Vista dual boot concerns

I was thinking of dual booting my Vostro 1400 with either OpenGEU ("artistic" distro based on Ubuntu that I actually heard about here a few months ago) or Kubuntu

However, after I researched it a bit to get ready for the dual boot (I'd done it with XP but not Vista) I was reading that there were some big issues with getting Vista SP1 installed on a dual boot.

Is this a big issue? Should I avoid if I plan to stick with Vista? Or is it something that is fairly easy to fix?

 

You'll be fine as long as you install SP1 before Linux. SP1 updates the bootloader, so it will overwrite GrUB.

 

Alright. I've actually already got SP1. I guess I phrased it poorly, I was a bit more worried about long term (Service Pack 2 I guess)

 

Don't worry about that. I've been dual booting Ubuntu and XP or Vista for a few years now and I've never had any problems.

 

This is why is good to put Grub on the same partition you install Linux on. This way nothing will overwrite Grub and you can just edit Windows boot loader to the Linux partition and it will go thru Grub.

 

Or, it's not usually that difficult to get booted into your system with the install CD, and repair GrUB.

 

Ok, I think I'm covered then. Thanks guys!

 

Isn't Grub installed when you install Ubuntu? Or is that a different boot loader?

 

Yes. The problem is, when you install SP1 for Vista (or Windows itself) it overwrites the master boot record, where GrUB resides.

 

So, if I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down...if/when I install SP2, I'll just have to pop in my Ubuntu installation disk, and it will fix Grub?

Also, is it easy to edit Grub to have Vista as the default OS?

P.S. Sorry if I'm hijacking the thread, it looked resolved, and my questions was related. =]

 

Actually these are questions that I would be interested in knowing the answers to as well >.>

 

No, it's not that easy. You'll have to take some steps to boot into your installation, and then reinstall GrUB. But SP2 probably won't overwrite the mbr again, that's not something service packs have typically done.

 

Well, first thing I did to my Acer 5920 was install Ubuntu 8.04 in the traditional dual-boot, where GRUB tweaked the MBR.
Installed SP1 a few months later. SP1 did not do anything to the dual-boot.

Until reading this thread, I'd never heard anyone state that SP1 would screw up a dual-boot...

 

I've never tried, to be honest, but there was a big deal made about it awhile back.
http://apcmag.com/vista_sp1_wont_install_on_dualboot_systems_microsoft.htm