To WFV - Your supposed riposte re: the heading of my last post is simply of no consequence. The essence of my response was based on an individual user experience. With various experts providing advice, yet experiencing data loss as a result. Any OS which has people of varied tech know-how to delve into a partition system to adjust various parts of a drive without providing a program to do all that stuff is a recipe for potential disaster! Thankfully my backups have proven to be redemption in this circumstance. It's not about being different. Producing varied repair progs seems a sensible way forward. That's the point, so take your Linux tech-head from out of wherever and think!. Go figure, it helps Sherlock...

OP: you have to understand that dual-booting 2 operating systems on the same computer is highly technical in nature and cannot be accomplished without modifying partitions. No Linux distro, or Windows for that matter, will do this for you automatically. Windows does not even provide this capability because they do not want you to boot 2 different OSes, they want exclusive use of your computer.

Folks are just trying to be helpful so lashing out is not productive.

3 members found this post helpful.

Hi Sasstastik,

Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble. Honestly I've never experienced any difficulty installing Ubuntu as a dual boot but there are always the exceptions and I understand how frustrating it can be dealing with software problems on unfamiliar systems. My advice would be to take it slow and not try to solve everything at once. Linux can be a steep learning curve at first.

From your description of the problem my first guess would be that you've got a permissions problem. Linux (and Unix generally) is much more secure than Windows so as an ordinary user you generally can't access and change files which are important "system" files. If you need a higher permission level you normally do that by using a terminal to issue the command and putting "sudo" in front of the command:

e.g. apt install firefox

Will probably fail and need to be prefixed:

sudo apt install firefox

Sudo will then ask you for your password (which you should have created during the install).

Are you checking for broken packages from a command line - if not the gui program you're using probably won't have the necessary permission. You can run gui programs from sudo if necessary.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi Sasstastik, who are you angry at using such language? People here are trying to help you and do you a favour thinking with you and in return you are pissing them off.

You did right making backups before trying to install a dual boot system. You did right trying to install Ubuntu. It is a system a lot of people know intimately. You had for one reason or another a lot of error messages you can't really reproduce so you leave people guessing. Please let people help you.

2 members found this post helpful.

Find a local LUG (Linux User Group) if any. Given your impatience, it might be easier for you to go there with your computer and ask for help, than to expect step-by-step instructions on a forum like this.

I agree with fellow LQ members. In order to set up a dual booting machine successfully you should know what you're doing. This requires at least some solid knowledge about partitioning (i.e. read some documentation about it). You should also be able to go beyond the installer's default options (i.e. read the distribution's manual). Unless you know what you're doing, you're going to end up with a disaster for sure.

Ubuntu is free software, and it doesn't have a "customer service" like commercial software houses, unless you pay a competent tech to help you along. That's why people on a forum like this do expect that you've done some research before asking a question. Then, when you ask it, you should be able to formulate it clearly and provide details. Showing that you're willing to learn will help both sides, but if you're expecting to be spoon-fed, either by automated system tools or by other forum members, you won't go far with Linux.

Finally, keep your head level. Countless people have been able to set up their Linux systems and run them successfully, without having to be tech professionals. You learn as you go, you're expected to, and it should be fun. And yes, Linux is different (read it, please).

Good luck.

2 members found this post helpful.

Ubuntu is super easy to use, kinda like a tool.

Try using Linux starting with OpenSuse in the early 2000s.

Use Google to your full advantage.

In order to dual-boot, you need to partition properly. When dual-booted it will become so much easier.

Good Luck with Ubuntu.

1 members found this post helpful.

FWIW: installing Windows from scratch isn't a walk in the park either. I daresay the various Linux installers have that figured out, and much better.

2 members found this post helpful.

OP hasn't posted a reply in about a week. My guess is he already forgot about this thread. Or did he?

I think the OP's frustration was genuine, however his/her posting history indicates that there was no effort whatsoever to document oneself before attempting to install a Linux distribution for the first time. With such premises, asking "Please advise to repair/fix this" when something eventually breaks, does make online helping quite ineffective IMHO.

1 members found this post helpful.

