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It's been many years since I've installed any sort of linux distro. Back in the day, yes, I would say all of the steps in this article would be required to successfuly dual boot Windows & Ubuntu.

But Ubuntu is on 16.10 now. Should I just try the "Install Ubuntu alongside windows" option and let Ubuntu sort of figure out partitions/boot manager/everything? Or will I end up with a broken boot manager or messed up partition?

Zhinkk
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  • No you wont break anything unless u boot usb in the same mode one which windows is installed in (either BIOS/LEGACY or UEFI)..check your os type in BIOS menu and boot usb accordingly and go with alongside option..u dont need to take any steps in between...but option something else is better since we are giving partitions manually ! – minigeek Oct 29 '16 at 06:36
  • The Ubuntu installer is very intelligent about figuring out how your system boots, and making everything boot correctly. I'd recommend giving it a go. Problems are fairly rare. – rclocher3 Oct 30 '16 at 04:14

2 Answers2

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I've only skimmed the page to which you linked, but it looks basically reasonable, with one caveat: The page gives insufficient detail on how to determine your boot mode and control the boot of the Ubuntu installation medium to the correct mode. In brief, most computers with Windows 8 and later come with Windows installed in EFI/UEFI mode. Most (but not all) Windows 7 installations use BIOS/CSM/legacy mode, as do the vast majority of earlier Windows versions. If you installed Windows yourself, all bets are off, except for older versions (Vista and earlier, except on exotic platforms), which support only BIOS mode.

It's imperative that your Ubuntu installation use the same boot mode as your Windows installation. See this page of mine for information on determining your current boot mode. See this other page of mine for information on the Compatibility Support Module (CSM) and how to control the boot mode of your Ubuntu installation medium.

If you install Ubuntu in the wrong boot mode, you'll find it difficult or impossible to control which OS boots; hence the importance of getting this detail right.

One more caveat: Some (too many) computers have broken EFIs that forget their boot settings. If you're unlucky enough to have such a computer, you'll have to employ ugly workarounds to fix the problem. Numerous questions and answers on this site address such problems. See this one as a starting point.

Community
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Rod Smith
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  • but how do you control what boot mode Ubuntu installs in? this doesn't seem to be an option in the installation process? [though the problems you describe sound like what happened when i tried to install ubuntu on an external drive last week] – Kirt Sep 15 '17 at 17:58
  • @Kirt, See the second link in my answer. The boot mode is not controlled within Ubuntu; it's controlled by the firmware. – Rod Smith Sep 20 '17 at 12:49
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Dual boot is pre-virtualization and unnecessary unless you need direct access to your hardware, in which case I would boot from an external medium anyway. Especially for something trivial like trying another OS, virtualization is a better solution. Look for virtualbox or vmware player.

JdeHaan
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