I just got my xps m1330 last week, and want to dual boot with Ubuntu (Gutsy). I have never dual booted OS's before, so I was wondering if anyone could point me towards a relatively detailed HowTo or guide to setting up a dual-boot system? From my understanding, there's been some difficulties in dual booting with Vista.
Also, a few questions. After partitioning the hard drive, is it possible to resize the partitions without reinstalling the two OS's? I'm guessing not, but hoping so. Also, if I decide later to get rid of Ubuntu, and go back to just using Vista, is it a difficult process to remove Ubuntu and put the entire hard drive back to Vista? I'm guessing any changing of partition sizes will require a complete formatting of the hard drive...is that the case?
Thirdly, does anyone know of things on the m1330's which won't work with Ubuntu? For example the built in webcam, fingerprint reader, hdmi jacks etc etc.
Another option you could go for is to run Ubuntu under a virtual machine. You can download vmplayer for windows for free, and you can download a vmware appliance build of Ubuntu also for free. This will also cause you the least amount of disruption. There is plenty of excellent documentation on the vmware site, and the community forums also have a wealth of knowledge.
This will enable you to see the power of Ubuntu before committing it to disk.
I have just successfully virtualised a vista partition from a pre-installed copy on an HP desktop, using the vmware converter program again free, and then installed Ubuntu as the base OS, and just run vista as a virtual machine for when I need some legacy application support . This also might be another route to follow.
i just install kubuntu 8.04 on my inspiron 1720 as a dual boot it work well vista did not like the partition change but work fine after it did check disk scan
this is the first time i have installed linux on same drive as windows it works fine
arochester
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Posted May 17th, 2008 06:00
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm
It is not difficult to remove Ubuntu. You don't have to reformat the entire drive.