About to do a new install, need pointers

Post #325,813 by drook 5/7/10 10:02:28 AM 5/7/10 10:03:25 AM Reply	About to do a new install, need pointers I'm likely getting a new laptop today. It's preinstalled with Windows 7, which won't last long. (For one thing, the store tells people not to bother running it with less than 3G of RAM, but this model only has 2.) I want to dual boot XP and Ubuntu. I've got an Ubuntu install disk from a year or so back, and an XP install disk. What order should I put things on? * Should I use the Ubuntu disk then upgrade, or is there a way to do a pure-internet install? Or should download and burn the latest disk? * What's the latest on running both at the same time, VMWare? Run one system as host and the other as client? Run both as clients under something else? -- Drew Edited by drook May 7, 2010, 10:03:25 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #325,815 by Another Scott 5/7/10 11:32:53 AM 5/8/10 7:29:43 AM Reply	The usual rule is Winders first. Update. Be careful to make sure your new notebook is fully supported under XP before trashing 7. One never knows these days whether drivers exist for newer hardware. If I have both XP and Linux, I usually have them on separate partitions rather than in a VM. But see below. Use a bootable rescue CD (or USB stick) to boot the system (I like - http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page ). Run chkdsk or the like. Repartition it as needed to make a drive for Winders XP. Install XP. [Update: I actually preferred CloneZilla-SysRescCD when I was doing these things a couple of years ago. I groked it better - http://clonezilla-sy...lug.gr/intro.html ] Then install Ubuntu and do any additional partitioning, etc., with the tools there. I would do the full Ubuntu install from the media you have and upgrade later. If you need to do it again, you won't have to download it again (and I'm not sure how/if one can do an Ubuntu internet install). An advantage of that way Grub will find XP and you won't have any issues with having to add it manually. VirtualBox has worked fine for me running Ubuntu on XP. But I haven't been brave enough to rely on it yet. An advantage of having Ubuntu as the client is that you may have better/more drivers under Winders. HTH a little. Good luck! Cheers, Scott. Edited by Another Scott May 8, 2010, 07:29:43 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #325,816 by beepster 5/7/10 11:45:51 AM Reply	Don't forget to run the rescue disks... I know thats a "d'uh" thing...but once bitten. As for support, you'll need to go from XP install straight to SP3..and its always nice to have the latest live CD to test the Ubuntu before you take the plunge. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #325,818 by pwhysall 5/7/10 11:52:35 AM Reply	Unless you have a pressing reason for XP, keep 7. It'll run fine in 2GB.
Post #325,820 by drook 5/7/10 12:46:01 PM Reply	Just a sales pitch then? Wouldn't surprise me if they're trying to steer people to beefier machines. Does W7 still have a version of Movie Maker? That's the big thing at the moment I want to keep around, so I can process video. Does W7 still play nice with dual booting? I know every generation tries to make it impossible. Is the advice to install Ubuntu second still true? -- Drew
Post #325,831 by altmann 5/7/10 5:14:41 PM Reply	Re: Movie Maker Windows 7 doesn't include Movie Maker. They moved it and a couple of other bundled apps to separate "Windows Live" downloads. Windows Live Movie Maker is a rewrite that may or may not do what you want. But the "classic" version of Movie Maker is still available for download as well: Windows Live Movie Maker: http://download.live.com/moviemaker Windows Movie Maker 2.6: http://www.microsoft...FC&displaylang=en
Post #325,861 by drook 5/8/10 10:33:31 AM Reply	Cool, might try both I'm already pretty familiar with the classic version. I wonder if the new one is "simplified". -- Drew
Post #325,847 by pwhysall 5/7/10 11:48:34 PM Reply	Re: Just a sales pitch then? Gosh, d'yer think? Movie Maker is a download. Yes. Yes.
Post #325,819 by Andrew Grygus 5/7/10 12:20:03 PM Reply	Is your XP activatable? If it's an OEM version that's already activated on a different machine that could be a problem. Also if it's a Dell or HP disk it won't install except on machines that have the right BIOS code.
