crackpot [dot] ws

So you’re ready to commit full time to Linux, and you’re wondering what distribution to use. If you’re like most users then you want something that is simple, yet powerful, and backed up by a team of developers who are committed to quality releases. Allow me to introduce you to Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution based on Debian, and the name “Ubuntu” is an African word meaning “Humanity to others”, or “I am what I am because of who we all are”. The current release is version 9.04 (9 for 2009, 04 for the 4th month of the year), code named Jaunty Jackalope, and each release is on a release cycle that has been maintained since its initial release.

So why use Ubuntu? Well quite simply, it works! When you’re finished installing Ubuntu, a full installation takes about 25 minutes, it is ready to go. There’s not really any tweaking that needs to be done in order to get everything working like with other distros. You will most likely have to change a few settings here and there to tweak things to your liking, but that’s true with any operating system. Obviously your individual results will vary based on your particular system setup, but generally things are smooth.

Okay, so you’re ready to go. Head on over to Ubuntu’s website and download the ISO image of the installation you choose. Please be mindful of the 32 and 64-bit versions, 64-bit will not work on all systems. Then burn the image to a CD-ROM using Nero, or my personal favorite Alcohol 120%. Once that’s done then restart your computer and make sure your BIOS is set to boot from the CD-ROM. I am not going to go into in depth instructions on how to install Ubuntu, their installation instructions are pretty straight forward and do most of the work for you.

What I will talk about is deciding which Bootloader to use. Ubuntu comes bundled with GNU Grub aka Grub or Grand Unified Bootloader, and it works really well. When Ubuntu installs itself it will automatically install Grub to the MBR, as well as search your hard drives for other OS installations and add them to /boot/grub/menu.lst. For most purposes this will work just fine, and your two operating systems will live happily with each other. By the way, when doing a dual-boot system involving Vista, I would always recommend that you install Vista first, and try to have Vista on the first partition that your BIOS sees.

In my case with dual-boot I couldn’t get Grub to boot Vista.  It would boot Ubuntu just fine, but I still need to use Windows for other things, so obviously I couldn’t just let it rot on my hard drive.  The reason stems from how my hard drives were being recognized, the order of them more specifically.  So if you are in my position where Grub won’t boot Vista, or you would just prefer to use Vista’s bootloader to choose which OS to boot then continue on.  If not, then enjoy your new Ubuntu installation.

There is a change to the installation of Ubuntu if you wish to use Vista’s bootloader to load Ubuntu. When you get to the last screen where it tells you the summary of your installation with all the changes being made to your hard drives and what not you’re gonna want to click the “Advanced” button.  A window will pop up and there will be a check box that says “Install a Bootloader”.  Make sure that the check box is checked, and you’re gonna want to specify where the bootloader (Grub) is installed.  You’re gonna want to put it on the same partition as where your main Ubuntu install is.  Generally it will be called /dev/sda1, which refers to the first hard drive (/dev/sda) on the first partition (1), but this will depend on how your system is setup. In my case it was on the 2nd hard drive’s first partition, aka /dev/sdb1.  The reason we are doing this is because we don’t want Grub to be installed in the MBR, because where would Vista’s bootloader sit?  In order to get Vista to boot Linux we are going to use a technique known as chainloading. What this means in our case is we are going to use Vista’s bootloader to load Grub, which will then actually load Linux.

If you follow these steps correctly then you will still automatically boot into Vista without any options to choose your operating system. This is because Vista’s bootloader has not yet been made aware of the existence of Ubuntu.

So now you’re gonna want to boot back into Vista and get a program called EasyBCD. This program will allow you to chainload Grub by using EasyBCD’s MBR code. Here’s what you do.

1. Load up EasyBCD and click the “Add/Remove Entries” button.
2. Then in the “Add an Entry” area select the “Linux” tab and set the type to “Grub”.
3. Then name it whatever you wish, something like “Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope” is nice.
4. Now for device you’re going to want to select the partition where you installed Grub during the Ubuntu installation.
5. Then click “Add Entry” and restart your computer.  You should get a menu that will allow you to choose either Vista or Ubuntu.

Your experiences may vary, but this will give you a general idea of what you’re in for when you choose to dual-boot Vista and Linux.  Hopefully, in your case Grub will be able to boot either Vista or Linux, but I was not so lucky.