How To Dual-Boot Windows & Any Linux OS (With Pictures).

Replies

• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Keyboard layout image :
  
  
  

  • Click on "continue" & fill the required data, like username, Computer's name, password ,etc.

  
  Click on "continue" & Installation will proceed.
  
  Now while it's been installed, have a patience & get ready to join awesome community of Linux 😁
  Once installation is completed, the pop like this :
  
  

  • Click on "Restart" & Remove bootable pendrive or Disk.

  Whenever you'll start PC, after boot logo : a GRUB Menu will be available which will let you choose the OS you wanna use.
  
  I hope this tutorial helped you 😀
  
  Edit : I will be posting Image of GRUB Asap, I need to find way to take screenshot of GRUB Menu. Apologies.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  I used the partition tool on windows to create free space before I can use it for UBUNTU installation. When I begin ubuntu installation, after "something else", i see twoo partitions with windows 7 loader (208 mb and 415 gb respectively) and the free space that i created usong wondows utility, now appears "unusable". I want to use that space. How can I do that? what went wrong there?
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  its the 4 logical+primary volume mezs. Merging two now.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Seems like you have MBR partition table.
  Post it here if you're still having trouble.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  You can partition from Ubuntu live usb itself.
  Insert live USB, click on 'Start Ubuntu without installing'.
  Open terminal & type 'sudo su'.
  This will grant you superuser access. Then type 'gparted'
  Now you can resize partition from this tool.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  So here is what my research about partitioning told me:
  
  1) I can have at most 4 (primary + logical) partitions on my HD.
  
  2) I already have 4 - System, C:/, Recovery and HP Tools. Each one of them is absolutely essential .I cannot merge any two or delete any. I am stuck with these.
  
  3) If I try to shrink my C:/, the opened up space becomes "inaccesible" in ubuntu. I cannot touch it.
  
  4) This really sucks.
  
  Now: Are you telling me that if I goto the ubuntu terminal and open gparted, I can create an addition partition? Because when on the "other options" window during my previous ubuntu install, I chose to shrink the size of C:/ partition in ubuntu itself (although did not use the gparted utility), and that showed up as inaccesible too.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Now: Are you telling me that if I goto the ubuntu terminal and open gparted, I can create an addition partition?

  Yup. But since you have MBR partition table (reason why you can't create more than 4 primary partitions). You may delete HP tools partition as it is small & can be easily recovered.
  Once deleting HP tool partition, you'll have unallocated partition. Create an 'extended partition', now right click on new unallocated partition(nested inside extended partition) & create logical partitions for Linux in it.
  
  PS : GPT Partition table can create upto 128 primary partitions.
  And this rule applies to all OS whether its Linux or Windows. MBR = 4 primary partitions. GPT = 128 Primary partitions.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Somehow, I am afraid to remove the HP Tools partition. The people on the HP support website said it was essential for me to maintain that as it identifies hardware issues and facilitates the Recovery Manager.
  
  What are the drawbacks of running ubuntu in the live version with persistent storage? How much slower is it expected to run than native installed ubuntu?
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  What are the drawbacks of running ubuntu in the live version with persistent storage? How much slower is it expected to run than native installed ubuntu?

  Drawback is everytime you have compile openFOAM, unless you have enough amount of persistent space. Plus all dependency required toinstall openfoam will be installed in /bin and every reboot you'll lose it. It's speed depends on USB bandwidth, with 3.0 it's pretty fast.
  
  I have optional solution :
  I) Create an extended partition and place HP_Tools and recovery partiton in it.
  II) Then create another extended partition to allocate Linux partitions in it i.e / & swap.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  One another way is to use 'fixpart' to convert MBR into GPT. But again Windows 7 doesn't support GPT. Windows 8 does.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Moving my partitions (recovery and tools) to a new partition will require me to have scope for one to begin with, right?
  
  Besides, if I move my partitions inside some other partition, would they remain useful?
  How dumb design is it anyway? You create 4 partitions and place the upper limit at 4? I am totally flabbergasted here.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Are you saying Windows 8 is GPT by default? I am still technically a student, I can probably get my hands on a free copy of Windows 8 through my university I suppose.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Are you saying Windows 8 is GPT by default? I am still technically a student, I can probably get my hands on a free copy of Windows 8 through my university I suppose.