Post #325,887 by drook 5/8/10 4:32:36 PM Reply	VMWare or Virtualbox? This one shows dual boot (not concurrent) using Virtualbox and a shared data partition, so the two systems can share files, including Firefox profiles, etc. http://lifehacker.co...n-perfect-harmony This one shows installing Ubuntu in VMWare under W7, and the concurrent operation looks really nice. http://www.howtogeek...th-vmware-player/ What I don't see anywhere (it may not exist) is a way to run Ubuntu as the host and W7 as the client. Is that even possible? -- Drew
Post #325,888 by Another Scott 5/8/10 4:38:03 PM Reply	VirtualBox supports Win7 clients. Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD. The latest Ubuntu release is for 9.10. Dunno the status of a version for 10.4 - http://www.virtualbo...i/Linux_Downloads HTH a little. Cheers, Scott.
Post #325,900 by drook 5/9/10 11:37:07 AM Reply	Looks like VMWare licensing/pricing has changed You used to be able to use the free product to mount a physical partition of a dual-boot machine inside a VM. Now the free "Player" product only supports VM files. The $189 "workstation" version allows mounting the partition. The "right answer" just got a lot less obvious. -- Drew
Post #325,912 by folkert 5/9/10 2:11:21 PM Reply	Use the VMware Server... Its free and has a "remote console" type of thing as a FireFox Plugin. Just because its "server" doesn't mean its limited to that. Its just one of those things. Or don't. Your choice. Virtual Box OSE seems to work fine for most things i do at home now. Its leaner and lighter and seems to do most everything I need/want for home use.
Post #325,929 by drook 5/9/10 11:40:00 PM Reply	Can it use partitions? ie: Do dual boot into separate physical partitions but access one from within the other? -- Drew
Post #325,935 by boxley 5/10/10 8:57:11 AM Reply	question why dual boot? Pick one and run the other in a virt If we torture the data long enough, it will confess. (Ronald Coase, Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 1991)
Post #325,939 by drook 5/10/10 11:01:47 AM Reply	Not an option What I'd like to do is boot Linux and be able to run Windows virtual. But this laptop has Windows 7 already installed, and they don't provide install media. VirtualBox forums indicate this should be possible. I've already installed VMWare player and an Ubuntu guest, but haven't done any work yet so I can burn that down. Next up is to install Ubuntu in a typical dual-boot setup. Then boot to Ubuntu and install VirtualBox. Then try to mount the Windows partition and boot it. -- Drew
Post #325,942 by folkert 5/10/10 12:10:49 PM Reply	Re: Can it use partitions? Nope. The only one that can do it now (and perhps not anymore) is Workstation. Server is looked at from an "ESX" style of managing. Virtual Box OSE, is probably what you are going to look for.
Post #325,943 by drook 5/10/10 12:35:53 PM Reply	Yeah, I've got that page open now http://forums.virtua...wtopic.php?t=1966 We'll see how this goes. -- Drew
Post #325,944 by Another Scott 5/10/10 1:11:28 PM Reply	Please report back if you succeed. 't would be handy.
Post #325,953 by drook 5/10/10 3:55:27 PM Reply	First bits VirtualBox has a really nice site, with a step-by-step Ubuntu-fied install doc. I'm using the FUEL version instead of OSE. One of the pieces left out of the OSE is USB support. I'll be using an external mouse on this setup for image editing. -- Drew
Post #325,964 by drook 5/10/10 9:23:51 PM Reply	Not looking good Windows tries very hard to own the disk. Linux from a partition plays nice as a guest, but I can't get Windows to boot as a guest. Looks like I'll keep it as dual boot. When I need to process video, I'll boot to windows, then open Ubuntu in the VM to author DVDs and do other conversions. -- Drew
Post #325,965 by Another Scott 5/10/10 10:23:38 PM Reply	It might make sense to buy a copy of Winders. Have you seen this? http://www.virtualbo...i/Migrate_Windows Some tweaks may be needed to get Winders to migrate into a VM. But at this point it might make sense to punt. You can still get XPHome for $100 at Newegg, and it's on eBay too (of course). It should run fine in a VM. It might save you some time - something that none of us have too much of these days. :-) HTH. Cheers, Scott.
Post #325,966 by drook 5/10/10 10:30:38 PM Reply	Already made install media for W7 For now I'll dual boot. Either system comes up fast enough to not be annoying. Eventually someone with more time and experience will do what I'm trying and write it up. -- Drew
Post #325,904 by boxley 5/9/10 12:18:36 PM Reply	should work just fine virtbox is a pretty good product If we torture the data long enough, it will confess. (Ronald Coase, Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 1991)

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