How to Dual Boot Linux / Ubuntu with Windows 8.1

For university purposes i need to install Ubuntu in my laptop .

It has windows 8.1 preinstalled and i was wondering whats the best way to run ubuntu ?

1 ) Dual boot

or

2) USB 3.0 Bootable drive

I want a step by step guide on how to do it. Someone told me that Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu on dual boot is causing problems but dont know if its true .

Thanks

 

I have windows on an SSD and Ubuntu on a hard drive, and can use F12 to boot into Linux on startup, but it defaults to windows if I don't do anything.

The only problem I've seen is that one declares time in UTC and one doesn't, so I have to sync the clock when I'm back in windows (via a task scheduled to run on login).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Hello patriotaki.
On Windows 8 you can enable Hyper-V so you can install Ubuntu in a virtual machine. Or download other virtualization software such as Virtualbox.

Let me find a guide and be right back at you with a link.

edit: Here's one:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5078-hyper-v-create-linux-virtual-machine-windows-8-a.html

 

If you use something like Tails as a virtual machine does it still offer the same security as it would when installed "properly"

 

No. One of the reasons being your keystrokes can be picked up if installed on a compromised host.

 

Aaaah, yes...thank you, it's sad though, not being able to use tails without rebooting, but in the same vein i guess for them to build a browser would countermand security concerns

 

The only issue I have had with dual booting Linux / Windows 8.1 is that Windows likes to set the clock to local time. However there is a registry hack that changes it to use UTC like just like Linux.

It is probably a good idea to do a google search of your laptop model with linux or ubuntu just to see if anyone has already posted their experiences. The Ubuntu documentation has pretty good step-by-step instructions, but honestly you could probably just boot from the installation media and follow along the prompts and end up with something that works when it is done. Be sure to back up your data before you start!

 

Got a link to that? I was looking around for a way to force Linux to change to match windows' time standard (only because I use that OS way more), and then gave up.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Force Windows 8 to use UTC when dealing with BIOS clock - Super User

The registry key works in Windows 8.1 but be sure to disable the windows time sync service.

 

hey guys i have made a bootable USB drive with ubuntnu. I have NOT installed it, wheni plug in the usb stick and power on the laptop i get a black screen saying

1) try ubuntu without installing
2) installl ubuntu
3) install oem .. blah blah

i always press the first one but the touchpad is not working and also i cant save my progress on ubuntu after reboot again from the begging i cant even have an account.

Should i insert a secondary USB 3.0 stick and install ubuntu on the usb?

im trying to find the most lightweight way to have ubuntu on my laptop

 

Thanks!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I don't understand why you need to mess with Windows registry setting Real Time Clock to use UTC when Ubuntu automatically detects the Windows and set itself appropriately.
The registry workaround works for a short time until it get reset by some Windows Update. (The field gets cleared.)

On the older versions (<2012), all you need to do was to uncheck the UTC Flag on the clock settings.

 

My Ubuntu install did not detect the windows install, likely because I installed each OS on one drive (while the other was not installed), so they are basically each unaware of the others' existence. I still haven't messed with the Windows registry, mostly because I would rather tweak Linux to play nice with my primary OS than the other way around.

I don't see a UTC flag in the clock settings - any guidance you can provide?

EDIT: Found this page, which suggests I just need to edit /etc/default/rcS and change UTC=yes to UTC=no. Giving that a try now.

EDIT EDIT: That seemed to do the trick! Nice and easy.

 

Can't you just install ntpdate and call it a day?

 

?

It's installed by default in Ubuntu. This page seems to have all the relevant documentation, for anyone with the same problem in future.

 

Wow, that solution seems pretty good. I will say that when I modified my Windows 8.1 installation, on the first reboot it acted strange (mostly seemed like it was reloading icon caches) and it needed another reboot after that before it seemed stable. I wasn't particularly concerned as all I was doing was using Windows to play a couple of games.

 

> Install Windows in UEFI mode
> Install Linux in legacy

Boot UEFI if you need windows/boot off MBR if you need Linux.

Been doing this for over a year with no issues. Glory to the boot menu!

 

Hi guys I wanted to ask something along the same lines, if I wanted to triboot between 7,8 and say tails/Ubuntu on a laptop with 3 ssd's how do I go about it?

I am running AHCI
7 running on 840pro
8 running on liteon msata
I have an evo for my games only

All of the drives have an OP partition

How can i install tails and still use the boot menu of windows

 

Any idea how to do this?

 

Isn't tails meant to be a live OS, and not installed?

Anyway, you might look into using something like EasyBCD.
Other than that, keep each OS's bootloader on its own drive and when you boot just press a key and use the bios boot menu to choose which drive to launch.

 

This is exactly what I do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Well, what he was asking for limited it to the most difficult way. ie Maintaining preference for the Windows Boot Menu over UEFI (The most easiest) or Grub (Or some other 2nd Stage Bootloader)

I don't remember the details. I can give clues so that can help you on the Google search.

The simplest clean way I think: (The Least amount of Stepping through the Menus)
Install Windows 7 on Disk 1 then Install Windows 8 on Disk 2 which will automatically create a BCD entry for Win 8 and Win 7.
Install Grub on its own partition, can be on any Drive but make sure doesn't override the entire disk boot entry. (If you did this wrong, BIOS will load Grub instead of BCD)
On Windows, Modify BCD to add an entry that loads the Grub location.
Install Linux on its own drive.
Update Grub menu entry with the location of the Linux Install.
Repeat for the other Linux.


OR ....
UEFI Install Windows 7 on Disk 1
UEFI Install Windows 8 on Disk 2
UEFI Install Linux 1 on Disk 3
UEFI Install Linux 2 on Disk 4

Use UEFI Boot to Select.
Note: I never done with 2 version of Windows on the same system under UEFI but did for a single Windows with many Linux. Very Simple, no need to install a boot loader.

 

Currently that is how it's working but win8 loaded the boot loader and now I have them both at startup. Is there any way to have a Linux based (Ubuntu/ tails/ android OS) run natively on a seperate ssd(I have one running off the estata interface) while the other drives are installed

 

If your workload on Windows is not heavy I suggest using the QEMU/KVM virtual machine which has much better support than VirtualBox.

If you really want Windows to coexist with your Linux distribution, you would need to look into dealing with Secure Boot (disable it or use a EFI shim), and properly configure the EFI boot variables.

 

If your workload on Windows is not heavy I suggest using the QEMU/KVM virtual machine which has much better support than VirtualBox.

If you really want Windows to coexist with your Linux distribution, you would need to look into dealing with Secure Boot (disable it or use a EFI shim), and properly configure the EFI boot variables.