For dual booting Ubuntu 10.04 with Windows 7, which partition process to use?
 

I am wondering is it safer to resize the partitions using the windows 7 device manager or use the Ubuntu GPart program to do it?

The easiest and safest way to partition your disk is GParted program from Ubuntu. You don't have to wonder about your files. But i prefer to take backup when i have to do such jobs!!

Well, I have read a lot of conflicting views debating which is better as some say windows device manager is safer but takes longer and that the GParted program may corrupt the windows 7 partitioning due to the immovable parts on the disk.

So what have people used to install Ubuntu with Windows 7 and what has been their experience from it?

Any option is likely to work well. I've resized windows partitions with both gparted and distro installation setup programs, and never had any problems.
(BTW: Not sure what you mean by 'immovable parts on the disk'. Everything is movable if the partition isn't in use)

Always make sure the partition is unmounted when you resize it, and you should be fine. But creating a backup is still a good idea.

As it is a new laptop, there are no important files to backup so hopefully will be a clean install.

I am just wondering did anyone have any issues during the install of Ubuntu with Windows 7 for future reference?

I have not used Windows 7 myself. However, Windows-Ubuntu dual boot guru Herman has some excellent tutorials on this. Check out his site:
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/index.html
The specific tutorial on resizing partitions with Windows 7 is covered here:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p23.html
I personally like using the Parted Magic live CD for partitioning and for resizing existing partitions:
http://partedmagic.com/
With Parted Magic you can even browse the web with Firefox and listen to your favorite music CDs while you are waiting for the partitioning tasks to finish!

Well used the disk manager on windows to partition the hard drive with success however I ran into the dreaded 'Errno 5 Input/Output' halfway during installation.

Seems many other people had the same issue and state that it is either an issue in the code contained within the live cd.

They suggest either use the alternate cd (not sure what this is), burn the ISO image at a slow speed on a Verbatim brand CD-R.

So which of these is the better solution or are there more?

Use a better distro - for your reference, anything is better than Ubuntu :p ( just kidding )

Ubuntu offers two installation CDs: the 'normal' one, which is usable by anyone who can use a mouse and knows what a button is, and the 'alternate' one, which is for advanced users and offers a lot more options, but is a little more tricky to use for novices.

You can get that here.

Alternatively, try another distro, such as Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu and will give you all the advantages (and some of the disadvantages) of the real thing :)

Was that the whole error? According to this thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-error-639355/
and this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/245794
the whole error message is:
etc.

(NOTE: The person on that Launchpad page traced his problem to a faulty cdrom drive. Someone else on that page traced the problem to faulty RAM modules.)

When you boot the Ubuntu live CD first choose the option "Check Disc for Defects" and let that run. If it reports any errors, then the CD is bad and you need to burn a new one.
IF you are burning the CD from Windows, use Iso Recorder or Infra Recorder, and be sure to burn the CD at the slowest possible speed:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
It is also good to check the md5sum of the iso image you downloaded:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM
If the live CD passes the disc check and is good, then use GParted from the live CD to format the space you allocated with Windows disk manager to ext3 or ext4 file system. Then try to install Ubuntu to that space.

I doubt it is due to a faulty CD-ROM drive as it is a brand new laptop but will not rule it out if all else fails.

Well use ISO recorder to burn the image again at a lower speed and then use an external CD-ROM drive to install the image.

I will post my attempt soon to update you on the situation.

Also is it worth installing other distros of Linux instead of Ubuntu such as Mint?

If you do nothing else, after you burn the CD and boot it up, please run the option:
"Check CD for Defects". If this reports errors then the CD is bad and should not be used to install Ubuntu. This holds true for any linux distro burned to a CD.
You may also try downloading Ubuntu from another mirror just to rule out a bad iso image as the source of the problem. Or check the md5sum of the iso you downloaded as per the link I provided in my last post.
I don't see how using a different distro will help you partition your hard drive any better than the GParted that comes with Ubuntu, or the Parted Magic live CD.
Also, you would still need to check the Mint CD for defects before installing Mint with the CD you burned.

Mint distro has a lot of codecs to unlock mp3 and dvd. This is the only basically difference because it has others like menus and graphics

Ok, I have successfully installed Ubuntu 10.04 with Windows 7.

Make sure you back up your important files and have the recovery discs or Windows 7 cd ready!

Step 9
Hint download startupmanager to handle the /boot/grub/grub.cfg and /etc/default/grub settings as once you update Ubuntu this will make it easier to make changes to those sensitive files.

~$ sudo apt-get install startupmanager

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/startup-ma...d-usplash.html

Step 1
I defragmented the Windows 7 hard disk and then partitioned it with the Windows disk manager by shrinking the main NTFS volume.
Guide at this link https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ho...dowsPartitions

Step 2
Downloaded Ubuntu 10.04 from http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
the x86 version or 32bit

Step 3
Downloaded Infrarecorder at http://infrarecorder.org/?page_id=5
Burn the ISO image at the lowest speed of 4x and used a Memorex 700MB CD-R on an external CD-ROM Drive

Step 4
Checked the MD5Sum by downloading http://www.nullriver.com/products/winmd5sum to check the ubuntu hash matches the mirror version.
The guide for windows is here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

Step 5
Once verified installation begins by placing the burnt ISO CD image into the external CD-ROM drive and booted into it using F9 key
Follow the on screen instructions once the Live CD boots up, make sure to select the largest continuous space for the Ubuntu partition
this guide gives more detail http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p23.html

Step 6
Following the install you may get an I/O error as the external device has ejected the Live CD following the reboot, so just type 'shutdown -r now' which restarts the bootloader

Step 7
Boot into Windows 7 and download EasyBCD to configure the bootloaders for Windows and Ubuntu at http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1
This guide shows how to configure it http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Ubuntu

Step 8
Once the bootloader has been set up, if you log into Windows 7 and all your desktops icons are missing, infrarecorder has somehow removed them but the can be restored by right clicking the desktop and select show desktop icons.

