[g.ramesh]

Hi

I have a pc with XP Prof SP3 installed. Please telle me is it possible to install Win 7 and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on top of XP and triple boot?

[surferdude2]

Supposedy that's not a problem..Haven't done it myself though:

http://raviratlami1.blogspot.com/200...ws-7-with.html

[Elvandil]

If you have the space, install Ubuntu last. It most likely will create a boot menu for all 3.

[g.ramesh]

Thanks for your replies. My HD is formatted in to 3 partitions with NTFS. I read that for installing a Linux system some swap space and unformatted space is required. In that case what to do?

[Elvandil]

When you install Ubuntu, you will get the option to partition any space where you want it installed. It will do it automatically if you let it, or you can choose the advanced options and choose where to have your root partition, swap space, and Home or other directory. So if you set aside a large enough space for Ubuntu, you can just delete it and leave it unallocated. Install 7 to the place where you want that, and then boot up Ubuntu and install to the empty space you left for it.

[g.ramesh]

Originally Posted by Elvandil

When you install Ubuntu, you will get the option to partition any space where you want it installed. It will do it automatically if you let it, or you can choose the advanced options and choose where to have your root partition, swap space, and Home or other directory. So if you set aside a large enough space for Ubuntu, you can just delete it and leave it unallocated. Install 7 to the place where you want that, and then boot up Ubuntu and install to the empty space you left for it.

Hi Elvandil

thanks for the reply, as said I installed Ubuntu last and it is showing the following options on boot up:

Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic
Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic (recovery mode)
Memory test (Memtest 86+)
Memory test (Memtest 86+, serial console 115200)
Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda2)

When I select Win7 it is then giving option to boot into win7 or other windows installations (i.e xp)
Is it ok, why not even older version of windows is not shown in first screen?

I used the first option of Linux i.e. Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic.
What does other options for?

Please tell me.

[TheOutcaste]

When you installed WIn 7, it replaced the XP Boot sector with it's own, so the Win 7 bootloader is used for both XP and Win 7. To boot XP, you have to go through the Win 7 boot loader now.
The Win 7 boot loader was the only one that Linux would have seen, as XP now goes through it.

The 2nd option is used if the first won't boot, similar to Windows Safe Mode.
The next two are to run Memory diagnostics. The serial console option let's you run the program and send the output to a console connected to the serial port (another PC connected via the serial port).

[g.ramesh]

Originally Posted by TheOutcaste

When you installed WIn 7, it replaced the XP Boot sector with it's own, so the Win 7 bootloader is used for both XP and Win 7. To boot XP, you have to go through the Win 7 boot loader now.
The Win 7 boot loader was the only one that Linux would have seen, as XP now goes through it.

The 2nd option is used if the first won't boot, similar to Windows Safe Mode.
The next two are to run Memory diagnostics. The serial console option let's you run the program and send the output to a console connected to the serial port (another PC connected via the serial port).

Thanks TheOutcaste for your reply.

I was going through an article where it says Ubuntu can be installed within win7 using VMware player (of course there is WUBI option as well)
I think this is a good option instead of installing Ubuntu on a seperate partition as I am not able to see the Ubuntu partition either in xp or win 7 and save some data on it.
Now that much of hard disk space is exclusively reserved for Linux.

I would like to reclaim that space by uninstalling Ubuntu and installing it again thru VMware player within win 7 (or xp which is better?).

Please suggest.

[TheOutcaste]

I've not used VMWare or WUBI so can't really comment. I have an older Ubuntu install (Version 8 I think) in Virtual PC 2007, but don't use it much. MS doesn't provide the VM Additions to let you drag and drop between the Host and a Linux guest, so VMWare has an advantage there. The Linux - Unix forum would be a better place to get info on which may be better.

Uninstalling it should be as simple as booting with the Win 7 DVD, choosing the Repair your computer option, then opening a Command Prompt and typing bootrec /fixboot to restore the Win 7 Boot loader.
More info on the bootrec tool here:
How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment

[TerryNet]

I moved your thread to Linux and Unix from XP; don't know if you'll get a whole lot of different advice here, but at least a few different eyes will see it.

Wubi is fine. I advise using it if you are shy about partitioning (as I was when first starting to use Ubuntu), but having Ubuntu truely in its own partition is better, so I wouldn't advise you to "go backwards."

If you want to have, in effect, multiple OSes running at the same time then a virtual machine is a good option. I use Oracle's VirtualBox and various people here have said that VMware Player is better. Both are free.

If your big concern is data access my suggestion is to just keep your data in Windows as Ubuntu has no problem accessing it. Even better is to have a separate data partition shared by all 3 of your systems. But, if you want to access data in Ubuntu from Windows maybe Three Ways To Access Linux Partitions (ext2/ext3) From Windows On Dual-Boot Systems will have a solution for you.

