Dual Boot Vista and Linux Mint but... solved

Questions about Grub, UEFI,the liveCD and the installer
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Husse

Re: Dual Boot Vista and Linux Mint but...

Post by Husse »

It is possible to save the Media Direct and dual boot, but the descriptions on how to do that are very complicated
This link is for Edgy but should be valid for any Ubuntu/Mint but it has problems with Vista, even if a solution for Vista is there
Don't try this unless you feel confident that you understand the not so understandable post....
http://linux6400.wordpress.com/2007/04/ ... y-eft-610/
This is the best i found.....
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
AK Dave

Re: Dual Boot Vista and Linux Mint but...

Post by AK Dave »

I think that the gist of it is that if you dink with your MBR (as what happens when you install grub), then you have a good shot at bricking Media Direct.

My answer to this would be to avoid 100% dinking with the MBR. Install Linux (Mint) on that 20gb partition with /boot on a thumbdrive. Config the bios to boot 1-USB, 2-optical, 3-HDD. Want Linux? Insert thumbdrive, reboot. Otherwise, it is totally transparent. While you're at it, put your linux /swap on the thumbdrive.

I think this would be the least complicated and most easily replicated method.

Another alternative method would be to put grub on the thumbdrive, since relocating grub is an option with an advanced install (Hardy/Elyssa or newer, don't think this works with Daryna). With grub on a thumbdrive you have the boot sequence as described above, with the bonus that since everything is actually on the hard disk you can make an emergency boot CD out of a supergrub LiveCD. I believe that an Elyssa/Hardy LiveCD can redirect to the hard disk also.

Essentially, my plan would allow a full normal Mint install, but booting to it would require a physical "key" in the form of a thumbdrive or CD to store grub or /boot.

YMMV. I haven't tried this myself. Give me a Dell laptop with Media Direct and I'll give it a whirl.
Fred

Re: Dual Boot Vista and Linux Mint but...

Post by Fred »

AK Dave,

Sounds like a good solution to me. :-)

Fred
AK Dave

Re: Dual Boot Vista and Linux Mint but...

Post by AK Dave »

According to those instructions, you end up with a reduced-partition Vista install and a normal Media Direct install. You do a normal Ubuntu install, which gives you grub as the boot manager for everything. So I don't see why you couldn't just manually scrub the emergency restore partition and shrink/relocate Vista/MD with gparted. You end up with the same thing in the end. But the advantage of those instructions is that it may be faster/easier to reinstall Vista and MD from scratch than it is to resize the partitions. I've seen gparted churn all night long to repartition a 100gb drive, so if you can do this all with a few reboots and a reinstall, you're golden.

You have 20gb unallocated? Ghost the drive and then do a normal install. Worst case: you bork it all and have to reinstall everything from scratch.
AK Dave

Re: Dual Boot Vista and Linux Mint but...

Post by AK Dave »

MANUAL! :)
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