Triple Boot Ubuntu,XP and Vista on M1530.

3 Questions

1. Does anyone here have tried triple booting Ubuntu, XP and Vista?
2. If so, what was the most challenging part of it?
3. How did you partition your drive? How would you allocate partition if you have 320gb drive?

I'm aware i can run it thru virtualization but what i want is to triple boot it. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

What will you be using each partition for? If you have files on the computer that you would be accessing in two or more OSs, I would set those up on their own partition. Shouldn't matter if it is NTFS or FAT32 because Ubuntu can read/write NTFS.

Are there going to be a lot of installed applications for each OS (games)?


I would do the following
XP
Vista
Ubuntu
Files

Just wondering why you want to triple boot?


To answer your second questions - I have dual booted ubuntu and XP 1000 times. It is no problem and very easy. It should be an option in the Ubuntu setup. The vista bootloader, I'm not sure on. I know a few people running vista and Ubuntu and they had no problem.

 

I only want to know how much to allocate for each OS install then everything else are going to be used for saving files.

I will have more programs/games installed in XP and Vista but i also want to have a bit of room just in case i wanted/needed to install more programs to try in Ubuntu.

I have not much reason to triple boot other than to try it and see if i can do it. Just to have more experience in doing it.

Thanks for your advice. I'll try doing in a day or two.

 

I don't understand why do you need XP and Vista at the same time, just try out both and decide which one to keep, as it will be a lot of wasted space with 2 Windows installations. Install Ubuntu instead of the one you want to get rid of and use Grub as bootloader.

You can do some interesting stuff with bootloaders. For example, I use MediaDirect key to boot to OS X directly, and power button to boot XP. There is no selection screen when you boot, it is very convenient.

 

You will install XP then Vista then Ubuntu.

Here is an older How-To

 

and if Vista is installed first (and you want to keep it), then refer to this tutorial first

Dual boot XP and Vista with Vista installed first

 

it can be done. Install XP first, then Vista, then Linux. Grub does a good job handling them.

My partitions

XP1
Vista2
openSuse3
swap (for linux)
Shared partition

a 3rd party boot loader can be used, but grub doesn't have too many problems and should be good enough. Design your partitions so you don't have to do too much moving around with a partition manager. As always backup.

 

Thanks for your advice but i really just wanna try it out and see for myself if i can do it. I can uninstall whichever i want later on anyways.

The bootloader thing that you mentioned is interesting. Can you share the instructions on how you were able to use Mediadirect button to boot another OS from it in lieu of the selection screen. Also I would be interested in getting OS X to work on my M1530. Is there any direction you could lead me to?

Thanks for the link.

Thanks .

How would you allocate partition for each if you have 320gb? I just need an idea to work on. thanks.

 

Ok so i successfully able to triple boot XP, Vista and Ubuntu on my XPS M1530 without any major problems except that i can't get my WiFi to work and my bluetooth mouse (Microsoft 5000) to get working (it detected it but pointeer doesn't move)on Ubuntu just yet.

Here's a summary on how i did it:
Partition: 320gb drive
Used Ubuntu Live CD to partition my drive
40gb for XP (Primary - NTFS)
40gb for Vista (Primary - NTFS)
40gb for Ubuntu (Primary - Ext3)
4gb Linuxswap (extended - logical)
174gb for common storage (extended - logical)

XP Install
Disabled AHCI (i didn't slipstream)
Install went smooth.
Drivers:
Installed Chipset driver
Installed AHCI Driver then went to Device Manager and updated the Ide drivers.
Rebooted went to BIOS and set my drive to AHCI then went on to booth smoothly.
The rest is just to install the remaining drivers and voila first step is done.

Vista Install
Just popped in the DVD, booted from it, selected the second partition and installed without a glitch. I didnt have to change AHCI settings inthe BIOS since it is already included natively in Vista. The rest of the process only involved the usual driver installations.

Ubuntu Install
Booted the Live CD then I chose install on the desktop and waited a couple of minutes as the process goes on, didn't have to do much as everything went well. As mentioned above though i cant get the wireless (I got the Dell Wireless-N Broadcom) to work yet and the bluetooth mouse is recognized but my pointer is not moving. Touchpad works erratically so i will have to fix that as well. I used a usb mouse to get around for now. Other than those 3 things so far everything is working alright.

I'll appreciate it if anyone has an idea on how to fix those problems. Please post your advice.

 

Wi-FI and BT on ubuntu is quite tricky, youll need to enable them manually.

Create a thread in the linux section. Theyll sure help you out

 

For the touchpad issue, as long as your M1530 is on bios A08, I know this article helps. See post #12

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=737060&page=2

A simple addition of a setting to the end of one of the lines in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file takes care of the erratic Touchpad issues. No idea on the Wireless, my Intel ABGN card works fine. I have not got my bluetooth mouse to work yet either, but I rarely use it and do not care.

 

Im curious, can anyone list some good reasons for booting Ubuntu?

 

Good reason, for me... no, other than I just wanted to have a linux Distro on my notebook for learning.

 

Thanks. It worked great

Some of my reasons are:
It's free
It has pretty much everything you need to do whatever you need to get things done (eg. video and photo editing, Office softwares, basic server functions, database etc.).
Setup is easy. On my M1530 everything was working right after installation even the media buttons and some key combos with the exception of the touchpad (got it working already. instruction is very easy) wifi and bluetooth but that can be done later.
It is a bit technically challenging which i love because its always fun to learn something you don't know. I myself enjoy learning new things.
It is secured by default but you have to be aware of what's going on regardless of operating system to be informed of the evolving world of loopholes and exploits.
Did I mention its free?

 

I know Native Linux SMP Folding @ Home is faster than Windows SMP Folding @ Home.

While Ubuntu is free, you already own a copy of Windows if you bought a computer, so price isn't all that big of an issue.

 

Thanks for this information to help resolve the erratic touchpad issue.

 

Hi,

nice one on the triple boot, i was just curious as to how you mediadirect partition fits into all this. isnt there a limit of 4 primary partitions.

on my m1530 ive got

vista - primary
ubuntu - primary
mediadirect - primary
dell bios type thingy - primary

did you say you loaded ubuntu onto an extended? but even so. what about the mediadirect and the dell bios stuff

cheers

 

There is no limit on how many partitions you can make. Factory default comes with 4 partitions, but you can always shrink one partition to make room for another.

 

sorry but http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/structPartitions-c.html states otherwise, i know you can create more extended partions depending on the room availible, but i was under the impression that 4 max primary

 

Thank you guys, but i how do i install ubuntu on a system which came with vista pre-installed & is now dual booting with XP.