Installing Linux beside Windows(Dual Boot)

There can be many problems which prevent installing Linux for dual boot. Some of the solutions are:

1.  To get it dual booting:

a. Disable UEFI in the BIOS.

b. Install your Linux distro.

If UEFI is enabled, the installer assumes you're using it (even though the partition table is MBR and Windows is therefore not booting via EFI) and sets things up for UEFI.  Once it's disabled, the installer sets up GRUB on the MBR as expected.

2.   Some other considerations you have to take into account:

• Make sure to have the first Linux installing grub or grub 2 on the MBR.
• The second installed Linux should install grub on its root partition (Or if you want, do not install grub or grub 2 at all)
• Use the UID and GUID for the users on both Linux distributions

You can also have a Dual boot PC with the same Distro, just to have one for experimenting and the second for your stable work.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Have both Linux distributions share /home partition
2. Have each distribution with its own /home, and have a third partition to share documents.

The former may have problems with Gnome, KDE or any DE you are using, as they save its configurations files in your home folder. And that may lead to problems. I recommend the latter, but the former may work, specially if you are dual booting two Linux .

3. This one is detailed procedure:

• Download an Ubuntu LiveCD image (.iso) from Ubuntu Downloads and burn it to a disc .
• Insert the LiveCD into your CD-ROM drive and reboot your PC.
• If the computer does not boot from the CD (e.g. Windows starts again instead), reboot and check your BIOS settings by pressing F2, F12, Delete, or ESC. Select "boot from CD".
• Proceed with installation until you are asked this question: "How do you want to partition the disk?".
• If you have already partitioned the disk and left space for Ubuntu, install it to that and then follow the rest of the steps.
• Otherwise, choose one of the next two steps.

Automatic partition resizing (recommended)

• Choose the first option, which should say "Install them side by side, choosing between them each startup".
• Specify the size of the new partition by dragging the slider at the bottom of the window.
• Click on "Forward".
• Continue on to Finishing Ubuntu Installation.

Manual partitioning

• Choose "Manually edit partition table".
• Listed will be your current partitions.
• Select the partition you want to resize and press Enter.
• Select "Size:", press Enter.
• Select Yes, press Enter.
• Type in a new size in gigabytes for your partition, it's recommended you free up at least 10 GB of free space for your Ubuntu install. Press Enter when happy with your changes. It may take some time to apply the changes.
• Create a swap partition of at least your amount of RAM (if you don't know, 2000 MB is a good value).
• Create a partition for your Ubuntu installation.
• Create other partitions if necessary: see DiskSpace
• Select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk".

Enjoy the war with Linux.