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.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Douk P1 DAC/Preamp/Headphone Amp review

A few weeks ago I decided to build a fun sound system for my home office (see this post for details). The goal was something that looked interesting, sounded good, and was expandable. The Douk P1 DAC/Preamp/Headphone Amp serves as the centerpiece of the system. After using it for a few weeks, I can say that it is a decent piece of equipment. Pros: Small size Switchable tone controls Good Bluetooth (stable, easy connection, APTX support) Built-in DAC Cons: No optical input Unnecessary bright blue light on power supply Clicks when turning amplification on and off on Bluetooth It has a good build quality. The tone and volume knobs turn smoothly with soft clicks. It feels sturdy and all the connectors are solid. Setup is easy - plug in the tubes, connect to the speakers, plug the PS into the wall, and hit power. The tubes that came with my unit went right in - I didn't have to mess with the pins, but YMMV. Pressed power, flipped the switch to Bluetooth and the unit went into pairing m
Read more

Overclocking Without Permission

Image
Sorry for the long delay between posts this month. I really want to try to get to posting a couple of posts a week, but Real Life keeps popping up and using up my time. In any event, I am going to try to get back to that frequency starting now. I have a lot of ideas for posts, and am going to start actually typing them up. I'll start off with something I promised a while ago. As I mentioned in the post about my custom PC build , I had an issue with the system crashing randomly. It only crashed twice - once when I was running the Windows Experience Index, and once overnight. This worried me because it was a brand new system, and everything should have been in tip-top shape - unless I screwed something up (or received a faulty piece of equipment). I was really hoping I wouldn't have to redo all or part of the build. Luckily, I enjoy troubleshooting almost as much as I like building PCs, so I put on my thinking cap (do they still make those) and started working. When I checke
Read more

Building A Box - Specs

I've done a lot of thinking about the specifications of the computer I am going to build . My two main priorities are speed and storage. I use my main PC for video editing, some Web development, and as a media server for the house. I figure that whatever I build will replace it as my main desktop, and then I can give my current machine (a two-year old Dell Studio XPS 8100) to my wife. Motherboard Since the motherboard was a gift, there wasn't really a choice. It is an ASUS P8Z77-M Pro , which is a decent Micro ATX board that supports 3rd gen Intel  processors. It is a little light on the internal expansion ports (three total), but has decent built-in sound and video as well as support for several USB ports (front and back) in both 2.0 and 3.0. It can handle up to 32 GB of memory. Processor Since I have the luxury of shopping around and buying parts over time, I am looking at getting the Core i7 3770k processor. It is currently the fastest Core i7 that will fit in thi
Read more