[jiml8]

I was going through an article where it says Ubuntu can be installed within win7 using VMware player (of course there is WUBI option as well)
I think this is a good option instead of installing Ubuntu on a seperate partition as I am not able to see the Ubuntu partition either in xp or win 7 and save some data on it.

Or, of course, you could make the better choice and install Win 7 as a VM within Ubuntu.

[g.ramesh]

Originally Posted by TerryNet

I moved your thread to Linux and Unix from XP; don't know if you'll get a whole lot of different advice here, but at least a few different eyes will see it.

Wubi is fine. I advise using it if you are shy about partitioning (as I was when first starting to use Ubuntu), but having Ubuntu truely in its own partition is better, so I wouldn't advise you to "go backwards."

If you want to have, in effect, multiple OSes running at the same time then a virtual machine is a good option. I use Oracle's VirtualBox and various people here have said that VMware Player is better. Both are free.

If your big concern is data access my suggestion is to just keep your data in Windows as Ubuntu has no problem accessing it. Even better is to have a separate data partition shared by all 3 of your systems. But, if you want to access data in Ubuntu from Windows maybe Three Ways To Access Linux Partitions (ext2/ext3) From Windows On Dual-Boot Systems will have a solution for you.

Thanks a lot TerryNet for your reply. I will see the link above and will come back to you.

[saikee]

The Xp has boot loader NTLDR. Win7 has the equivalent called boomgr and Linux the popular boot loader is Grub. The default version in Ubuntu 10.04 is Grub2 which can reside inside a NTFS partition.

NTLDR can boot 10 OSes as it displays a maximum of 10 choices. Both bootmgr and Grub2 can boot over 100 OSes.

There is no technical diffulty to install the 3 systems in any order. However the minium work is achieved by installing Xp, then Win7 and Ubuntu.

This is due to NTLDR cannot load bootmgr as it is not forward compatible. bootmgr on the other hand can load NTLDR. In the above sequence the XP will be installed in the C drive and Win7 is then installed in a D drive. The installer of Win7 will place bootmgr inside the C drive as this is the standard arrangement. The boot mgr replaced NTLDR and offers Xp as a second choice to WIn7. If Xp is specified bootmgr will load NTLDR which then in turn load Xp. There will be no boot loader residing in the D drive.

Grub2 is a lot cleaner. When Ubuntu is installed as the last system it will take over the MBR and automatically configure to boot whatever in the C drive by having found a boot loader inside. It will not know there are two WIndows inside and so the Win7 bootmgr will be loaded if WIndows is specified.

All 3 boot loaders can be restored by its own installation CD or DVD so it is a simple effort to reasemble them again if needed.

XP, WIn7 and Ubuntu are all booted by their own boot loaders individually but every boot loader is capable of booting another boot loader if all systems are installed as a stand alone operating systems.

If one system is placed as a guest inside a host in a virtual machine then only the host system is booted. The guest systems are called up by loading a file inside the host system.. In such a case the boot loaders of the guest systems are not active.

[lewmur]

Wubi vs virtual. Wubi is a full install of Ubuntu that handles all of your hardware. It merely uses exitsting ntfs file system instead of creating a Linux partition. It will not run quite as fast as a native install but I doubt you would notice the difference. When you boot the computer you choose which OS to run.

A virtual session, VMware, Msft or Virtual Box, OTOH, shares the Host OS's resources but runs simultaneously. You can actually run several OS's at the same time. The drawback is that each virtual session takes away memory from the host. IOW, if you only have 1gb of ram and you assign 512mb to the quest os, you will only have 512mb left for the host. Second, you might not be able to access all of your hardware from the guest.

[g.ramesh]

Originally Posted by saikee

All 3 boot loaders can be restored by its own installation CD or DVD so it is a simple effort to reasemble them again if needed.

As I was not able to use the partition where Linux is installed from win to save some files, I used GParted and tried to free some space. When I freed some and moved around swap and Linux to bring this free space next to a primary partition where xp is installed (as already 4 partitions are there I was not allowed to make this as a Shared partition among all three oses).

Then I merged Xp partition and free sapce and moved xp to right, then when I tried to boot into XP it was showing fault /ntldr. Then I merged back the XP partition and unallocated sapce and tried boot again. Now also is shows the following message when I try to boot in to XP

" Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. choose your language settings and then click "NEXT"
3.Click "Repair" your computer.

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

File: \ntldr
Status: OX0000225

Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt. "


I u/l the screenshots from GParted before and after I merged the unallocated space to xp partition and the link is

" http://www.4shared.com/file/kwy9JguJ/gparted1.html "

and the output of fdisk -lu is given below

sudo fdisk -lu

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
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa3c6a3c6


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 16126 236026979 118005427 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 236027904 561364991 162668544 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 561364992 565270527 1952768 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 565270528 625141759 29935616 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 16128 236026979 118005426 7 HPFS/NTFS

Above you said all 3 boot loaders can be restored by its own installation CD or DVD, please tell me how to restore XP boot loader so that I can be able to boot into XP.

Although booting in to win 7 and Ubuntu is normal.