  Yup, Windows 8 is GPT by default.
  How old is your laptop ? Sometimes old hardware lacks Windows 8 drivers support. Better check drivers section in HP website before switching to 8.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Oh my..I feel like a victim here. My laptop is 2010 I guess.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Moving my partitions (recovery and tools) to a new partition will require me to have scope for one to begin with, right?

  Backup your partitions somewhere and delete those two partitions. Create an extended partition totalling of these two partitions and create two partitions in it naming as it were original.
  Create another extended partition for Linux.
  
  

  Shashank Moghe

  Besides, if I move my partitions inside some other partition, would they remain useful?

  I don't know yet, sorry (Maybe you should test). I received my HP laptop with Win8, my first step was to remove every fucking partition, go back to legacy boot and Install ArchLinux. Profit!
  
  

  Shashank Moghe

  You create 4 partitions and place the upper limit at 4? I am totally flabbergasted here.

  Four primary partitions. World has moved on GPT.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  I am very disappointed with WIndows/Hard Disk company or whoever here. I am so fed up that I dont even know whom to blame. I have tried every possible way to get openFOAM running, it appears as if my laptop is never going to see the light of Linux.
  
  But I am sure there was a time when I had installed 12.04 LTS in parallel with Windows. Wonder what has changed.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  But I am sure there was a time when I had installed 12.04 LTS in parallel with Windows. Wonder what has changed.

  With versions <= Precise Pangolic (12.04) one was capable to install Linux inside Windows using tool known as 'wubi' which comes with Ubuntu ISO. Wubi tool has been removed after 12.04 releases.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  As a last resort I am creating the live USB for 12.04. Try booting with it. See if there is something otherwise its good riddance to installation. I will only run live mode.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  As a last resort I am creating the live USB for 12.04. Try booting with it. See if there is something otherwise its good riddance to installation. I will only run live mode.

  
  
  You'll succeed in Precise Pangolin. Check highlighted shit there (wubi.exe). Download it & execute it on Windows machine.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  And this tool is different from VM? Because I had a very bad experience running VM - too slow.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  And this tool is different from VM? Because I had a very bad experience running VM - too slow.

  Plus thing, it's not VM 😀
  For details : WubiGuide - Ubuntu Wiki
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Well, well. Looks like wubi.exe is working for me. Wonder why the distribution for this has stopped 😁 Thank you so much (although too early to say anything, its still installing on my C:/)!
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Well, well. Looks like wubi.exe is working for me. Wonder why the distribution for this has stopped

  There are many bugs. It's sure is good concept but not great program. I usually never suggest anyone to use unmaintained software (Wubi developer has dropped its development). But since you've no other possible way remaining to install ubuntu in your system, I have to suggest it.
  
  If you're lucky you won't get any error. But make sure that you don't upgrade kernel. It will break your system. I repeat, don't upgrade kernel in ubuntu installed with wubi.
  
  As it's development is stopped, you won't get any support regarding wubi from Ubuntu.
  
  I still think it's safe to dual-boot. Don't lose hope. Dual-booting > Wubi crap.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Alrightyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooohoooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Dual boot ready! What a relief! Thank you so much #-Link-Snipped-# , you are absolute genius!
  
  I was also able to edit the GRUB file to stop ubuntu from being default booted 😁 Thank you soooo much!
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Alrightyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooohoooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Dual boot ready! What a relief! Thank you so much #-Link-Snipped-# , you are absolute genius!
  
  I was also able to edit the GRUB file to stop ubuntu from being default booted 😁 Thank you soooo much!

  I am glad, I could help you 😀
  Cheers, mate.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  😀
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Alright, I am back with simpler problems (for you). I have installed openFOAM (it took me around 8-10 hours). ubuntu seems to slow down on any install now (it would act very slowly, irritatingly) even when I try to install firefox from terminal now. The firefox (when opened) always shows up "unresponsive script" error. Whats the problem here? As soon as I login, everything is lightning fast. As soon nas I start the terminal and try to install something like "sudo apt-get install firefox", it would take a loooong time to download just ~48 MB and then take at least half an hour to install from that downloaded file. And after that, everything is slowed down. Windows will open slowly, and the whole system kinda "drags".
  
  This is something I know can be fixed, may be some performance setting or something. Please help me out here.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Open terminal & type top.
  Post screenshot of it please.
  
