Installing Ubuntu Linux 11.10 as a Dual-Boot with Windows XP

Submitted by jacob on Sat, 12/31/2011 - 13:02

I just spent most of the morning installing Ubuntu Linux 11.10 to dual-boot with Windows XP, which came on the computer I am using. For the future, I wanted to record some basic information about how to replicate this task. If it is helpful to some poor lost soul trying to do the same thing, all the better!

The hard drive that came with the computer already existed in two partitions, so I decided to leave Windows with the 100GB partition, while using the 38GB partition for my Linux installation. (My wife will probably be storing lots of photos on the computer, and she is only interested in using Windows.)

First, I booted up the computer using the Ubuntu boot-up CD I burned from the .iso file I got from the Ubuntu Download page. Instead of clicking "Install Ubuntu," I clicked the "Try Ubuntu" button. That way, I could use the GParted Partitioning tool to create the necessary partitions before I began installing Ubuntu.

Next, I opened up GParted, and I was able to see the two main partitions. I had to change the smaller partition (the one I wanted to use for Ubuntu) from a primary partition to an extended partition. To understand these concepts, I got a lot of help from this tutorial. Here were the steps I needed to take:

  • I deleted the partition that I wanted to remove, leaving a huge 38GB chunk of unallocated space.
  • I right-clicked on that unallocated space and selected "New" to create a new extended partition, and I named that extended partition "Ubuntu."
  • I created the following new logical partitions within my extended partition: 8GB as ext3 for root (/), 8GB for swap space, and the rest for my home directory (/home).
  • (For information on sizing partitions, click here and scroll down to "Resizing.")
  • I clicked the button to implement all of these changes.

At that point, I was finally ready to install Ubuntu on the computer. I selected the dual boot option, and then I clicked to enter the advanced partition settings to tell the computer how to utilize what I had just done to prepare the disk. Here is how I made this work:

  • I selected each section, one at a time, and clicked "Change." Then, I reassigned the appropriate file system, mount points, and selected the checkbox for "Format" to format the disk. (Not sure if formatting was necessary at this point, but I did it anyway.)
  • On the swap section, there was no mount point, and I couldn't click format. It was already what it needed to be, I guess.
  • IMPORTANT: I selected the main NTFS section of the hard disk where Windows resides and clicked "Change." Then, I selected a mount point for it. (In my computer's case, I used /windows as the mount point.) I didn't realize this on an initial install, and Windows didn't come up as an option on GRUB at the dual boot prompt when I restarted my computer. So, I had to do everything over again in order to give the system a mount point for Windows. (There may have been a way to fix this after installation, but I didn't know it and figured that it would be easier simply to start over again.)

That's it, and everything works!

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