Gparted partitioning specifics
 

My goal is to dual boot ubuntu and windows 7

I backed up my files

wiped my hard drive

hard drive is 931.51 GiB

what partitions do i need for linux?

sources vary with swap root boot home

this source has a bunch of other stuff... what do you think of it?
http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...hap3sec14.html

does it matter what order they are in?

how large should each partition be?

what file system should each partition be?

should they be primary, logical, extended?

should i use unallocated space for windows, or should i delegate a partition to it before installing windows?

if so, how would i format that partition?

does it matter what order i put the space for windows?

can i triple boot with ubuntu, windows 7 and mac?

if so how?

i know there are many sources on all these topics, but they seem controversial.

also, when i was trying to determine my ram to determine the space needed for swap i tried

free

and the total was 2911192

then i tried

free -m

and the total was 2842

which one should I go with?

what is the unit for each?

You should probably give more space to Windows.

I would advise keeping it simple and just use a single root partition + swap for GNU/Linux.

You can always backup your home folder separately to provide most of the advantages of a dedicated partition without having to worry if you are going to run out of space thanks to your Steam games.

The guide you have linked is very old -- it talks kernel 2.2 (I'm on 3.18 atm)...

See man free for details on the flags you have used -- you have 3GiB and you are unlikely to actually use any swap unless you are video editing or using VMs.

2GiB of swap would probably be enough for almost any situation.

You need a / (root) filesystem partition and it is probably a good idea to have swap. The size depends upon the use of the computer.

15-25GB should work for the filesystem partition. You can create other partitions later for data.
The default filesystem on many current Linux systems is ext4 but that is also your choice.
Windows needs to have at least the boot files on a primary partition. It doesn't matter with Linux.

You should also consider the fact that you can see ntfs in Ubuntu, whereas you cannot see ext in Windows, so maybe that's also one of the reasons why you should make the Windows partitions bigger.

Do you have a mac, is this why you're asking about Mac OS?

If you do, then you'll probably need boot camp to boot either in Windows or Mac OS. For Linux I think you can install it directly. And yes, you can have basically as many OSs as you want, so you can triple boot.

If you don't specify that you have a Macintosh, then people assume it's a normal PC.

I have a normal pc, but i was curious about mac for flavor purposes.

so it doesn't matter what order the partitions are in?

i deleted the /home partition

now i just have
swap: 2.87 GiB
/:20 GiB
ntfs(for windows): 55 GiB
unallocated: 852.76:GiB

What should I do with the unallocated space?

is the ntfs partition the right move?

You can create data partitions from that space to share or access from either Linux or windows. You will need to format it ntfs as Linux systems can access ntfs while a default windows install won't recognize the partition much less be able to read or write to it.

swap: 2.87 GiB
/:20 GiB
ntfs(for windows): 55 GiB
/data: 852.76:GiB

If you dual-boot Linux/Windows, then the first partitions should be ntfs and classicaly they're primary partitions. Linux is better off with logical partitions (you can easily create more partitions in the future; that's why, usually, the first ext partition starts with /dev/sda5 - this is the first logical partition).

So, for instance, you may start with 700GB for Windows partitions (primary) and the rest to linux (logical). As far as linux partitioning is concerned, you could have a 2GB swap (that's generally enough anyway) and, depending on how you want to organise your system, you can also have a separate partition for /boot and even a separate one for /home. And of course the main partition, / (root).

i ended up having

ntfs for windows

ntfs for data

ext4 for root

swap


i installed windows 7

the keyboard doesnt work

i installed ubuntu

the mouse didnt work on the live cd

when i restarted after installing ubuntu it went straight to windows 7

how do i make it so i can boot from either one?

First, what version of Ubuntu? I would recommend 14.04, the long term support.

Ubuntu has a great installer that works very well for beginners. Given your situation, I would start all over. So first install the Windows 7 again. Here's an easy video tutorial for a basic dual boot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeSaVzyPY8k

Since you decided not to go with home partition etc. just let ubuntu do it's thing (it will automatically do the partitions for you and knows what swap space to create. Better to just start out easy and get it done!

Make sure and do MD5 sumcheck on disc.

Note: I would not check mark "download updates" during the install: it can take a long time and hang the installation (but do check install third party (or whatever they call it). Of course, as soon as you install make sure and run the updater.

ive been researching this, and it seeems like a common thing

i saw a tutorial of someone using easybcd to correct it

the only issue is i dont think i have all the drivers installed for windows

the keyboard doesnt work

it also doesnt recognise the usb wifi receiver

im not sure if the cd/dvd drive works either

means i cant connect to the internet to download easybcd

and it wont read a thumb drive

can i put the necessarry drivers and/or easy bcd on a dvd?

If it boots to windows, you didn't install the Ubuntu Grub bootloader. The link below is to an excellent tutorial on installing Linux, specifically Ubuntu 14.04 and towards the bottom is a section on "Bootloader Setup". Give it a read.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/u...all-guide.html

The link below is to the Ubuntu site and explains several methods of installing Grub2.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...talling_GRUB_2

I haven't used EasBCD in years but I think it just downloads a folder with a number of files so you should be able to put that on a CD or DVD and then copy to windows. It would be easier to reinstall Grub properly since EasyBCD is basically a GUI used to modify the boot files on windows and is a modification of Grub4Dos which in turn is a modification of Grub to run on windows.

Are you sure the windows iso is from a safe source? If you've downloaded it randomly form somewhere, the iso might be broken or something. Windows 7 should recognise common keyboards, no matter how new the computer is (maybe wireless keyboards are a problem in this respect), let alone thumb drives (although if it's usb 3.0 windows might not have the driver). In my opinion, there is a problem with the windows iso (cd, stick, whatever) or, worse, with the computer itself, rather than just drivers that aren't installing properly.

As far as the wifi is concerned, it's rather common for windows not to identify it, so yes, you need to obtain the driver manually.

Moreover, make sure you install Linux after you install Windows, otherwise the windows bootloader will overwrite grub and will boot directly in Windows. So that's a must.

i'm sure the windows iso is from a safe source

i dl the installation exe from the linksys website so wifi works now

the only drivers i need now are the ethernet and usb 3 or serial bus controller for windows and non usb 3 usb for ubuntu

also, i can't find system or administration in ubuntu

i've tried search/windows key type: system>administration

system settings comes up

but no system or administration

i have a gigabyte motherboard

when i look at devices in windows it doesnt specify the kind in any way

and like i said, no system in ubuntu to check there

any ideas?