  As you said even Windows OS is slowing down, it seems like Wubi bug is affecting you.
  As Ubuntu is acting as application of Windows, it might be affecting the performance.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  No Windows is fine. By "windows" I meant the folder windows that open up when I see any folders in ubuntu.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  No Windows is fine. By "windows" I meant the folder windows that open up when I see any folders in ubuntu.

  Does Ubuntu runs in Unity 2D or Unity 3D mode ?
  Is it happening like this since first boot ?
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  I have absolutely no clue what 2D or 3D or what Unity means. After the first boot, before doing anything else, I opened firefox and opened the page which had openFOAM installation instructions. That mozilla page went "unresponsive script" several times during the course of 24 hours (yes the laptop was on all the time since I didnt want to leave installation midway). And I got openFOAM installed, After that, when I rebooted and started using openFOAM, it worked fantastic. But when I opened firefox it was still going unresponsive. I uninstalled firefox and tried to install again from terminal, but the system went terribly slow every single time. I rebooted to windows OS and now am here.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Seems like heavy disk activity is freezing the OS.
  In terminal type :
  

  echo "deadline" | sudo tee /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

  Now open firefox or install something from terminal again.
  Did you noticed performance boost ?
  
  If yes, then I will post how to permanently change scheduler to deadline below.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Here are the screenshots of "top" (the list was changing, looked like a task manager equivalent to me, hence I took 2 screenshots at different instants).
  
  I have read this Compiz thing is the root of the problem. My noob understanding.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Try this :
  

  Abhishek Rawal

  Seems like heavy disk activity is freezing the OS.
  In terminal type :
  

  echo "deadline" | sudo tee /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

  Now open firefox or install something from terminal again.
  Did you noticed performance boost ?
  
  If yes, then I will post how to permanently change scheduler to deadline below.

• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Ok. I will do that the first thing after I go home today. BTW, did the images tell you anything about the problem? Was it helpful? I don't know how to read them, what they mean. What is Compiz btw? I keep reading about it all the time.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Ok. I will do that the first thing after I go home today. BTW, did the images tell you anything about the problem? Was it helpful? I don't know how to read them, what they mean. What is Compiz btw? I keep reading about it all the time.

  Nope. I just wanted to see if any resources is not using too much of memory.
  Compiz is compositing manager. All the animations & bling bling you see in Ubuntu OS UI is due to compiz.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  This is so much help! Thank you once again. Btw, you are still an undergrad?
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  This is so much help! Thank you once again. Btw, you are still an undergrad?

  Yup, currently in last sem! 😁
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Damn! You must have no problems getting a job. That's too much learning at a young age! Awesome!
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Damn! You must have no problems getting a job. That's too much learning at a young age! Awesome!

  Woah! Thanks for compliment,man. That boosts me to work harder. But there's too much competition you know. You simply can't afford to stop. [HASHTAG]#Evolve[/HASHTAG]
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Totally agree. You have a good headstart I must say.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  You have a good headstart I must say.

  😀
  
  -------
  Back to the topic,
  Have you tried dual-booting ? Trust me in longer run you'll have even worse problems working with wubi.
  Switch to dual-boot asap.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  I cannot dual boot with Windows 7. The partitioning is a problem. And I am not on campus any more, cannot get a free Windows 8 upgrade 😔
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  I cannot dual boot with Windows 7. The partitioning is a problem. And I am not on campus any more, cannot get a free Windows 8 upgrade 😔

  Get rid of HP_Tools. I don't think anyone needs it. Do we ? What is it's purpose ?
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  They say it is essential when we do system restore. I have restored twice in the last week 😁
  
  So you are saying its the "Linux inside Windows" that's the reason for the lag?
• 

  durga ch

  ok not to hijack the conversation - but why cant you full install ubuntu(not dual boot, just ubuntu by itself) and run windows as application on ubuntu??? I mean the other way around, from your other post its evident that windows is all gone (I am assuming that so is data) so you should be able to start afresh on ubuntu only..
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Well, lets just say Windows has hijacked me for so long that I have The Stockholm syndrome now. I plan to get over it slowly.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Well, wubi.exe was slowing down my windows considerably too! It became painfully slow at a point, when I had to uninstall Ubuntu 😔 Back to square one. Thinking of deleting the HP Tools partition now. But cannot gather enough courage to do it, given my history with things that come back to bite me.
• 

  durga ch

  #-Link-Snipped-#: you can always take a backup .If things dont work as expected, you should be able to restore from backup.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Is writing the data in the partition on a dvd good enough?
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Is writing the data in the partition on a dvd good enough?

