Dual boot Windows7 and Ubuntu on my Netbook
Added Linux to my Netbook that came with Windows pre-installed.
As I use mostly Linux at home, but occasionaly need Windows (e.g my plugwise gadgets came with a windows only software). As I do not want to install ‘home’ software on my Windows 7 ’work’ laptop, I decided to keep this Windows on a small partition, as I paid for it’s license anyway, and could be usefull.
This Windows 7 is a ‘starter edition’, i.e. cheap, but did not encounter a real limitation. Well I can not ‘RDP’ into it, but that is also not possible with the Windows 7 home versions.
Well, next step was to get Ubuntu Linux on it (I use that version on my ‘main’ home desktop computer). To not re-invent the wheel while making it dual-boot, I looked for and found a nice tutorial for this. Must say it works well that way.
The basic steps involved are:
- Shrink the windows partition to a workable minimum to make room for the linux partitions.
- Install EasyBCD in windows to configure the windows bootmanager
- Install ubuntu, make sure to put ‘grub’ in the linux bootpartition, not the disk bootsector
- Add ubuntu to the windows bootmanager (and make it the default)
Job done…
I made this entry, so I can find the tutorial again, just in case I need it.
PS.
A restriction in Excel 2010 Starter I bumbed into was that there is no option to connect to an SQL or Access database. Well this is ‘advanced’ usage, so logical it is missing.
