9000 with two Hdds. Wanted to put Linux on the second hdd while leaving Vista on the first. After I bought a live CD from Canonical, I put it in the drive hit F5 on bootup to give options and was able to get to the first screen with start or install ubunto. But when I try to install, I get the following error message:

BusyBox V1.13 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu3) built in shell (ash)

Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off *(initramfs) help

So whatzat talking about? This isn't in the tutorial. Any help appreciated. - Steve

hoongG:

this happens on mostly new pcs and laptops. i had the same problem. once booted up, hit the f6 key. add the following line (generic.all_generic_ide=1) to the existing lines there. *remove the ()*. that should do the trick. you should also try install on safe graphics mode instead of the first choice if you get another error msg regarding graphics halfway thru the installation

newtolinux:

I appreciate folks taking the time to write these instructions but the partition section needs more detail. The graphic shows guided partition and the instructions say use manual. I tried manual and quickly ran into a roadblock. I started out allocating 2048MB to swap out of ~50GB freespace I created using vista. When I completed that, the remaining freespace was unavailable (not sure what the specific word was in the ubuntu partion tool). It was clear I did not have sufficently detailed instructions to use manual partitioning like suggested so I quit the install with no damage to my vista installation.

Has anbody seen detailed instructions for using the manual allocation?

thanks

Dell inspiron 530 VISTA
320 GB drive
2.13 GHZ dual core intel
NVIDIA 8300

hoongG:

it should be "guided".

shiv:

i am facing the same problem too.. did u manage to fix it ? or should i go for "manual parition" and prepare partiond on our own ? the problem is the steps followed durin "shrink" resulted in an unallocated memory space which apparently is not a root partition.. hence ubuntu is not able to recognise tht.. wht did u do ?

Kankuro:

First of all i must say thank you for writing this guide, it helped me a lot.

Before i finish the install 1 wondered if i will have some problems when i finish because the Migration Assistant doesn't show Vista. What will happen if i install Ubuntu without Windows Vista showing up there?

My other problems is that i don't get my screen solution. Hope this can be fixed afterwards.

Joseadorn:

I FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS for the dual boot and it runs great. But I have two problems: 1)When I use Vista and I'm shutting down, it stays shutting down!!! It never shuts down, I have to shut it down manually. I tried to check what is the problem but I have no idea. 2)The other problem is on Ubuntu. I installed Compiz fusion and if I open an application like a game something similar it will close without notice. I know my laptop can run compiz since I used it before and it runs smooth. Does anyone know what can be done to fix this? Thanks for the guide and thanks in advance for any information for the problems.

Kamzalian:

Bought a new HP desktop PC on the 4th August 2007 and found to be very heavy and slow. Opening a file or starting a program takes a long, really long time. Felt like kicking the PC!
Internet connection made on the 14 August 2007 and I update my Windows. To my surprises there are 40 updates to be made! Considering the time lag in the launching of Vista and my purchasing the same, these updates are not excusable! I really wonder what these Microsoft guys are doing with their software. Why are there so many security holes that need to be plugged in such a short span of time? God knows! I then, being an experimenter, tries the much talked about LINUX Operating System called UBUNTU which is, you know free to use or free to try. I loaded it as a dual boot options. It really feels great! The steps and guidance for dual booting is provided at Dual-booting guide: Linux, Vista and XP step-by-step.
Now this is the question that cross my mind: Why is the Vista, the not so good OS, so costly? I must express my appreciation to the free software developer in their humanitarian works! May their tribe increase.
A well wisher of the movement ‘technology for all’,
Kamzalian
http://www.thehistorysofar.blogspot.com/

Mahajan:

I did everything according to tutorial , but when i boot from the latest UBUNTU cd to install , it is showing error "MEMORY FAILED TO READ" and it will ask to enter a help command.Please clarify why i am getting this kind of error inspite creating 10 GB space for UBUNTU.I am using HP(dv61560TX) laptoP with 2 GB RAM and having T5520 INTEL PROCESSOR.

Brave1:

Am i missing something ?I have sent my brand new computer out to have dual boot installed. Comes back , I turn it on go to do updates and xp is gone -at least it won't boot.It is visibleon drive but no boot. Should I take it back or follow your lead.?

wizzer:

Thank you sooooo much!

The last time I tried this I hosed my system. Turns out I was just missing one little detail, I was letting ubuntu partition my already NTFS partitioned drive rather than working with a unpartitioned free space :-)

Vini:

I have 2 Hd's of which in the first I had installed Ubuntu whereas in the second I installed Vista. I tried to follow your guide but I have arrived at a situation where only with the help of the Vista CD I can reach the screen where I can choose which OS to use, and it's not done by Grub but through Vista's MBR. Particularly I am confused on which of the SATA drivers I have installed Grub, as I have attempted to install it on hd1,0 and I believe that I may have another Grub on hd0,0.

Is that possible. If I dont use the CD it Ubuntu starts immediately without giving the option to choose booting into Windows.

All your help is appreciated.

R3AP3R:

"Ubuntu will then load the disk partitioner to determine where it's going to be installed. Choose "Manual - use the largest continuous free space". This will automatically select the unpartitioned space we created earlier using the Shrink tool. Click Forward."