  I would rather prefer flash drive.
• 

  Anoop Kumar

  Does anyone care about personal Windows license 👀.
  
  Problem I faced with Linux-Windows dual boot is -
  1. Number of partitions supported by Windows - If you have more than 4 drives (correct me!). Just merge to have only 4 drive including Linux partition.
  2. Boot sector corruption when you install Linux/Ubuntu : Fix: #-Link-Snipped-# , You may need to use few times.
  Rest everything works smooth. Just make sure to install Linux and windows in separate drives instead of auto drive allocations.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Anoop Kumar

  1. Number of partitions supported by Windows - If you have more than 4 drives (correct me!).

  You can have more than 4 partitions if you're using GPT partitioned disk. But the limitation is, booting is supported in only 64-bit UEFI compatible boards with ofcourse UEFI enabled.
  #-Link-Snipped-# has old laptop (like 5 year old, if I remember correctly). I don't think UEFI boards were used at that time(I might be wrong here). As he mentioned before he is unable create more than 4 partitions, it signs that he is using MBR partition table. So he can create multiple local partition in extended partition and easily dual-boot.
  
  But the thing he has to rid of one partition first.
  Or else, he can try converting MBR to GPT and then install Windows 7 64-bit, but again his laptop is old so it won't boot without UEFI enabled board.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Ok. So dualboot is out of the question for me (say, for the time being). I would still like to run Linux from USB with "permanent storage". Can I:
  
  1) Use a lighter version of Ubuntu to run on the USB?
  2) Are lighter versions supported for "boot through USB"?
  3) Which version should be good? I read Lubuntu and Xubuntu are light, fast and good.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  1) Use a lighter version of Ubuntu to run on the USB?

  Every Linux distro can be used as live disk/usb
  
  

  Shashank Moghe

  2) Are lighter versions supported for "boot through USB"?

  Yes.
  
  

  Shashank Moghe

  3) Which version should be good? I read Lubuntu and Xubuntu are light, fast and good.

  I prefer Ubuntu Mate (Old-school Gnome 2 FTW 😍) but Lubuntu and Xubuntu are pretty lightweight.
  You might wanna try puppy linux 😉
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  And I can just download the image for any of these versions and use them with any "live usb creators"?
  
  Besides, is there any major thing that should pop me an error while running any program like openFOAM in any of these lighter versions?
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  And I can just download the image for any of these versions and use them with any "live usb creators"?

  Yep.Stick with 'unetbootin'. It's light-weight, fast and stable. Lili, what most windows users use is good too.
  
  

  Shashank Moghe

  Besides, is there any major thing that should pop me an error while running any program like openFOAM in any of these lighter versions?

  Most light-weight users don't use compositors (However you can install it if you want, not a mammoth task), so you won't find bling bling like Ubuntu Unity, Ubuntu Gnome or Kubuntu. These distros are aimed for old PC which have very less RAM.
  What I wanna say is, installing openFOAM and using it won't be an issue.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Wonderful! This is going to be my next priority then. Some new problems coming up, in approximately 8 hours 😁 😁
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Wonderful! This is going to be my next priority then. Some new problems coming up, in approximately 8 hours 😁 😁

  Patiently waiting 😁
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  With several more attempts at running live Lubuntu from a 4 GB pen drive, I somehow did not like that idea (as I ran out of space while installing openFOAM), and I finally installed Lubuntu on a 32 GB pen drive that I bought specifically for running an installed Linux. So now that I have succeeded at doing that (and getting better with Linux), I have another question- can I change flavors without losing my data on Linux? Dont know why, but after having used Lubuntu (which is great, very light and serves my purpose), I crave for the 14.10 ubuntu 😁
  
  Is there a way with which the Software center/upgrader in Lubuntu shall allow me to migrate to ubuntu?
  
  P.S: Linux is addictive for sure.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  can I change flavors without losing my data on Linux?

