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Tutorial Setup a Linux Dual Boot

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CrAzY FaIrYHoPn

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I haven't seen a tutorial on how to do this so I figured I might as well make one. Dual booting is a fairly simple thing to accomplish and I personally love it. This tutorial will show you how to dual boot with any Linux distribution (distro) in conjunction with your current OS. The starting OS I will base this tutorial off of is Windows Vista, but the same principles still apply.
Let us begin:

Part I - Getting Setup:
There are a few programs/downloads you will need for this tutorial. These include:
Most popular Distros:
Download any of those. My personal distro is ubuntu but I have heard great things about Arch and Fedora as well. They are all free. Links also contain some more information about each of the distros.


Download a distro and UNetBootin then continue on to Part II.

Part II - Partitioning:
Let me start by saying that not all distros require partitioning but I recommend you do it anyway. If you partition the drive yourself than you will be able to select how large/small you want it to be.
  1. Open up the start menu and go to control panel > system maintenance > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management.
  2. Next right click on your primary partition (C:smile: and select shrink.
  3. In the pop-up window enter in the amount of space you would like to shrink/clear-up. I recommend at least 50gigs so you have sufficient space. (1,000MB = 1GB)

    Note1: clearing up this space will NOT slow down your computer, it will just relocate the space.
  4. Click on shrink and your partition will begin to shrink. This process will take a good amount of time so don't panic if you think the prompt is frozen. There is no loading bar so just be patient.
  5. Once the process is complete you will have x amount of allocated space. This is the space that your distro will automatically fill up upon install.
  6. Done partitioning.
Part III - Bootable USB/Live CD:
The next section depends on what you have handy. You can do either of these methods to boot into Linux. I like the USB method more because you can preview the distro before install, but it really doesn't matter.

USB:
This process is made easy by UNetBootin.
  1. Insert your USB
  2. Open UNetBootin. Make sure the "Distribution" bubble is darkened.
  3. Use the drop down menu to select your distribution and version.
  4. Select "Disk Image," then browse. Find your .iso then click open.
  5. Under "type," select USB. Under "drive," select your USB's drive. This can be found by going to my computer under start menu and looking at the letter next to your USB (ex. E:smile:.
  6. Once all of the info is put in depress "OK." The extraction process will now begin. This could take up to 10minutes at the most.
  7. You will then get a prompt saying reboot now or exit. I recommend reading Part IV before rebooting so you know what to do.
  8. Done
Live CD:
This is even simpler:
  1. Right click on the .iso you downloaded earlier.
  2. Select "open with..." then Windows Disc Image Burner.
  3. Insert your CD.
  4. Select the disc burner you are using in the Image Burner. Then select Burn.
  5. Done
Now your Bootable Linux Distro is ready! Almost done.


Part IV - Configure BIOS:
Most computer's attempt to boot off of the HDD before anything else. This causes problems when booting from a USB but not usually from a Live CD. There is an easy fix for this though which I will now show you.
  1. Look through this link for your computer. Once you find it, look at the key sequence it gives you to enter BIOS. For example, my BIOS key is F2. Remember your key.
  2. Restart computer with CD/USB *NOT* plugged in.
  3. When your boot screen pops up, press the BIOS setup key. If it doesn't work, then look on the boot screen for a prompt saying something like, "press <F2> to enter BIOS."
  4. Once you successfully enter BIOS, go to the boot tab.
  5. Under boot, click on boot order. Read the instructs in the right pane to figure out how to reorder the devices (usually it is highlight the device and press up/down).
  6. Move USB or CD up to the top. It may not be named USB, but it won't be hard to figure out. trust me.
  7. Once you rearrange the boot order, press the button (key for BIOS buttons in bottom left corner) to "save and exit BIOS."
  8. Shutdown your computer once it boots up. Don't force the shutdown.
Part V - Install & Boot:
  1. Plug in your USB (or put in your Live CD).
  2. Restart the computer. You will get a boot screen with a few options. These options will vary depending on the distro. On the boot screen select "install" or "try from USB." If you want to try it and it gives you the option, then go for it :smile:
  3. The rest is mostly done by the ISO. You may have to download some stuff and give permissions and stuff but nothing really heavy-duty on your end.
  4. Now you wait. The install process will take a good chunk of time (about an hour). I recommend staying by the computer and keeping it plugged in during this process. If it shuts down during the install, well that just won't be good...
Now you are basically done. Besides miscellaneous prompts, you are good to go.


