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How do i Dual Boot Linux and Windows?

HeXen

HeXen

Diamond Member
I want Linux on one HD and W7 on another. Preferably the easiest and fastest way to switch between the 2.
I don't understand Grub or whatever the heck it is, so be detailed please.
 
The easiest way in use is to install Win7, and then install Linux. Linux will take care of Win7 through GRUB, and you shouldn't have to do anything.

For greater flexibility, I prefer disconnecting a drive, installing an O/S(doesn't matter which), then unplugging that drive, and install the other O/S. You then set the default drive in BIOS to the O/S you use the most, and hit F8 during POST if you want to use the other O/S. That keeps each O/S completely independent, and if one goes south, you still have a working computer. In my experience, you spend the vast amount of time in 1 O/S when you dual boot, so ease of switching doesn't really come into play.

Edit:
grammar
 
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W7 for gameing, Linux for all else...so i'll likely use both quite a bit. Ok so i install W7 on drive C: and then just run a Linux CD and install to my drive E:

So i would see an option screen to select which one at boot right? Is it just text or is it a nice graphical interface i can use a mouse on? stupid i know but i'm lazy like that. i don't touch the kb outside of typing text.

I'm worried about my Drive d cause thats where my very, very important stuff is... ihave to know that in no way will anything screw up this drive by accident. I'm not familiar with installing Linux...though i have done Ubuntu in Virtualbox before.
 
I don't remember exactly what it looks like tbh, but I found it very intuitive. The fact that I don't remember is telling; it's an almost brain dead process.

You really should consider the disconnected drive option though. It isn't that much more difficult in practice, and it could save you some headaches down the road. The only thing that makes it harder is you have to push F8 if you want to change O/Ss, instead of having the computer go to a boot menu. That difficulty is remediated when you go into your default O/S by requiring absolutely nothing from you.
 
I just use the PC's BIOS and BOOT MENU to select which disk to boot from. It completely avoids putting anything like GRUB or other boot managers onto the hard drive and allows the disks to be completely independent of each other. You can remove either disk without affecting the remaining OS.

1) Install a single disk and install Win7.
2) Disconnect the Win7 disk and connect another disk and install Linux.
3) Reconnect both disks, boot into the BIOS, and set the boot order to default boot to the OS that you'll use the most.

Most BIOSes have an option to automatically pause the boot process for five to ten seconds to allow you to choose a non-default boot disk. Or you can hit the "F12" or other boot selector key offered by the BIOS to choose which disk to boot from.
 
ok thanks, i'll give it a shot. I'm really excited about Kubuntu 10.10, looks very nice so think i'll wait till its officially released.
I'm going to slim down W7 exclusively for gaming only, Kubuntu i hop, should take care of all my other needs. hopefully i can find all the drivers and figure out how to install them.
 
System_Mechanic said:
W7 for gameing, Linux for all else...so i'll likely use both quite a bit.
Click to expand...

And I'd wager that within 2 months you'll stop rebooting into Linux because it's just simpler to do what you need between games in Windows. Dual booting is a PITA and gets old real fast.
 
VinDSL said:
I'd wager that the 'Winders Game Machine' may soon be a thing of the past...

Source: Direct3D 10/11 Now Natively Coming To Linux

Take you pick! 😉
Click to expand...

I would say "soon" is a little optimistic. That has the potential to be pretty awesome, but D3D is only one part of DirectX and I'm sure most Windows games have a lot of Win32-specific code in them. Sure it'll help out if they want to do a Linux port, but if companies wanted to support Linux they already could without a ton of work.
 
My understanding is, D3D support is already present in the Linux kernel.

The "soon" amounts to implementing it in Wine, VMware, et cetera, which is supposedly a very simple process.
 
VinDSL said:
My understanding is, D3D support is already present in the Linux kernel.

The "soon" amounts to implementing it in Wine, VMware, et cetera, which is supposedly a very simple process.
Click to expand...

Except that D3D doesn't include sound, networking, input, file access, etc so all of that needs either a framework like SDL or manual porting.

And nothing hardware related with VMware is simple because it still has to arbitrate the guest process function calls and hardware access. This may make it easier for them, but I would say it's far from simple.
 
Nothinman said:
And I'd wager that within 2 months you'll stop rebooting into Linux because it's just simpler to do what you need between games in Windows. Dual booting is a PITA and gets old real fast.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? lol Its pressing a button!
Like driving to work everday doesnt get old or the hundreds of other repetitive, physical things many of us do daily...this is just a flick of a mouse and its not like i don't have to reboot all the time in Windows as it is but it would be a sad day if anyone is too lazy to press restart 😱

Plus i have 2 SSD drives, Windows boots from bios in average of 17 secs. If i use RT7lite, i can shave it down further but i waste more time than that waiting on my Toast in the morning.
 
