Installing Ubuntu with Windows Dual-Boot

Grub is the boot loader that Ubuntu has in it
Grub's role is to present the first black screen in order You to SELECT from which operating
system you may start (boot).Grub has also a buil in batch-like language and some options.you don't need a lot to know to change some options like boot order. You have to change the order of the titles in a file named menu.list. It is Just text but it is important so be careful , do not uncomment anything unless you know what you are doing
JUST change the order of the titles.

I will try to be more accurately*
So go to /boot/grub find a file called menu.lst open it with your favorite text editor and where is the titles for windows replace with linux titles all text about kernel and so on and where is linux bla bla bla replace with windows bla bla

1)I suggest you to make a back up of the file menu.lst in another directory like Desktop

2)If by mistake you make something bad the system will not boot SO then you must use a live cd to boot from cd/dvd and again open the menu.lst and correct it.

*BE AWARE Of making changes in it if you feel unsure or just ask somebody else

Thanks for the comment. I didn't show partitioning because there would really need to be a bit of chat about partitions on Linux and how they differ from Windows. I didn't want to even attempt to cover that in this screencast.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think GParted's been removed form the livecd as of 7.04, Feisty Fawn

It is actually included on the Live CD

See this screenshot for example:-

http://gallery.popey.com/gallery/screenshots/2007_06_30_231910_1024x768_scrot

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GrubHowto/ChangeDefaultOS

You can do that.

you could do that but then those of us stuck with a laptop with only one hard drive would be out of luck. ;) hence the need for dual boot options. Thank you for the tutorial. It helped me a lot.

Thanks!

I just did this on my father's computer. It takes two steps.

WARNING: Any changes to the partition structure can cause permanent damage to your data. Continue at your own risk.

1. Remove the Ubuntu partitions (EXT3 and SWAP) and resize the Windows partition (NTFS) to use that space.

To do this, you can follow the blog post I made which uses the Gparted LiveCD. The NTFS partition is Windows, and the EXT3 and SWAP partitions were created by Ubuntu.

http://useopensource.blogspot.com/2006/12/easy-way-to-resize-hard-drive.html

2. Fix the MBR (Master Boot Record) so that Windows will boot, instead of GRUB.

Boot from the Windows XP CD.
Rress the "R" key in the setup to start the restoration console.
Select your windows XP installation from the list, and enter the administrator password.
Enter the command: "FIXMBR" (without the quotes) at the input prompt and confirm the next question with a "Y" (without the quotes).
Use exit to restore the computer.

If you do not have your Windows XP cd, then you can use the SuperGrub LiveCD to fix your MBR.

http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/

Another option is to boot to a floppy and use "FDISK.EXE /MBR", but the first two options are much better. Good luck!

Tristan Rhodes
http://useopensource.blogspot.com

You could boot the Ubuntu Desktop CD and use the partition editor to remove the Ubuntu partitions and resize the Windows partition back up again.

Of course you can also do the opposite, delete the Windows partition and resize/move the Ubuntu partitions :)

Thanks for the response.

I've been lurking around ubuntu sites but without the courage to commit my only machine to this experiment.

Who knows I might just have to pitch all my old windows tips books and guides for dummies.

Once again, thanks for the great screencasts.

Gio

I'm sick of Windows and want to switch to either MAC or Linux. MAC has "Parallels" which allows SIMULTANEOUS, integrated dual boot (no need to reboot to another OS, they both run at the same time). Can Ubuntu do this??

Yes, on Ubuntu you can run VirtualBox, QEMU or VMWare to achieve the same thing as parallels.