The OP's frustration may have been genuine but his/her problems are based on ignorance of the subject (well we are all ignorant about something), lack of effort as there are countless sites describing the process he/she is trying to accomplish and add to that the fact tnat the posts are basically whining rants. Looking over the posts, I see vague comments about things not working. Also claiming one needs to be an expert to accomplish this is just silly, you do need to be able to read and get off your arse and 'do' something. Sure the OP would have had the same problems trying to install another OS.

1 members found this post helpful.

The last Windows I installed was called Windows XP.

It used to make me so mad.
I tried to put the system in one place and my data in a separate place to make backups easy.
This is not possible!

1 members found this post helpful.

If you think XP was frustrating, try Windows 10. I have to use it at work and not only is performance terrible, but the UI is confusing (to me) and patching is a nightmare. Patch Tuesday can spawn as many as 4 reboots. Apparently Microsoft hasn't figured out how to chain these updates together like all other OS's on the planet. Don't even get me started on how network performance can completely kill the desktop, or how "Teams" regularly brings the entire system to a grinding halt by driving the CPU and disk IO to 100%.

2 members found this post helpful.

I need Windows 10 for some applications so I regularly have to run it on my desktop. Somehow things keep popping up for no reason. On every boot, it keeps nagging me if it is OK to use some driver.

Then a warning box appears with error messages that seem to come from a apparently broken Java installation. I tried to remove and reinstall Java, it works, however those error messages do not go away and keep popping up. And then, next to the standard folder arrangements, they appear to have something called "Libraries" that are confusingly something completely different. And as a topping on the cake folders with files are scattered between a "Standard user" account and an account with my name. A case of floppies was more convenient than this shoebox filled with sh*t.

Then try to connect to a Samba share. First, W10 can't find the share. Then, if you try to connect it forgot those credentials. And again. And again..

When you've had enough of this crap you map the Samba share to a drive letter. And then the connection becomes stable. However you need to do that for every share on the Samba server you want to access frequently and the number of drive letters is limited.

Then after a day taking pictures with the camera if I like to get those pictures on my computer. Windows 10 tries to make this easy and starts up the Photo application. I set the path to one of the shares designated by a drive letter. And it actually works whenever it decides not to crash. Or it does crash - halfway. And when it is done you can click on your latest import, unless the app forgot where it just stored those pictures (which is most of the time).

Actually finding something is frustrating at best. Because the search function in W10 actually does not work I bought another application that sort of works. Now when I really want to find something I use my Linux laptop with Recoll on it to search through my documents. That is the only reasonably sure way to find something.

If it wasn't for that large user base I don't think anyone would like to program for this OS.

2 members found this post helpful.

My keyboard is user friendly

https://itsfoss.com/install-ubuntu-1...ows-8-81-uefi/

https://www.tecmint.com/install-ubun...ows-dual-boot/

https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/...th-windows-10/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSVV_EoApdo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdXeURO43ao

Gave up dual booting years ago

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-1540-dm-1388/

Just posting helpful links for thread title.

https://help.ubuntu.com/

Sasstastik,

The steps for booting Ubuntu alongside Windows 7 are as follows:
1. Take a backup of your personal data. Also backup the complete W7 system using Macrium Reflect Free or similar.
2. Create space on your hard drive by Shrinking Windows using Disk Management Tool.
3. Create a bootable Ubuntu USB drive or DVD.
4. Boot into a live version of Ubuntu.
5. Run the installer.
6. Choose your language.
7. Make sure you are plugged in, connected to the internet and have enough disk space.
8. Choose your installation type.
9. Partition your hard drive (see below for 3 partitions).
10. Choose your timezone.
11. Choose your keyboard layout.
12. Create a default user.

https://www.lifewire.com/ultimate-wi...-guide-2200653

Whilst this dual-boot guide is for W10, it does contain the useful Step 6 which shows how to create 3 Linux partitions, including Home.
This can make life much simpler in the future when replacing the root/system partition for another Linux OS and keeping the Home partition intact.

Step 5: Prepare the Partition
Use Something else

Step 6: Create root, swap and home partitions for Linux.

https://itsfoss.com/guide-install-li...-boot-windows/

Preserving your existing Home partition when installing a new distro:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-distro-37074/