Guide to dual boot Ubuntu and Pre-installed Win 7 with F4 recovery partition

[JKallunki]

My configuration is N150 plus (NP-N150-JP05SE), pre-installed Win 7 and Ubuntu netbook 10.04. On boot it loads Windows bootloader and there's option to boot Ubuntu's Grub2. Everything is working at least now and haven't seen any rebooting problems in selecting different OS. Sorry for not so good english. Post corrections and comments
Thanks for emrag 7 and XP guide

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Firstly make yourself a bootable Ubuntu installation USB memory. I used Ubuntu netbook 10.04 and created it in Kubuntu using Startup Disc Creator. There's guide for how to do that in Win/Mac/Ubuntu at the download site: http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download
First time You use USB bootable you have to plug it in the computer and start/restart computer, quickly press F2 to get to the bios settings and configure from the boot devices the USB to be the first one in the list.

Then I modified partitions to fit my needs. There's guides for that in the forum.
I used USB bootable Gparted and resized sda3 and created new extended partition with two logical partitions (/ -systemroot and swap). BE CAREFUL WITH PARTITION EDITORS!
(Gparted can also be used from the Ubuntu installation USB launching Ubuntu using Try Ubuntu button)

I have:
~20Gb sda1 (Gparted says Vista loader) -- Don't alter
~100Mb sda2 (Gparted says 7 loader) -- Don't alter
~114Gb sda3 Pre-installed WINDOWS 7
~110Gb sda5 Ubuntu
~3Gb sda6 Swap

Then I installed Ubuntu using the bootable USB I've made. At the 'Prepare disk space' -section I choosed 'Specify partitions manually' and at the next page made mount point / for sda5 and set sda6 to be used as swap.

IMPORTANT!!! At the last page before installing called 'Ready to install' you have to click 'Advanced...'. In the opened 'Boot loader' window choose to install boot loader and in 'Device for boot loader installation' write: /dev/sda5
(Or whatever number is your Ubuntu partition, BUT DON'T USE only /dev/sda)

Then install Ubuntu and after choose 'Restart now' and unplug the usb memory.
System boots and loads the pre-installed Windows 7.
Download, install and run EasyBCD 2.0.2 or above ( http://neosmart.net/downloads/softwa...CD%202.0.2.exe )

Click 'Add New Entry'
Choose Linux/BSD -tab
Type: GRUB 2 (works with Ubuntu 10.04)
Name: WhateveryouwannawriteforyourUbuntuinstallationmenu entry
and click 'Add Entry'

Click 'Bootloader Setup' and choose 'Install the Windows Vista/7 bootloader to the MBR'.
Click 'Write MBR'.

Also from 'Edit Boot Menu' you can choose default OS and seconds the menu is available at the start. Grub settings and seconds are editable from the Ubuntu with Startup manager. Remember that Ubuntu's kernel updates make new default entrys for grub.


NOW you should have the computer working with pre-installed Windows 7 and chainlinked booting via windows bootloader and grub to Ubuntu. And the F4 is also working for bootin the Recovery Solution. I haven't use Recovery Solution for recovery with this combination so can't tell how it works with these changed partitions and edited windows bootloader.

By the way Logitech Unifying keyboard and mouse working on bios and every booting menus Not doing that on my desktop computer.

[JKallunki]

Seems like EXT4 is not usable with the harddrive. EXT3 seems fine but anyone got info about using EXT4? It gets remounted as readonly because of some errors.

[Pupnik]

Thanks for the guide, I just got my N150 today and can't stand Windows 7 'starter.' I use Windows 7 professional on my main PC and that's fine but this version is ridiculous. Just trying to download Ubuntu onto a USB stick- estimated download time 195 hours, hmm Hopefully once it is finally downloaded I won't have any problems with the rest of it.

[__spc__]

I use Wubi installer for Kubuntu 10.04, dual-boot with Win7.

Install simple as anything (however I lost the F4 at boot function).

I believe my Linux is ext4.

[Pupnik]

Sadly my installation was an absolute disaster- if anyone is thinking installing Ubuntu do NOT use the most recent version. My internet is extremely sluggish (took about 5 minutes to log into this forum and many websites are timing out). I feel like I have wasted hours for absolutely nothing and will have to go back to Windows 7 until they sort out these issues- it seems like I am not the only one with this problem and a lot of Ubuntu 11.04 users are experiencing the same issue. I wish I had known about these problems before wasting my time, but that's my fault for assuming it would be okay. I just wanted to warn others who may be thinking of doing the same thing, if possible try and get an older version of Ubuntu and not 11.04, but it seemed to be the only option to download from the Ubuntu site. It is a shame as after having used a variety of Windows and Mac OS I was keen to finally try something else but this has left a bad taste in my mouth and I don't think I will bother with another Linux system in the forseable future. 11.04 should not have been released with such a huge bug.

[__spc__]

Very sorry to hear of yoru woes, and yes, I've suffered at the hands of Linux in the past!

My advice is to use:

i) Kubuntu
ii) a USB 'live distro' creator, such as Wubi
iii) Run the 'live distro' for a while to make sure it has all functionality on your machine
iv) use the latest STABLE and SUPPORTED version.

For Kubuntu, that is 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

[JKallunki]

I use Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (meaning it long time support) netbook edition. It can be used with default GNOME session or uneditable NETBOOK edition session.

This guide was for using original Win 7 and restore partition with ubuntu. Now I installed XP Pro and Ubuntu so this time I only needed to get installed from USB memory.