Building a Box - Dual-Boot

While I am generally a Windows user, I have always been interested in Linux. I made an attempt to install Red Hat on my PC in the late 90s (but had too many driver issues and couldn't get x-windows to work properly so I decided to wait a while). In early 2010 I looked into it again and discovered Ubuntu. After playing with 10.04 and subsequent versions in VirtualBox for a while, I restored an old laptop using 11.04. After that, I was hooked, and I have had some version of Ubuntu running on a PC ever since. Once I was sure everything was stable on my new machine (I really have to give it a name...), I grabbed the latest version (12.10) and set up a dual-boot machine.

It actually wasn't that quick. I definitely wanted to run Ubuntu on the system, but I also didn't necessarily want to extend the boot time - I was too used to the  the 20-seconds to working in a desktop program from totally off  performance I was getting, and I didn't want to slow it down, even if it was only for the 10 seconds GRUB gives me to select an OS. So, at first, I set up a virtual machine in Hyper-V, Microsoft's virtualization software that comes with Windows 8 Professional. Due to two issues - one where SpeedStep seemed to stop working (thus locking my PC to slightly higher than stock speeds - more on that in another post), and one where Ubuntu couldn't easily access the Internet, I deleted that VM and went with VirtualBox, Oracle's free virtualization software. The VirtualBox installation, being a third-party solution that was not as deeply tied to the system, seemed to work better, however Ubuntu performance was slow, and Compiz kept crashing. I finally decided to go ahead and do what I should have done the first time, and installed Ubuntu in a dual-boot configuration. I know, some of you will argue I should have installed Ubuntu as the only OS right when I built the machine, but, in addition to needing it for work, I am a Windows user, and I actually like the way it works most of the time.

Installation

Since Ubuntu has a much smaller footprint than Windows, and since I am a light user, I made a 100 GB partition to use for the installation on my 2 TB Seagate Hard Drive. I had originally stated with 50GB but that didn't even register in Explorer, so I decided it was fine to take the full 100. Once I had the partition in place, I put the LiveDVD in the drive and restarted... and got dropped back into Windows. Since my Motherboard has a UEFI bios, and was set to Fast Boot, the default was to boot into Windows and not even check if there was a disc in the drive. I booted into BIOS and set the DVD as the main boot drive, and was able to get into the Ubuntu DVD.

One thing I like about Ubuntu is how fast it installs. When I set up my last PC to dual boot, it took about 15 minutes, and this time was no different. After answering the basic questions regarding the type of setup, the install drive, my location and language, etc.) it copied the files, and rebooted... into Windows. No GRUB. It was again an issue with the UEFI BIOS, as well as the GRUB bootloader. The Ubuntu site had some information on how to fix this (1. turn off Fast Boot, 2. Run Boot Repair from the LiveDVD) and once done, I rebooted and was greeted with the GRUB screen. I booted into Ubuntu and logged in, and everything worked fine. After the installation, I spent about an hour tweaking the OS and installing my favorite software packages, and getting the latest updates installed.

Performance

Ubuntu is a fast OS. Blazingly fast. I know a lot of this is due to it being Linux, but the Ubuntu Unity shell doesn't really slow things down. And on my new hardware, it runs very fast. At times, opening programs seems like I am just restoring minimized windows, rather than starting a program. Graphics performance is fine for my use as well. It works well with all my hardware, so I am not seeing any driver issues or having problems with graphics, sound, webcam, or WiFi.

Next Steps

My plans for the Ubuntu system are to set up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server and get a Drupal install running for testing, as some of our clients at work are starting to request their sites on that platform. I am also going to set up a MediaWiki installation - I manage a Wiki at the office, and I want to have a place where I can try out new extensions, tweaks, and other things without messing up the official development environment when I am just playing around because something looked cool. Other than that, I am going to keep using Ubuntu and getting used to it so I can keep my computing options open.

 

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