Author Topic: Can this dual boot be done? (Read 3142 times)

Bogie · « **on:** March 29, 2009, 03:07:12 PM »

I'd like to set up the Evil Teenager's box dual boot. Ubuntu and XP Home.

And have the Windoze startup passworded so that she can't screw with it.

Is there an idiot friendly guide somewhere?

Will I have to nuke the existing setup (not a biggie...) to do this? Or is there a utility that'll hack the partition stuff for me?

mtnbkr · « **Reply #1 on:** March 29, 2009, 03:32:17 PM »

What sort of Windows startup password are you talking about? A restricted account? That'll work for most things, but it's not 100%. Educate yourself about Windows policy and user rights. You can lock a Win box down to an insane level if you know what you're doing (more so than the course levels of Admin, Power User, User, Guest allow).

Get a copy of Symantec Ghost (works for Linux and Windows) and make a good copy of both systems once you've installed all "good" software. That way, when the kids nuke the box, you can restore in a matter of minutes. "Back in the day", I used Ghost at work to rebuild boxes nearly immediately. All the user had to do with the new box was log in, configure their mail, and download their data from the server (assuming they backed it up). I had it on a bootable CD with an autoexec.bat that kicked off the install automagically. Put the CD in, reboot the box, come back 20 minutes later to a fresh system. Change the machine name and a few other attributes and the system was ready to go.

Or, if the host has enough memory, you might have the kids run XP under a Linux based virtual machine with Sun's Virtual box. Create the system, copy the virtual disk to a safe place for restoration, give them the keys to the new VM and let them do whatever they please.

As for the dual boot stuff, I'm not sure. I haven't messed with dual booting in 8+ years.

Useful links:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307882
http://www.symantec.com/norton/ghost
http://www.virtualbox.org/

Chris

KPT · « **Reply #2 on:** March 29, 2009, 03:35:55 PM »

It would be easiest to have two hard drives. I have ubuntu on one drive and windows 7 on another. Just have to select which drive I want to boot from at boot.

Ben · « **Reply #3 on:** March 29, 2009, 03:58:43 PM »

If you already have Windows and are installing Ubuntu over it, the Ubuntu install is a pretty idiot proof walk-through for installing the boot loader. Once done, you get a screen that asks you if you want to boot Linux or Windows. After that, for the Windows password, as mentioned, it depends on what you want to do. The password itself won't help you unless you restrict windows permissions. Unless you mean you just want to not give the kid a password to login to windows at all.

If you want her to have access to Windows, Chris' solution is a great way to protect the computer. It'd be pretty damn hard to screw up a machine via virtual Windows. If she screws something up, simply kill the virtual instance and restart it.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #4 on:** March 29, 2009, 04:59:05 PM »

Gave it some more thought...

Unless you NEED Linux for some reason, I'd go the Ghost route. Just have them put their files (mp3s, etc) on a USB connected hard drive and rebuild the system periodically with the ghost image you created before handing the system back to them. The total process each time shouldn't take more than 30 minutes and you can do it each time the system gets wonky.

Chris

roo_ster · « **Reply #5 on:** March 29, 2009, 06:16:02 PM »

Bogie:

You can lock down XP Pro pretty hard if you need to, to the point that users can't do much if any harm. Never played with XP Home.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #6 on:** March 29, 2009, 06:21:28 PM »

XP Home's security model isn't very fine grained. Policy Editor might help that.

Chris

Jim147 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 30, 2009, 12:19:06 AM »

Have you looked at GAG?
It will duel boot off partitions and or hard drives. You can password some boot options.

Bogie · « **Reply #8 on:** March 30, 2009, 02:03:18 AM »

Okay - here's how it's looking... Jen is going to get the password for the Windoze partition.

The Evil Teenager will not have it. If I see her using Windoze, I've already made it clear that I'm gonna flip out.

Basically, Jen wants access to some windoze apps on that box, and also wants The Evil Teenager to be able to use it. I figure it'll be less gnarsty if she can't screw up the windows stuff (and I've thought of putting stuff on a second drive - that just means that two drives will get munged...).

zahc · « **Reply #9 on:** March 30, 2009, 10:44:46 AM »

If you are installing ubuntu over top of windows, consider checking out Wubi. It's very easy and foolproof to set up a dual boot this way. The only disadvantage is that you will be running NTFS, which linux cannot fsck.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #10 on:** March 30, 2009, 10:50:55 AM »

What's the purpose of Linux on this box again? The teen is going to use and abuse Windows. I assume Bogie has his own computer. What's the benefit other than geek street cred?

