Ubuntu and WIndows XP Dual Boot Guide

Mpemba Effect · 20 Dec 2004 at 20:43

Ubuntu and WIndows XP Dual Boot Guide
This guide is written to cover the detail only the dual booting aspect of installing Ubuntu along-side Windows XP rather than a complete guide.

Using Partition Magic
How to resize your existing windows partition

Installing Ubuntu
Important notes on the following install
The partition overview screen
Creating the /boot partition
Creating the swap partition
Creating the / partition
Writing changes to disk and the Grub bootloader

Mpemba Effect · 20 Dec 2004 at 20:44

Using Partition Magic

1. Upon starting partition magic you will be greeted with a screen describing your disk partition properties much like this.

2. To partition, first highlight the active partition, then click "Resize/Move partition" in the "Patition Operations" section on the left-hand panel.

3. Either use your cursor to drag the right-hand tab toward the center or set a value into the "New Size" field. In the below example I will resize the existing windows partition to be 50% of it's original size.

4. When you're happy with the new setting press OK, you should then be presented with an updated screen showing your new partition properties.

5. Click the "Apply" button in the "Operations Pending" on the left-hand panel to finalise the changes. Window will reboot and undergo the partition resizing operation. Note: It is not required to format the unpartitioned space you've set aside for linux.

Mpemba Effect · 20 Dec 2004 at 20:46

Installing Ubuntu

Important notes on the following install
In this example we will install Ubuntu onto three partitions.

Code:

/boot - where the kernel and boot configuration will reside
swap  - a partition dedicated to virtual memory
/     - known as the root partition. This is the main partition.

These three partitions will be formatted in ext2, swap and reiserfs respectively. The boot partition will be allocated 10MB, the swap partition 512MB and the / partition will use the remaining space on the disk.

A Ubuntu issue
Unfortunately Ubuntu doesn't automatically detect windows and give an option to install to the unallocated space we set aside. It's only automated option is to install over windows completely. Fortunately partitioning manually using the Ubuntu installer is simple.

1. Using the cursor to navigate, select "Manually edit partition table"

Mpemba Effect · 21 Dec 2004 at 19:53

The partition overview screen
2. You will be shown an overview of the current partition structure of your disk. Notice there already exists a primary partition - this is your windows partition.

Mpemba Effect · 29 Dec 2004 at 14:05

Creating a new partition - Using the /boot partition as an example
3. Move the cursor to "Free Space" and press enter. You will be prompted with several options, choose "Create a new partition"

4. Then enter a value for the /boot partition. 10MB should be sufficient of a /boot partition formatted in ext2. Note: If you choose a filesystem other than ext2 such as a journalising filesystem you may need to increase the size of this partition.

5. Choose to create the partition as a "Primary partition" type

6. Create to the "beginning"

Mpemba Effect · 29 Dec 2004 at 14:08

Partition details for /boot
7. You should be greeted with a screen similar to below, describing to you a list of avaliable options. Since we are using ext2 for the /boot partition we will need to specifiy this in the filesystem field, you also need to specify which mount point this partition is use as well as make the partition "bootable".

8. Highlight and press return on "Done setting up the partition". Following this you will be taken back to the partition http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&postid=3884573#post3884573 screen.

Mpemba Effect · 29 Dec 2004 at 14:36

Creating the swap partition
9. Follow the above procedure for creating a new partition, specifying 512MB of space (rather than 10MB in the /boot example).

Partition details for swap
10. Once you've created the partition to the "beginning" you will be greeted once more by a partition details screen like below.

11. Select "Usage method" and specify "Use the partition as a swap area"

12. You should be returned to the partition details screen and should look like this

13. Highlight and press return on "Done setting up the partition". Following this you will be taken back to the partition overview screen.

Mpemba Effect · 29 Dec 2004 at 14:47

Creating the / partition
14. Follow the above procedure for creating a new partition, specifying the entire remaining space (rather than 10MB in the /boot example).

Partition details for swap
15. Once you've created the partition to the "beginning" you will be greeted once more by a partition details screen like below.

16. Change the "File system" to "reiserfs" and select "notail" and "noatime" for the "Mount options".

17. After setting these your partition overview should look like the following

18. Highlight and press return on "Done setting up the partition". Following this you will be taken back to the partition overview screen.

Mpemba Effect · 29 Dec 2004 at 15:06

Writing changes to disk
19. Once you've finished creating the three partitions highlight and press return on "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk"

The grub bootloader and installation
20. Ubuntu should automatically detect your existing windows installation and prompts for confirmation to install the linux bootloader to the disks master boot record (MBR).

21. Installation of Ubuntu will now begin (Go make a cup of tea or get some food). After a short period of time Ubuntu will inform you that the first stage of the installaion process os complete and will a system reboot will occur to initiate the second stage.

22. Voila! Dual boot is complete upon this reboot the grub boot menu should give you the following options.

23. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete your installation of Ubuntu.