Linux Urgent: Formatting in one hour

[vb86]

Due to the various problems that ive been faceing with my system (as mentioned in the OS section relating to BSOD), im gonna format my system soon. I need to know what precautions i need to take while installing vista so that i can dual boot with ubuntu 8.10. keep in mind that im completely new to linux and im using a dell lappie which means ill have a mediadirect partition too. i plan to format the whole hdd. ive already downloaded the cd iso which im gonna burn right now.

hope to get some prompt replies.

thanks.

 

[vishalrao]

what other partitions do you have in addition to the mediadirect one? do you have a C: and a D: ?

you can shrink a partition and leave some unused/unpartitioned space, say about 8 GB which the linux installer will use for main and swap partitions...

for easiest dual boot, first install vista, then install ubuntu so that it creates its GRUB bootloader which gives you the option to dual boot into vista or linux...

 

[vb86]

ok. done formatting. back to vista. yes, i have a d drive, which can be deleted. also, im facing a prob. windows update isnt doing anything. another thing, can the dual boot menu be configured in a way that it logs into windows and not linux after a certain no. of seconds.

 

[vishalrao]

yes, initially it boots into linux by default in 10 sec.

you can edit the file in linux at /boot/grub/menu.lst and move the 4-5 lines that specify windows (near the bottom) to just above the "BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS" line. to edit, open a terminal and run "gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst".

example section to move:

#Microsoft Windows Vista

title		Microsoft Windows Vista

root		(hd0,0)

savedefault

makeactive

chainloader	+1

then you can edit the line that says "default X" near the top to make it "default 0" then it will load windows by default.

the reason for moving the windows entry above is that i've noticed if you just set "default 4" (or whatever is the position for windows) then later when you update ubuntu and new kernels come in, the windows position in the boot list is shifted down and it no longer is in the default position

a sample menu.lst file is at http://albandd.al.funpic.de/at1/menu.lst for reference

initially it will be a plain white on black text boot menu, you can add a background image later.

i usually install the "grub-splashimages" package which puts some images in /boot/grub/splashimages. i like the "fiesta.xpm.gz" (black n white penguins) so i specify that as the splashimage line (see sample).

 

[vishalrao]

what do you mean windows update isnt doing anything exactly? is your net connection stable?

 

[vb86]

windows update is working fine now. it just kept searching for updates earlier. regarding ubuntu, wow, its gonna take some time to get the hang of it.

 

[vishalrao]

actually, silly me, for a simpler GUI way to work with the bootup options, install the package called "startupmanager".

it should appear in System->Administration menu you can set options in there...