  Yup, you can. But for that you should create different /home partition. So you can hop distros without losing your important files stored in /home directory.
  Consider, I am using Ubuntu - I will create 3 partition : /home, swap and /. Now when I want to switch to Lubuntu, I will just delete and recreate / partition and won't even touch /home partition. So all my files will remain intact in /home partition.
  
  But note that, /home files contains DE's (Desktop Environment) config files which might interefere when you switch to different DE. (Desktop Environment provides GUI by bundling variety of X clients)
  There are many DE : LXDE, XFCE, LXQT, Cinnamon, Unity, Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment, Pantheon, Mate, Budgie, ROX, trinity, Sugar, Deepin ,etc. etc.
  In Lubuntu you're using LXDE, Ubuntu uses Unity DE. What I mean to say is every DE generates different config files. So if you switch from LXDE to XFCE you might won't see any conflict since both are based on GTK+ ,however if you switch to KDE or LXQT or Enlightenment you might notice config files conflicting as it uses QT framework.
  
  So, Inshort, you can just remove distros config file before hopping distro.
  
  

  Shashank Moghe

  Is there a way with which the Software center/upgrader in Lubuntu shall allow me to migrate to ubuntu?

  You can install multiple DE in one OS and switch as you want. However, sometimes it's conflicting and sometimes don't. It all depends on which DEs are you installing together. You'll enter into hell of dependency shit when installing multiple DE. However, I prefer one DE per OS.
  
  

  Shashank Moghe

  P.S: Linux is addictive for sure.

  No shit pal, Distro hopping is even more fun. After months of hopping you'll finally realise that yep this DE is my taste and this package management is better, and then it's time to explore that specific distro.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Well, here is the deal. Since I have installed Lubuntu on a pen drive, I am running out of space on my Home partition. I have free space on the pendrive, and have installed gparted to enlarge my Home partition. The questions is, if I expand my Home partition, will I lose my data/installations on Home?
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Problem solved. Running on live usb, I was able to resize the Home partition.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  How much space needs to be allocated to the ./ partition? I have allocated 10GB (of a 32 GB pen drive), and am left with little on the Home partition (10 GB). Does the ./ drive really need to have the 10GB space? I used "df -h" and saw that the ./ partition only uses 25% of the allocated space.
  
  Question is, can I resize the ./ partition, without losing OS related data/installed stuff?
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  First of all, there is no such ./ (dot slash) partition. It's just / (slash) and it means root partition. While . in ./ refers current directory and ./xyz refers to xyz filename of current directory.
  
  Back to query,
  Allocation of size of / depends on your use and somewhat on what DE are you using. If you're going to install lot of apps and games, then no 10 GB is not enough.
  
  Yes, you can extend the root partition.
  sudo resize2fs /dev/sdX where X is variable. However, you cannot do while using it.
• 

  Shashank Moghe

  Sorry for the ./ mistake. I have not installed a lot of games or any other fancy software, just an IDE and openFOAM. But I see that they appear to be installed in Home partition, that is where the installations take up space. The root partition is at 25% usage ever since I installed Ubuntu.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Shashank Moghe

  Sorry for the ./ mistake. I have not installed a lot of games or any other fancy software, just an IDE and openFOAM. But I see that they appear to be installed in Home partition, that is where the installations take up space. The root partition is at 25% usage ever since I installed Ubuntu.

  If you compiled IDE and openFOAM from source then you might've used /home partition and thus root partition remains as it is. But if you will regularly update/upgrade your system and install apps from repository then the partition /bin /opt /usr will be flooded.
  
  If you're not going to do anything but openFOAM and basic programming then you might want to decrease root partition to 5-6 GB. I however don't recommend such small size.
• 

  Jatin Kumar

  Abhishek Rawal

  Note : You have to install Linux OS in same hard-drive in which Windows OS is installed without touching any part of the Windows main drive.

  Same drive means same harddisk,and window main drive means ,windows partition?
  

  Anoop Kumar

  Just make sure to install Linux and windows in separate drives instead of auto drive allocations.

  Seperate drives means ,Seperate partitions?
• 

  Anoop Kumar

  Jatin Asija

  Seperate drives means ,Seperate partitions?

  Yes, with fixed allocation.
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Jatin Asija

  Same drive means same harddisk,and window main drive means ,windows partition?

  Yup same hard-disk (like sda,sdb,sdc or whatever it is tagged as).
  Yup, windows partition.