# Booting to Ubuntu with vista bootloader



## Rexter (Jan 21, 2009)

I have looked around the web for help, but that never really explained what i hopefully want to accomplish.
I have a laptop with vista x64, where i made two additional partitions. One for windows 7 and one for linux which i can fiddle around with.
And because im only gonna use linux on/off and propably uninstall it re-install it now and then, i dont want it to use linux's bootloader.
So on the third partition i installed ubuntu without the linux bootloader and of course vista's bootloader wont recognize it. Only vista and win 7 appears.

So how can i make vista's bootloader see ubuntu?


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## Error 404 (Jan 22, 2009)

Have you installed it using the traditional method of installing from the disk at boot, or have you installed it using the "Install inside windows" method when you run the CD in Windows? If you use the autorun menu in windows to "install inside windows" then it creates its own partition and uses the Windows bootloader. I did this on my old Dell Dimension rig alongside XP, and it works fine.


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## Rexter (Jan 22, 2009)

Error 404 said:


> Have you installed it using the traditional method of installing from the disk at boot, or have you installed it using the "Install inside windows" method when you run the CD in Windows? If you use the autorun menu in windows to "install inside windows" then it creates its own partition and uses the Windows bootloader. I did this on my old Dell Dimension rig alongside XP, and it works fine.



Why havent i heard of this before? I shrunk my main partition to create a set amount of free space, un formatted. Then i booted into the live environment of ubuntu, chose install, and chose to install on the now free allocated space, then unchecked the linux bootloader.

Maybe i should check out the "inside windows" option.


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## Error 404 (Jan 22, 2009)

You should check it out, its just as easy as a CD boot installation, except Linux makes its own partition. Also, it will automatically create its own swap partition, usually the same size as your RAM.
Just put the disk in when Windows is booted, and select this button:





Ubuntu 8.04 or higher has this menu, 7.10 doesn't, so make sure you have the latest distro.
Also, when I did the installation inside windows I didn't notice any performance loss, and I'm pretty sure that I could put it into hibernate.
Good luck with Linux!


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## Rexter (Jan 22, 2009)

Error 404 said:


> You should check it out, its just as easy as a CD boot installation, except Linux makes its own partition. Also, it will automatically create its own swap partition, usually the same size as your RAM.
> Just put the disk in when Windows is booted, and select this button:
> 
> 
> ...



Just tried installing ubuntu 8.10 from windows. Worked like a charm. Only downside is it actually didnt create a partition. I have cleared some space for it, but it installed it self as a 15gb large program inside vista. Not exactly what i had hoped it would do, but at least i dont have to worry about it messing with the bootloader when i uninstall it. Maybe this is the time i give linux another chance  never bothered because of the hassles "back then".
Thanks for you help


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## Error 404 (Jan 22, 2009)

Rexter said:


> Just tried installing ubuntu 8.10 from windows. Worked like a charm. Only downside is it actually didnt create a partition. I have cleared some space for it, but it installed it self as a 15gb large program inside vista. Not exactly what i had hoped it would do, but at least i dont have to worry about it messing with the bootloader when i uninstall it. Maybe this is the time i give linux another chance  never bothered because of the hassles "back then".
> Thanks for you help



No problem.


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## Rexter (Jan 24, 2009)

Now i have run into a new problem, but maybe i should make another thread about it?
Ive been trying to install a program in ubuntu, its a .bin file, which i turned into a executable, as per the instructions. But the app wont run. It comes with an error message (something about it cant find/missing a "magic" something, cant remember), which i searched the web about. It has something to do with the partition format. In this case its installed on a harddisk formatted in ntfs. So do some programs just not work when ubuntu is installed as an app in vista? 
I know really nothing about linux... so just trying with trial and error.
and btw its jDeveloper 11g in case anyone is wondering.


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## farlex85 (Feb 18, 2009)

I looked into doing this too recently. I found conflicting info on it, but it all ended up more complicated than it was worth to me (it involves creating the bootloader in a hidden partition or something, then editing grub in bcd in windows and re-writing the mbe). It was much easier to simply let GRUB install at the beginning of the hdd as it is defaulted to do. This will boot up the grub menu, which you can then select either ubuntu or windows bootloader, which will take you to that.

As for running apps, many seem to be required to run through the terminal (I'm new as well). Google the extension type (in your case .bin) in ubuntu and you should hopefully find a way.


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## Rexter (Feb 18, 2009)

farlex85 said:


> I looked into doing this too recently. I found conflicting info on it, but it all ended up more complicated than it was worth to me (it involves creating the bootloader in a hidden partition or something, then editing grub in bcd in windows and re-writing the mbe). It was much easier to simply let GRUB install at the beginning of the hdd as it is defaulted to do. This will boot up the grub menu, which you can then select either ubuntu or windows bootloader, which will take you to that.
> 
> As for running apps, many seem to be required to run through the terminal (I'm new as well). Google the extension type (in your case .bin) in ubuntu and you should hopefully find a way.



Well i found out that the program i wanted to run would not function in a 64bit linux environment, they could have said so a lot earlier 
Anyway, i found this http://wubi-installer.org/ Which make a pseudo-virtual environment inside windows and uses vista's bootloader. And when you dont need it, you uninstall linux like a program. Its not THE best solution, not at all, but its great for people like me who just want to try it out, without breaking anything.


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