Chris

Bogie · « **Reply #11 on:** March 30, 2009, 06:00:58 PM »

I'm gonna lock the teenager out of Windoze. And if her mommy lets her in, well, it just became No Longer My Problem, and the next time, I'm just going to format c: etc., instead of sweating to try to pull files off.

Nitrogen · « **Reply #12 on:** March 30, 2009, 07:16:56 PM »

You can lock the windows partition with a GRUB password.

Vodka7 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 30, 2009, 08:35:30 PM »

To answer your original question:

Ubuntu will do everything you want itself.

Basically, all you have to do is stick the disc in. Ubuntu will see your drive and existing XP install and ask how much of your empty space you want to use for Ubuntu. Select the amount, press go. It'll repartition, format the new space as ext3, install itself, and set up Grub for dual boot. After you reboot, you'll get a menu asking which OS you want to boot into. That's it.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #14 on:** March 30, 2009, 09:29:28 PM »

Quote from: Bogie on March 30, 2009, 06:00:58 PM

I'm gonna lock the teenager out of Windoze. And if her mommy lets her in, well, it just became No Longer My Problem, and the next time, I'm just going to format c: etc., instead of sweating to try to pull files off.

Sounds like you're going to force mommy to choose between you and her daughter. Not smart. Honestly, you're better off divesting yourself of the whole computer tech thing. You're trying to find bandaids for a larger problem.

If you're going to go the route of formatting the drive when the kid pollutes it, you're better off getting a copy of Ghost. Turn a 3-4hr job into a 30 minute one (for installs 2 thru N).

Chris

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #15 on:** March 30, 2009, 10:12:19 PM »

I can't see what the fuss is about. I wear two boots every day, and would never think of leaving the house with just one. Works much better, if you ask me.

Bogie · « **Reply #16 on:** March 30, 2009, 11:01:59 PM »

Well, I've got a copy of Ghost, and I'm imaging the damn thing, but gheesh, you do NOT want them to think that it is not a major pain in the ass to fix the problems, okay? Or else they'll do it weekly. And I'll have to worry about rescuing pictures of "the cutest guy" and "that picture of that kid in my class" and all sorts of stuff.

This is HARD, right? Right?

And I don't want her back in with all the limewire crap, etc., etc...

And her mother is starting to realize that "mission critical to the business" does not need to be associated with "virus-ridden playtoy."

Set up the dual boot thing this afternoon. Very easy. All I have to do now is figure out a way for Ubuntu to use a Netgear WG311 v2 wireless network adapter, and we're golden.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #17 on:** March 30, 2009, 11:15:13 PM »

She's using the business machine? That's a big no no regardless of her ability to destroy it. If the money is there, put her on a separate machine and configure the firewalls on the other computers to not allow any traffic from hers.

Chris

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #18 on:** March 30, 2009, 11:41:57 PM »

He should go further than that.

I'm thinking he should find a cheapo Broadcomm Wireless G router that can run DD-WRT, Tomato, HyperWRT, or similar, then really crank down on the security.

He can then block outbound/inbound ports, IP addresses, kill UPnP's automatic port forwarding, throttle bandwidth, and even set times to shut off WAN access to a given machine on the LAN side of that router's hardware firewall.

Limewire would show up on the router's internal log like a huge honkin' lighthouse beacon, and our friend Bogie could easily check those logs via password-protected HTTP access...

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #19 on:** March 31, 2009, 12:23:43 AM »

Shock collar? That could also work for basement-dwelling WarCrack-heads.

Bogie · « **Reply #20 on:** March 31, 2009, 12:33:13 AM »

I think I pretty much have them convinced that Unsafe Surfing is going to be a Bad Thing. Frankly, if I make things look easy, they're going to expect a system restore every other day... "Chuck, the popups are all back!"

The kid's machine has Office 03 loaded on it... And I've got Office 07 on my box... And Jen -hates- 07... Can't say as I blame her...

News:

Author Topic: Can this dual boot be done? (Read 3142 times)