== All good, except you illustrated the "GUIDED - use the blah blah", and manual, like the name suggests, lets you pick the path.

olli:

does it matter if vista is 32bit and ubuntu 64bit?

olli:

ok. nobody responsed so i tried and it works.

i have acer aspire 9303WLMi with Windows Vista 32bit and Ubuntu 7.04 64bit dual boot.

in "ready to install"-screen, migration assistant didn't find vista, but when grub started it automatically regonised vista (Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)). so everything works fine :D

thanks!

NoOne:

Just bought a laptop with Vista and tried to use Ubuntu 7.04 to boot with after wasting my time shrinking the drive. Although the system is looking at the CD ROM for boot, it ignores Ubuntu 7.04 completely and boots right into windows. I don't know which I hate worse, Vista or Ubuntu.

Urederra:

if you had read the guide, you would have noticed that you have to change the boot sequence of your computer to "boot from the CD/DVD first"

You don't know how to do it? Read the guide and comments again.

linopus:

Hi, you made a great manual. It worked for me from first shot. I bought a notebook Acer Aspire5633 with 2G RAM, intel 945 video chipset and preinstalled Vista Home. Despite MS lost the case on his monopoly on including OS mediaplayer there is still a long way to get rid off for all the rest. For example: No change to buy an acer laptop without MS Vista! This sucks and is really easy money for MS. Oblige all hardware notebook manufactures to put MS on it and you stay number one!
Thanks to your manual I tried -without fear- to resize my data partition, install ubuntu and grub on the MBR and now I show everyone the difference between free soft and owned by the people and MS_$$$ Vista Home. I have a LINUX WOW Feeling!!! gDesklets and 3D cube, transparent windows and other cools graphics toys in Beryl. If I want this all in Vista I have to upgrade!!!!
PS: I am not pro windows or Linux, I simply do not like the way Bill gates earns his easy money!!!!

Jerry:

I have had Ubuntu on this new Toshiba Vista computer and love it. However, no sound! when Ubuntu loads, no sound. When I look at a slide show, no sound. Never, any sound! What's up?

Lai En:

During the install Ubuntu did not recognize the vista loader, so I went ahead with the install anyways. The problem is now when the computer starts I have no options to choose from, it automatically boots into ubuntu not vista or nothing, I have installed my recovery image before I started so I am back on just vista but would like to get this working. Anyone know any solutions to this please respond if you do.

Devin:

This is a great tutorial. I just hope that this will be updated when Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) is released in a few days!

somebodystupid:

I didnt get something
okay,say you have MS Office 2007 on Vista.
when you do the partitioning thingie, can u create a shortcut from Ubuntu to Vista's Office? Or do you have to waste another gigabyte on getting office on Ubuntus portion of the hdd?

Kyle:

Ubuntu is not compatible with programs like Microsoft Office, unless you use the Wine Emulator - Ubuntu comes with its own Word/Powerpoint/Excel/Etc Called "OpenOffice", its even a little better then Office, consider using that when your in ubuntu and using office when your in windows.

(P.S) You will find OpenOffice in your apps menu.

Suchipo:

first of all, great job. my problem is that on installation after booting from live cd and sellecting install, everything seems to load ok, but i recieve the message : "monitor(s) found but no compatible config" , how can i fix this? i'm anxious for kick windows out of my Laptop, asus Laptop with vista loaded, intel dual core

Luke:

All weekend was right.

Very helpful.

Simple & Clear.

Is there a way to integrate the dual-boot into the System Bios?


"You probably ended up spending all weekend researching the intricacies of adjusting partition sizes, boot loaders, installing operating systems in the right order, and other fun topics."

Someone:

This doesn't cover time!

Linux which is "right" wants to store the time in GMT in your computer because it's easier for calculating time with daylight savings. (see article below for more reasons)

Windows Vista has a registry key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation\RealTimeIsUniversal
but it isn't properly supported, and so shouldn't be used - http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/mswish/ut-rtc.html

Since the GUI's in the article in the timezone don't allow you to set GMT or not, there should probably be a reference to changing the setting
"UTC=no" in /etc/default/rcS
Which is the Linux workaround to Microsoft insisting time is stored locally.

JayMoon:

NOONE HAS ANSWERED THIS QUESTION YET, HOWEVER MANY PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY ASKED. On my Toshiba Satellite laptop, I tried to install Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10). However, it did not detect the Windows Vista loader for the migration assistant. PLEASE HELP ME! I have this shrinked space and I want to put ubuntu on it!

Kyle:

Happend to me too - It works, GRUB will still "see" vista.

dave:

i wonder if i can do this same procedures with other Linux dist. such as, Mandriva 2008 ONE..?

help me plz and thanks in advance.. :)

Steven:

In the last step, ready to install, it does not show Vista/Longhorn in the migration assistant. Now does this mean that it does not find vista and i will be unable to use it. Thank You

Anonymouss:

Hi,

I Have the same problem. I dont want to continue just incase I lose everything on Vista, but i need to use Ubuntu like yesterday for coursework!

PLEASE HELP!