Installing Ubtuntu together with Vista.

I am thinking about replacing my XP partition (reformat then install) ubuntu on it. The partition is small around 10 GB, but I have read that 10 gb is plenty for ubuntu. The problem is how will I be able to duel boot ubuntu with Vista, do I have to reinstall the boot manager? In this case which boot manager do I keep, the one from Linux or Vista?

Please keep in mind that I am a COMPLETE noob to Linux, the most experience i have is running live CDs, and one installation of older version of Ubuntu (which is quite successful). I have no experience in how the terminal works. I want to use this chance to install the OS and be able to get more down right hand on experience with it, without having to be hindered by the slow loading time of Live CDs.

Thanks for any help!

 

When you install Ubuntu, it will install GRUB (a bootloader), which should detect your Vista installation. Every time you will start your computer, GRUB will ask you which OS you want to boot.

 

There are probably about a dozen main alternatives for setting up a dual-boot but about a million variations depending on each individual's hardware and configurations. Please describe what sort of computer you have, whether you have one HDD or two, what OS or OS'es you have now, which if any you want to keep, how much valuable personal data is on the computer, whether you have it backed up or can back it up, and whether you want to just let Ubuntu install a standard installation of / and swap (two partitions) or if you want to create a /home partition (three partitions). Oh, yeah, how many partitions on the HDD now?

 

HOLY! Laptop Spec is in the Sig. Since it's a 15.4, it is obvious it house only 1 harddrive which has 3 partitions. Vista (35 gb), XP (10 gb) and about 100 gb left for everything else. I am confused about /home, and swap part, which one is better and why do you need 3 partitions?!

 

The swap partition is used to move data from RAM to the hard drive as required. In windows it would be called the page file. More here.

You only need two partitions, but some users like to put /home (your home directory) on an additional partition for security. Just in case you manage to wipe out your operating system, your /home partition will still remain intact so you can reinstall (ideally) without a hassle.

 

i'm not sure if ubuntu defaults to lvm during your partition layout but if it does, you won't have to worry about creating partitions. even though it's a single drive laptop, i'd go with lvm rather than creating static partitions you may or may not have to resize later, i.e. home or swap, if you run out of space on that partition or add more ram.

lvm: dynamic and your volume will grow as needed. it also has great tools for growing/integrating/creating volumes if your laptop supports dual drives and you want to add an additional drive later. or if you add memory and want to increase swap space, lvm does it automatically and you won't need to use a utility to take space from another partition and add it to, say, swap for example. also, external drives are auto-mounted but i can't remember if this was a 'feature' of lvm or standard with linux. it may very well be the same with non-lvm.

non-lvm: static, but adaptable. say you allocate 60gb to /home and 1gb to /swap and you're at 59gb for /home and you upgrade to 4gb of ram, you'll need to use the distro's utilities to increase space to /home and /swap.

some people prefer to manually set up their partitions on single drive systems due to file lifetimes rather than using lvm. i.e. order their partitions by the frequency of their file use. least commonly used files are partitioned away from more commonly used files. this keeps reading of the drive localized rather than bouncing all over the drive to read/write data. i've never noticed a difference between the 2 on a laptop but i'm sure there's benchmarks that have been done that show performance comparisons.

to sum it up, i'd remove vista and xp and roll with installing ubuntu on it's own. you'll be in for some fun times!

seriously though, if you have a second system you can use to fall back on for windows and you're new with linux, i'd focus on the linux environment rather than messing with dual booting. your vostro should be well supported. also, if you have the broadcom wireless mini-card, i'd look into putting up the $15-20 for an intel 3945/4965 card. they both work but the intel works a hell of a lot better.

use your warranty if you have one. i was able to get dell to send me a 3945 so i could send back the 1490 i have. i found a cheap m1330 exactly the way i wanted except the wifi-card. i called dell yesterday morning, spent about 10 minutes explaining the 1490 did not perform like my 3945 (don't mention linux) and they sent me a replacement. surprisingly, it got here today. i was fortunate to get someone that spoke english though. sometimes when i call up there they keep calling me mr. simpson and asking what flavor squishy i would like...

 

if you go with lvm rather than traditional partitioning, definitely look into lvm snapshot. or if you want to clone/backup the drive to dvd, mondoarchive ( www.mondorescue.org) is perfect for lvm setups. to give you an idea, it takes me about 15 minutes to burn 5gb of data into a 1.5gb iso on dvd which is bootable. really convenient. directories can be excluded so all my superfluous data stays in one directory to make backing up to dvd easier. however, you'll have about a billion and eight different backup solutions you could use, just pick the one you prefer and works for you.

 

Sorry, Pai -
I was at work when I wrote and didn't even bother to look thru your original post for the relevant data. Just thinking out loud before the boss kicked me out of the office.
I really really like having a /home partition. If you have a /home partition you can reinstall the OS (taking care to correctly reinstall the OS to the / partition of course) and all your personal data will be untouched. Even your personal tweaks, such as desktop wallpaper and application launchers in the panels, will come back just like you had them! I did something lame to an Ubuntu install a few months back. There was probably an easy way to fix it but I didn't know how so just reinstalled the OS to the / partition and was back in business with all personal data and settings intact an hour later.
Some Linux distros, such as MEPIS and PCLOS, will automatically make a /home partition for you. I think that's a neat trick.
What would be really slick is if Ubuntu built a step into the installer that asks, "Do you want to build a /home partition?"
If you let Ubuntu auto-install it won't build a /home partition.
If you're just getting started with Linux it's more important to get started than to optimize your first installation. Also, on aysiu's psychocats website he describes how you can go back and add a /home partition to an existing install, so all is not lost if you decide later that you really want one.
To make your own Ubuntu install with a separate home, you need to have some familiarity with a partitioner tool like Gparted (preferably on a separate CD), and some familiarity with the Ubuntu installer & how it recognizes/mounts partitions. It's not hard, but I was very confused the first several times. Re-installed Ubuntu over and over on an old desktop til I got the hang of it.

 

NEW EDIT: After playing around with both Vista Installation Disk, and Grub Menu file, I manage to get it working! Thank you everyone who replied.

 

Congrats and good job. Enjoy!

 

Sweet. If you have any more questions, plague this forum. =^)