Dual boot Vista & Ubuntu Gutsy

PogMoThoin

Hey all,

Got fed up with vista, 2 many problems, so on fri i shrank the volume & tried to install Ubuntu 7.1. My main hd's are 2 x 36Gb Raptors in Raid 0. While installing from live cd, ubuntu didnt recognise my Raid 0 array, instead saw it as 2 single hd's. I deleted the raid array & installed Ubuntu on a single raptor cos i wanted to mess around with it & get used to it. I have everything backed up on other hd's anyway.

I'm lovin Ubuntu, need to understand it for my work anyways & find the 3D cube Desktop good fun to mess around with. Its great not to need av progs or a firewall. Best bit is that it only uses 130Mb of my ram ticking over. Have decided to use it as my main os and have vista for gaming & overclocking only.

My problem is that i want to dual boot & would like to get it set up right for the future as the wife needs windows for everyday use. Can i dual boot with vista on 1 raptor & ubuntu on the other & control booting by the boot order in the bios? Is there anyway to get Ubuntu to recognise a raid array as 36Gb for 2 os is not enough imo. Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Pog

Orion

Ubuntu can set up the raid for you. But it's software controlled. I have 2*750Gb drives in raid1 working fine in Feisty. I'm not sure how that would work with the other os tho.

Maybe move this or repost in the Unix forum?

PogMoThoin

My plan was to install Vista 1st, shrink the volume & then instal Ubuntu in the other partion as its easier to modify the vista bootloader from within Ubuntu. The raid volume i used have was hardware raid which ubuntu doesn't recognise, unless there's a way to boot form live cd & instal raid driver before installation of ubuntu. Is this possible?

Maybe it would be better if a mod moved this to the Unix forum

Orion

The problem is that desktop motherboard raid is not true raid it's fake raid.. It's software controlled essentially. It's good enough to fool Windows but Linux sees right through it. I've a similar motherboard to you - the P5B. And I did a fair bit of reading before installing Linux to see how best to get the raid working.

This link might help.

PogMoThoin

Ok, that looks a little bit beyond me. Is there any way i can put vista on 1 raptor & ubuntu on the other & have them set to dual boot?

Orion

not sure mate. never looked into it cos I decided to just migrate to *nix completely. all or nothing

Repost on the Unix forum and link this thread or else join #ubuntu on Quakenet - good bunch of guys there with lots of knowledge.

PogMoThoin

Not got mirc setup on system, re-posted in unix forum with a link to here.

Have an idea tho:
Instal vista on 1 raptor, use other raptor for vista programs & pagefile (4-6gb cos i'm goin for 64 bit vista for 4gb ram for gaming), move the pagefile, shrink the volume & then instal Ubuntu on the unpartioned space on the main raptor after shrinking. I have 2 other 120Gb sata's that i have installed, but these are only 8Mb cache & would not be fast enough for my liking in vista. 1 for vista documents & use the other for Ubuntu documents & files. All my media is on 1 160Gb sata which is ntfs and can be accessed thru vista & could be mounted read only in ubuntu.

Few questions tho:
1: How much space will i need for vista without the pagefile?
2: How much space will i need for ubuntu?
3: Will i have enough space for 64bit vista without pagefile & ubuntu on a 36Gb hd?

What you all think?

Gadgetman496

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Is there any way i can put vista on 1 raptor & ubuntu on the other & have them set to dual boot?

Yes you most definitely can do that.

--

Orion

Mirc? *cough spit* irssi ftw

"cos i'm goin for 64 bit vista for 4gb ram for gaming"
For gaming I'd stick with XP if you're keeping windows for that. Some reports put games at 10-15% slower in Vista.

If you're switching to Linux there's not a lot of reasons not to game on it. Most games will work - may need a little tweaking in Wine/Cedega but they will work. Only exceptions are the .NET ones. And the only one I had a problem with was LOTRO but a workaround for their .net loader has been found.

PogMoThoin

Its Crysis and other directX 10 games that I'm hoping to play when i upgrade to a directX10 graphics card. These definitely wont run on linux. Also I've got 8yo son who games on my pc as well.

PogMoThoin

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Yes you most definitely can do that.

--

I know this is possible, but any info on how would be a great help

Gadgetman496

PogMoThoin wrote: »

I know this is possible, but any info on how would be a great help

Well, in my case I had two HDD installed (Not as Raid) & Vista was on one of them.

I choose the install option from the Ubuntu CD and choose to install it on the second drive.

Ubuntu setup the dual booting side of it automatically.

When I boot now I have the option of either Ubuntu or Vista.

As far as I can recall, that's all I done.

-

PogMoThoin

Great to know gadgetman496, might have a go @ it later. Will have 2 install vista 1st

PogMoThoin

That worked perfectly, I now have Vista on 1 raptor & Ubuntu on the other
I also modified the grub loader to give the missis 20secs 2 choose an os. Happy days.

Thanks for all your help folks

Pog

Gadgetman496

Sweet!