Hope this helped and answered your guys questions. Now Wheen and I won't have to give people a shortened version of this tut every time someone wants to know how.

Enjoy :smile:
 
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For ubuntu I can't help but recommending the wubi installer. It is literally a couple of clicks and couldn't be simpler!

Great tut though man. I'm sure this will help people who are curious about dual booting.
 
CrAzY FaIrYHoPn

CrAzY FaIrYHoPn

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For ubuntu I can't help but recommending the wubi installer. It is literally a couple of clicks and couldn't be simpler!

Great tut though man. I'm sure this will help people who are curious about dual booting.
Well there are a bunch of different installers that are specifically made for each distro, but it is simpler to just use a universal installer.

Also, this tutorial may be long but this is really easy to do. Don't let the length fool you :tongue:
 
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For ubuntu I can't help but recommending the wubi installer. It is literally a couple of clicks and couldn't be simpler!

Great tut though man. I'm sure this will help people who are curious about dual booting.
This. But that's just for Ubuntu. Great tutorial for every other distro though. :thumbup1:
 
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Well there are a bunch of different installers that are specifically made for each distro, but it is simpler to just use a universal installer.

Also, this tutorial may be long but this is really easy to do. Don't let the length fool you :tongue:
It seems pretty easy to do this way too but I just wanted people to know there was that method out there. Ubuntu seems to be very popular now days.
 
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It seems pretty easy to do this way too but I just wanted people to know there was that method out there. Ubuntu seems to be very popular now days.
Yeah it is. I probably would have installed Arch over ubuntu if i knew more about linux back when I originally did this; but oh well.

It is a great OS though, no doubt about it.
 
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It's like you can read my mind and know what info I'm curious about :frantics:
I'll think about something, then only a couple of days later I will find a tutorial (written by you) explaining it perfectly!

Another excellent post Mr. Fairyhopn :smile: I already had Ubuntu installed, but I was wondering about how to use the other distros since ubuntu is the only one that comes with the handy wubi installer. Would you happen to know anything about dualbooting with Windows and, say, OS X Lion?
 
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CrAzY FaIrYHoPn

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It's like you can read my mind and know what info I'm curious about :frantics:
I'll think about something, then only a couple of days later I will find a tutorial (written by you) explaining it perfectly!

Another excellent post Mr. Fairyhopn :smile: I already had Ubuntu installed, but I was wondering about how to use the other distros since ubuntu is the only one that comes with the handy wubi installer. Would you happen to know anything about dualbooting with Windows and, say, OS X Lion?
Yeah. The procedure is a little more work intensive but it is the same concept, minus the program.
I may write a tut on how to do it sometime. It may go in premium though, depending whether or not I add in the OS.

On another note, thanks for the positive feedback guys :smile:
 
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I haven't seen a tutorial on how to do this so I figured I might as well make one. Dual booting is a fairly simple thing to accomplish and I personally love it. This tutorial will show you how to dual boot with any Linux distribution (distro) in conjunction with your current OS. The starting OS I will base this tutorial off of is Windows Vista, but the same principles still apply.
Let us begin:

Part I - Getting Setup:
There are a few programs/downloads you will need for this tutorial. These include:Most popular Distros:Download any of those. My personal distro is ubuntu but I have heard great things about Arch and Fedora as well. They are all free. Links also contain some more information about each of the distros.



Download a distro and UNetBootin then continue on to Part II.

Part II - Partitioning:
Let me start by saying that not all distros require partitioning but I recommend you do it anyway. If you partition the drive yourself than you will be able to select how large/small you want it to be.
  1. Open up the start menu and go to control panel > system maintenance > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management. This is the final window:


    unallocated-partition-in-vista1.jpg
  2. Next right click on your primary partition (C:smile: and select shrink.
  3. In the pop-up window enter in the amount of space you would like to shrink/clear-up. I recommend at least 50gigs so you have sufficient space. (1,000MB = 1GB)


    Note1: clearing up this space will NOT slow down your computer, it will just relocate the space.
  4. Click on shrink and your partition will begin to shrink. This process will take a good amount of time so don't panic if you think the prompt is frozen. There is no loading bar so just be patient.
  5. Once the process is complete you will have x amount of allocated space. This is the space that your distro will automatically fill up upon install.
  6. Done partitioning.

