Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

[Adam4491]

and windows?


I want to try out linux, but I want to keep windows until I feel completely conftable with it


I love the look of kubuntu, and I was recommended kubuntu by a friend. So I want this to be dual booted with windows.

are there any guides on how to do this?

[Rob]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

If you install Kubuntu on a PC with WindowsXP already installed, then you can dual-boot.  Kubuntu will install a bootloader called Grub that will give you the option of what OS to boot every time you turn on your PC.  You don't have to do anything special during install to enable the dual-boot option, it is automatically set up.

[Adam4491]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

really?
that's cool!

I have to partion them both off, right?

[Rob]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

Well, from Windows just run Partition Magic and have it reduce your NTFS partition.  That way there will be a large amount of free, un-partitioned space.  Then, boot up your Kubuntu install CD/DVD and install away.  Kubuntu will find that free, un-partitioned space and partition it the way Linux needs (without needing you to choose the sizes or file system type).

I did this on my WindowsXP system and it worked perfectly.

[Eug]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

just doing a search on partitioning...

i've read the tutorials and howtos on dual booting XP & Kubuntu etc. but have read some conflicting information in regards to NTFS, FAT32, primary, logical, extended etc... and how much to allot for each partition. just wondering if anyone can shed some clarity.

i have a 200GB SATA drive, and i want to run both XP and Kubuntu - I also want a paritioned drive for which i can access documents and mp3s from both operating systems.

can anyone break it down for me? I was thinking:

10GB for windows operating system (what file system? logical?)
10GB for windows programs (what file system? extended?)
20GB for documents i.e. work, assignments. (what file system? extended?) want both OS to share.
100GB for multimedia i.e. mp3, videos. (what file system? extended?) want both OS to share.
xxGB remainder for linux, ie. boot/ home/user/swap/root etc? (should approximately be around 30GB) is that too much?

the HDD is completely clean and i have read to install XP first.

any help would be great as there's quite a few different ways people have written tutorials on how to do it.

regards

[Rob]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

I can't answer all your questions but I can offer a couple of answers.  Yes, install WinXP first.  You can put XP on a normal NTFS partition.  Leave the rest of your drive unpartitioned and free (which would be 190GB judging by your drive size).

Be wary when installing to a SATA drive.  I have read many forums posts about folks being unable to install to a SATA drive.  You may encounter the same problem...but hopefully not.

[aysiu]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

If you're using the Desktop CD, follow these instructions:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installing.html

If you're using the Alternate CD, follow these:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone

Both have instructions for Ubuntu, but it's pretty much the same thing for Kubuntu.

[Eug]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

thanks for that guys... i havent seen this tutorial before.
i'll have a quick look and post back here if i have any queries.

sorry for bumping an old thread up

[Eug]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

alright, i've read the tutorials and been going around in circles for about a month.

i manage to get kubuntu loaded and running, however when i reboot and get into grub - windows gives me a blue screen saying that the drive is unaccessable.

so i'm guessing where i'm going wrong is mounting the paritions or something.

ultimately i'd like a:
parition for XP 20GB NTFS
paritions for shared (i.e. music and documents) 130GB FAT32.
parition for kubuntu 20GB

whats the go with setting up
swap parition i have 1gb of DDR2, and read that 512MB should be sufficient.
also other tutorials have stated benefits of making a ext3/home parition sepearte to ext3 itself

help?! i would seriously like to get this up and running. and i've been going crazy doing reformat after reformat!

[analyticalman]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

Can you just clarify something. Assuming you have Windows (installed first) and kubuntu on your drive -you switch on your computer and get a grub menu with windows and kubuntu on it - Is that right? if you select ubuntu it boots ok -yes? Then exactly what happens when you try to boot into windows?

[Eug]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

yes i can get into kubuntu fine, and got it running.
then i reboot and on the grub menu go down to windows XP and try to get into that and then i get a blue screen with numbers. i've read every line of the blue screen and there is nothing that gives me any sort of indication as to what the problem may be.

i've tried rebooting into xp with safe mode and get the same result.

i'm currently doing another reformat of windows xp at this moment and will attempt another kubuntu install.

at this stage i've formatted my 200GB SATA drive.
set up an NTFS Windows XP install (no paritions)

after XP is installed, i then intend to reboot with the kubuntu cd and let it load and install.

first time i did automatic and it didnt work out the way i wanted.

so i'm fiddling with the manual paritioning at the moment - in attempts to get a FAT32 shared parition which is accessible by both windows XP and kubuntu.

this will be my documents/mp3 drive

any insight? thanks

[Sweet Spot]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

Hey Eug, I have recently installed Kubuntu on my XP machine, and did it all from scratch, and I'll guide you through it pretty easily, the way I did it.

