Dual Booting Ubuntu Hardy Heron with Windows

Target Audience: This guide is intended for PC users new to Linux and outlines an easy way to configure an existing Windows machine to run Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” in parallel. It is acknowledge this may not be “dual-booting” in the true sense of the word, however from the standpoint of a new user it is considered comparable.

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I’ve spent a great deal of time in Ubuntu lately, during which time I’ve discovered a really cool new feature in the Hardy Heron beta (v 8.04). As ZDNet reported earlier this week (“Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” beta – making life easier for Windows users“), Hardy Heron now supports seriously easy parallel installations with Windows.

Dual booting systems is not a new trend of course. It just means you’re able to run two different operating systems off a single box. However this can be very useful in that it expands your computational landscape – particularly from the standpoint of running platform-specific/niche software or application testing and troubleshooting.

Historically however the installation process for dual-booting machines has been so involved as to make it prohibitive to many users.

What Hardy Heron has done is facilitate the set-up using a wizard process, which dramatically lowers the obstacles to uptake for new users. Realistically this is an obvious ploy to draw Windows users away from the PC; however from my perspective it is a welcome one.

As the ZDNet article says, Ubuntu’s wizard process is a snap; the most complicated aspect is configuring your machine to work with the ISO image that contains the installation files.

NB: This concept of an ISO file is not Linux-specific; it’s just a self-contained image that contains all the information you need to complete the installation. ISO files normally come on a CD and are mounted by inserting the disc into the disc drive. In this case we need to set the machine up to treat the ISO image like it does a CD or DVD.

Ingredients:

Download Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” (download page)
Download the Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel package (.EXE file download)

As with most operating systems, the Ubuntu installation files are a decent size – roughly 650 megabytes. So the download process can take some time to complete. Alternatively you can request that Canonical send you a copy of the software – which they do for free, believe it or not.

In the meantime you’ll need to configure your machine to work with the ISO file. There are an assortment of free programs available you can use; I used the free one provided by Microsoft.

Mounting the ISO file

Download the ZIP file and extract it to a folder you can easily find.
Copy the VCdRom system file and place it with the other system drivers – on my machine this was located at C:/Windows/system32/drivers/
Open the VCdControlTool application and click Driver Control – you will receive a message saying something to the effect of “the driver was not found.”
Click Install Driver. Browse to the file you just placed in …/system32/drivers and then click Start, followed by OK.
Now it’s time to mount the ISO file. Click Add Drive. An available drive letter will be displayed. Select the drive letter and click Mount and browse to the location of the ISO file. NB: I recommend ticking “persistent mount” at this point. That way if you have to restart your machine you won’t have to remount the image again and can just eject/dismount it when the installation process is complete.
Go to Windows Explorer or My Computer and you will now see the Ubuntu installation “disc” available. Double click on that to begin the installation process.

At this point you can follow the Ubuntu installation wizard processes outlined in the ZDNet article. As I said though, the wizard process is exceptionally straightforward; so you may not even need the guide. Just make sure you select “Install inside Windows” if you want to have access to both operating systems.

Please note: I was unable to install Ubuntu on a different drive – it seems to only work when installed on the same drive as your Windows installation. I made it to the end of the installation process only to be told I couldn’t start Ubuntu. This didn’t affect the existing version of Windows mind you, but it did eat up half an hour.

Logging into Ubuntu

Now that you have two different operating systems on your machine you will be prompted to select which one you wish to use every time you start the computer. By default Windows is selected, and after 15 seconds it loads automatically. If you want to boot into Ubuntu just use the down arrow of your keyboard to select Ubuntu and click Enter. Ubuntu will then load and off you go.

Uninstalling Ubuntu

The hiccups I experienced when attempting to install Ubuntu on a drive other than C:/ gave me the opportunity to test the uninstall tool, which once again is very straightforward. The Ubuntu installation is placed in the root of the drive in a folder called “ubuntu”. To uninstall Ubuntu, login to Windows and navigate to the uninstall file through Windows Explorer. Click on it and you’ll be asked to confirm the uninstall process. You’ll also be given the option to save the ISO file.

I recommend you save a copy of the ISO file in case you want to try Ubuntu again in the future. This will save you from having to download another 650 megabytes later.

A word of caution here though, I ran into trouble when I left the archived ISO file on my E:/ drive and tried to re-install Ubuntu on the C:/ drive, where the Windows software is located. (At this point I had two copies of the same ISO file, only one of which was mounted.) For some reason the installation process kept trying to reference the image on the E:/ drive. When I deleted the 2^nd ISO file I was able to complete the installation successfully.

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