System_Mechanic said:
Are you serious? lol Its pressing a button!
Like driving to work everday doesnt get old or the hundreds of other repetitive, physical things many of us do daily...this is just a flick of a mouse and its not like i don't have to reboot all the time in Windows as it is but it would be a sad day if anyone is too lazy to press restart 😱

Plus i have 2 SSD drives, Windows boots from bios in average of 17 secs. If i use RT7lite, i can shave it down further but i waste more time than that waiting on my Toast in the morning.
Click to expand...

What it comes down to though is "why bother?". Windows is a fine O/S, as is Linux, but after awhile of booting to Windows to game, it starts to occur to you that you don't really have much reason to go to Linux. My gaming's tapered off so drastically, and my primary game has a native Linux client, that booting to Windows for a week out of a year won't be too much hassle. If I were full time gaming like I was, I wouldn't dual boot Linux because I'd be constantly switching O/Ss for no real good reason.
 
System_Mechanic said:
Plus i have 2 SSD drives, Windows boots from bios in average of 17 secs.[...]
Click to expand...
Don't mean to rain on your parade, but...

I'm running 32-bit Linux on ancient iron (7 year-old PC), and it boots in the low-20s.

I just did an omnibus update (155 updates actually). It required a restart and fsck'ed itself... 25 sec. total.

Zuul-maverick-20100928-1.png
 
System_Mechanic said:
Are you serious? lol Its pressing a button!
Like driving to work everday doesnt get old or the hundreds of other repetitive, physical things many of us do daily...this is just a flick of a mouse and its not like i don't have to reboot all the time in Windows as it is but it would be a sad day if anyone is too lazy to press restart 😱

Plus i have 2 SSD drives, Windows boots from bios in average of 17 secs. If i use RT7lite, i can shave it down further but i waste more time than that waiting on my Toast in the morning.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm very serious. The problem isn't bootup time, it's the time it takes to restart all of my apps. I leave virtually everything running all of the time so a reboot is a major annoyance.

Driving to work is actually less annoying than rebooting for me and today I'm not even driving to work.
 
you guys are insane, dual booting is not a big deal. I dual boot windows and Mint and spend 60-70% of my time in linux and only boot windows to game and do not find it a hassle at al i mean its not like you are rebooting constantly.

To OP install windows first and the linux installed will install grub for you and pick up the windows install, has worked fine for me in the past. The new grub though is a ROYAL BITCH to work with compared to the old grub, im trying to figure out how to revert back to old grub.
 
Rifterut said:
you guys are insane, dual booting is not a big deal. I dual boot windows and Mint and spend 60-70% of my time in linux and only boot windows to game and do not find it a hassle at al i mean its not like you are rebooting constantly.
Click to expand...
Why though? VMs are more flexible, easier to install, easier to change, easier to move and easier to back up. Dual booting is pointless today.
 
GodlessAstronomer said:
Why though? VMs are more flexible, easier to install, easier to change, easier to move and easier to back up. Dual booting is pointless today.
Click to expand...

VMs won't necessarily work for the intended purposes though. Lets say you want to run Linux, but you really like to game. You run a VM of Ubuntu in Windows so you can quickly switch. One of the big advantages to running Linux is the security. If you're just running a VM, your box still has the Windows risk. If you reversed that, you can't really game in a Windows VM on Linux, nothing made in the last 10 years anyway.

For running the occasional office app or something, I agree. A VM is the best way to go.
 
lxskllr said:
VMs won't necessarily work for the intended purposes though. Lets say you want to run Linux, but you really like to game. You run a VM of Ubuntu in Windows so you can quickly switch. One of the big advantages to running Linux is the security. If you're just running a VM, your box still has the Windows risk. If you reversed that, you can't really game in a Windows VM on Linux, nothing made in the last 10 years anyway.

For running the occasional office app or something, I agree. A VM is the best way to go.
Click to expand...
That's a fair point, but let's face it - for 99.99% (number pulled from posterior) of users, Windows security is sufficient.
 
Whoa! Check this out -- 4.8 sec boot.

Fresh Ubu 10.10 RC install on a 40G Intel X-25M (not my machine).

Damn SSDs. I'm jealous... 😡

buo0G.png
 
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