Part III - Bootable USB/Live CD:
The next section depends on what you have handy. You can do either of these methods to boot into Linux. I like the USB method more because you can preview the distro before install, but it really doesn't matter.

USB:
This process is made easy by UNetBootin.
  1. Insert your USB
  2. Open UNetBootin. Make sure the "Distribution" bubble is darkened.
  3. Use the drop down menu to select your distribution and version.
  4. Select "Disk Image," then browse. Find your .iso then click open.
  5. Under "type," select USB. Under "drive," select your USB's drive. This can be found by going to my computer under start menu and looking at the letter next to your USB (ex. E:smile:.
  6. Once all of the info is put in depress "OK." The extraction process will now begin. This could take up to 10minutes at the most.
  7. You will then get a prompt saying reboot now or exit. I recommend reading Part IV before rebooting so you know what to do.
  8. Done

Live CD:
This is even simpler:
  1. Right click on the .iso you downloaded earlier.
  2. Select "open with..." then Windows Disc Image Burner.
  3. Insert your CD.
  4. Select the disc burner you are using in the Image Burner. Then select Burn.
  5. Done
Now your Bootable Linux Distro is ready! Almost done.



Part IV - Configure BIOS:
Most computer's attempt to boot off of the HDD before anything else. This causes problems when booting from a USB but not usually from a Live CD. There is an easy fix for this though which I will now show you.
  1. Look through this link for your computer. Once you find it, look at the key sequence it gives you to enter BIOS. For example, my BIOS key is F2. Remember your key.
  2. Restart computer with CD/USB *NOT* plugged in.
  3. When your boot screen pops up, press the BIOS setup key. If it doesn't work, then look on the boot screen for a prompt saying something like, "press <F2> to enter BIOS."
  4. Once you successfully enter BIOS, go to the boot tab.
  5. Under boot, click on boot order. Read the instructs in the right pane to figure out how to reorder the devices (usually it is highlight the device and press up/down).
  6. Move USB or CD up to the top. It may not be named USB, but it won't be hard to figure out. trust me.
  7. Once you rearrange the boot order, press the button (key for BIOS buttons in bottom left corner) to "save and exit BIOS."
  8. Shutdown your computer once it boots up. Don't force the shutdown.

Part V - Install & Boot:
  1. Plug in your USB (or put in your Live CD).
  2. Restart the computer. You will get a boot screen with a few options. These options will vary depending on the distro. On the boot screen select "install" or "try from USB." If you want to try it and it gives you the option, then go for it :smile:
  3. The rest is mostly done by the ISO. You may have to download some stuff and give permissions and stuff but nothing really heavy-duty on your end.
  4. Now you wait. The install process will take a good chunk of time (about an hour). I recommend staying by the computer and keeping it plugged in during this process. If it shuts down during the install, well that just won't be good...
Now you are basically done. Besides miscellaneous prompts, you are good to go.



Hope this helped and answered your guys questions. Now Wheen and I won't have to give people a shortened version of this tut every time someone wants to know how.

Enjoy :smile:
Thanks for your tutorial.
I'd like to point out that 1 GB is (to be exact) 1024 MB. :smile:
 
CrAzY FaIrYHoPn

CrAzY FaIrYHoPn

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Thanks for your tutorial.
I'd like to point out that 1 GB is (to be exact) 1024 MB. :smile:

I was going by the prefix giga and kilo. Cause 1,000 kilounits is equal to 1 gigaunit. But whatever, you learn something new (but stupid) everyday.

 
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if you have windows and you are installing ubuntu there is the wubi installer which is easy as hell
 
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This would've been useful a week ago. It's a good tut but with Ubuntu I was able to set to dual boot through the installer, and you might wanna upload the pic elsewhere I just see.
dc799e.png
 
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I was going by the prefix giga and kilo. Cause 1,000 kilounits is equal to 1 gigaunit. But whatever, you learn something new (but stupid) everyday.

Because computers are only as smart as their creator..

8 bits = 1 byte
1024 bytes = 1 kB
1024 kB = 1 MB.. and so on..

1 Megabit = 125 Kilobytes.

Doesn't make much sense to me either.. I wouldn't worry about it. All you should care about is the "byte" system.

Usually Megabits refer to data transfer while Megabyte refers to storage.
 
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