Step 9
Hint download startupmanager to handle the /boot/grub/grub.cfg and /etc/default/grub settings as once you update Ubuntu this will make it easier to make changes to those sensitive files.

~$ sudo apt-get install startupmanager

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/startup-ma...d-usplash.html

Dual boot complete!!

Glad you got everything up and running ok!
You could have just used grub2 to manage the MBR and dual boot Windows and Ubuntu.
Just out of curiosity, did you install grub2 at all? Did you install it to the Ubuntu partition? Or did you just skip installing grub2?

I have both Grub 2 and Windows MBR, on the NTFS volume. I used Easy BCD to configure both installers at startup instead of just using Grub 2. The boot loader looks much tidier.

I have Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04 as my dual boot options. The last guide in Step 7 in the first image shows the clean bootloading options, Grub 2 and MBR beside each other.

Ok I ran into a problem now, I updated Ubuntu now and the updated kernel has removed the EasyBCD settings for dual booting and now once the system boots up, a cursor flashes in the top right hand corner and then boots straight into Ubuntu without showing any options for booting into Ubuntu or Windows!

Has this problem being fixed yet or are there any solutions to retrieve the original EasyBCD bootloading setup?

According to the guide you posted in post #13 of this thread, you first installed grub2 to the MBR, then you reinstalled the Windows boot loader to the MBR, then you booted Windows and installed EasyBCD.
When grub2 is installed to the MBR and a kernel update comes along, the update-grub command is run. So grub2 has now once again taken control of your MBR.
Options:
You can reinstall grub2 to the MBR. Then boot Ubuntu and run:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...ing%20GRUB%202
This should hopefully add an entry for booting Windows7 as well.

Or you could probably just reinstall EasyBCD like you did before.
You will likely have to reinstall EasyBCD whenever there is a kernel update for Ubuntu though.

You would think that EasyBCD would have a way to deal with this, since update-grub is run whenever there is a kernel update in Ubuntu, which is often. Perhaps you could ask on their forums. I am not familiar with EasyBCD.

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #5 for /boot/grub.

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD

sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows 7
Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda3: _________________________________________________________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: _________________________________________________________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda6: _________________________________________________________________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda4: _________________________________________________________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /boot/bcd

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 2,048 409,599 407,552 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 409,600 337,010,687 336,601,088 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 337,012,734 598,984,703 261,971,970 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 337,012,736 588,257,279 251,244,544 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 588,259,328 598,984,703 10,725,376 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 598,984,704 625,139,711 26,155,008 7 HPFS/NTFS


blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 122656F62656D9F5 ntfs SYSTEM
/dev/sda2 BE26AE8326AE3C71 ntfs
/dev/sda3: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda4 488E0E1C8E0E0364 ntfs RECOVERY
/dev/sda5 bf00db6b-11e7-442c-b27b-7e508a37c0cc ext4
/dev/sda6 63fc54eb-ccbe-43ae-aabe-7785981c2d56 swap
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sda5 / ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)

Coutesy of sudo bash [path/to/the/download_folder]/boot_info_script*.sh the boot info script.

Ok will run the grub update command to retrieve the Windows 7 Boot option as I want to redo the EasyBCD configuration for booting.

OK I ran the grub update command in the terminal and it displayed the boot up options for Ubuntu and Windows 7 however once I rebooted, those options did not appear and it booted straight into Linux.

Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda2
Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda4
done

This did not appear once I rebooted!

So if I cannot boot into Windows I cannot configure EasyBCD settings. Any idea how I can get the Grub2 boot menu to appear and not just boot straight into Ubuntu?

Do I need to reinstall GRUB 2 since it doesn't appear then change the grub config to boot into Windows 7 partition and then configure the MBR with EasyBCD?

Well I configured the EasyBCD to organize the booting process. The original problem for not seeing the boot up grub menu was the time in /etc/default/grub and was set to 0 from the previous EasyBCD configuration. I would recommend not to change this 0 and leave it at the original as once the updated Ubuntu starts the changes to the kernel cause the grub to override the EasyBCD dualbooting settings and thus it would boot straight into Ubuntu 10.04 if the GRUB _TIMEOUT=0 so better leave it at 10.


Hint download startupmanager to handle the /boot/grub/grub.cfg and /etc/default/grub settings as once you update Ubuntu this will make it easier to make changes to those sensitive files.

~$ sudo apt-get install startupmanager

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/startup-ma...d-usplash.html

~$ cat /etc/default/grub
# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 (this was set to 0 in the previous EasyBCD setting)
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Essentially just boot into Windows upon seeing it the grub menu and repeat step 7 of the installation guide! :)

Sorry I never got back to you here, but I work a lot on the weekends so I did not have the time.
The next time there is a kernel update for Ubuntu, the EasyBCD install to the MBR may be overwritten again, like it was the last time.
I would just use grub2 to manage the MBR and dual booting. That way you would not have this problem. Here are 2 more excellent tutorials for grub2:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...ing%20GRUB%202
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2
Those tutorials will teach you how to manage grub2s configuration files. Most of what
startup-manager does can be accomplished from learning how to edit /etc/default/grub file.

Anyway, glad you got it sorted out.