Ok, so I have 2 Hard drives. One is 20 gigs, and the other is 160 gigs. The 160 gig drive is my dual boot one and the 20 gig is formatted to FAT32 so that it can be shared between Kubuntu and Windows.

The way I partitioned my drives, was simply by using the Windows XP Pro boot CD. Let your PC boot with that CD, go through the initial set up until you get to where the partitioning set up is. How I personally set up my partitions:

on the 160 gig drive:

20 gigs for Windows XP Pro main partition (This leaves me just enough room for installing the programs I need which don't exist for Linux) This partition, I'll format as NTFS naturally.

That leaves me with roughly 140 gigs.

Then, I made a partition of 12 gigs for Linux, which will be the (/) Root directory.

I have 512 megs of RAM, and it's suggested to make another partition called "Swap", with double the amount of your physical RAM if it's under a gig, which acts as window's Paging file, and allocates memory, in case it's needed when running tasks. So:

I made another partition with 1024 megs (that's exactly 1 gig) for the Swap directory.

That leaves me with about 138 gigs , to which I allocated to my last partition on the 160 gig drive, for the directory called "Home"

I did NOT format any of the partitions except for the initial NTFS one, which is for Win XP. The other partitions I left RAW, so that when I installed Kubuntu, I was able to just lable the partition amounts, with their corresponding names (/, swap, home) Does that make sense ?

The 20 gig drive, I formatted to FAT 32 in the Win XP set up process, since it's the easiest and fastest way to do so.

After that, install with the Kubuntu disc is a snap. After installation, shut down, and try the dual boot. All should be well. I'm also a noob to all this, and I didn't run into any problems using the method I described above.

If you have any further questions, feel free to PM me.

AIM: quizit
MSN: radeohed@hotmail.com
Yahoo: valkyre00

Regards,
Doug

[analyticalman]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

What SweetSpot says should work fine - it now sounds like you have a windows problem, not a kubuntu problem (assuming that you are getting Windows errors - not grub errors). Did you check that XP booted OK before you installed kubuntu? As a matter of preference, I would create and format the Fat32 partition in windows (as SweetSpot did with his separate drive). That way you won't get into any issues with drive letter assignments When I had got that all working I would then give the rest of the disc over to kubuntu - the installer should handle it fine, or you can partition it such as that suggested below

[Eug]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

cheers sweetspot and analyticalman - i will try that.
you guys have no idea how much i am doing my head in over this... i would love to get a dualboot running and eventually make the change - a bit over a month later, still at it trying to get the baby to run.

the install i just finished 10 minutes ago didnt work.

and yes i did install windows xp, reboot go back into xp, reboot install kubuntu.

here is the error i get when selecting windows xp pro from the grub menu after booting up.

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure its properly configured and terminated.
Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical information:

***STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF7C4F63C, 0xC000000E, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

i dont have any viruses - new fresh install.
no hard drives are new.
only have the 200GB SATA set as master - properly config.

seems like a mounting error to me.

Just a quick breakdown of what i've got if it makes any difference.

P4 Prescott 3.2Ghz (ohh yeah its a 64bit processor, and i am running a 64bit verion of kubuntu 6.06)
ASUS P5GD2-X
2x 512MB DDR2 Corsair 433Mhz
nvdia eagle 256mb pci-e video card
200gb sata drive
audio is on board 7.1

That leaves me with about 138 gigs , to which I allocated to my last partition on the 160 gig drive, for the directory called "Home"

is it possible to have this HOME partition/directory as a FAT32, so that it is accessible from both XP and Kubuntu.

once again cheers guys...
its 2am here... and my eyes are getting square, first thing tomorrow. back to it.

[Sweet Spot]

Re: Are there any guides on how to dual boot kubuntu

FAT32 has severe limitations. For one, security. Secondly, and I forget exactly what the sizes are but, I believe that FAT32 only recognizes 32 GB partitions on XP and even if you were to use FAT32, (which means you'd need several extended partition drives)the actual maximum file size for any folder is 4 GB. So as you can see, I think you'd be best served by staying away from FAT32 if you're dealing with large partitions etc..

Edit: I only chose to share that 20 gig drive because it suits very little purpose in the scheme of what it does. I figured that I'd put more music or video in there, so it doesn't really interfere with any other functions. If I was you, I'd definitely JUST give XP the space you think it will need for programs etc..

Really think about what you'd do with a shared partition, and why you'd need it. Is it really necessary ? Perhaps just a small partition would do, say... 10 gigs in FAT 32 ? This way, if you're in Windows and you happen to come accross something that you think would be nice to have for Linux, you can store it there, and when in Ubuntu, you can just move it afterwards, or visa versa. I can't really think of any real reason to share a directory, other than having it be a slight convenience or novelty.

By the way, are you SURE that when you were "installing" windows, that you didn't opt to "FIX" it, rather than doing a fresh install ?