Dual Boot The New Eee 901 & 1000
Posted by michael.stahlman on 27 Jul 2008 at 08:23 pm | Tagged as: Computers, Eee PC, Ubuntu
With the release of the new Eee PCs has come larger solid state hard drives. Previously it was unfeasible to dual boot these UMPCs due to the lack of space, but now it is possible for the Eee 901 & 1000. Unfortunately, these models have two solid state disks (one small & fast for the system, one larger & slower for the user data), so the process can be confusing.
I prefer Linux over Windows XP, so I prefer to have Linux on the faster disk even though it is smaller. I have also found that I can install everything I need for the Linux system in 4GB if I keep my data elsewhere (the Eee 1000 has an 8GB system disk, so this is not an issue). With this in mind, I decided to use the 4G system disk, formatted as Ext2, for Ubuntu and the 12GB data disk, formatted as FAT32, for Windows XP and my user data storage. I am also using a 16GB SDHC card for additional storage.
Since Windows XP does not allow installation to a secondary hard disk without writing to the first disk, a few additional (sometimes lengthy) steps must be taken to optimize the dual boot setup. So, the general steps to dual boot the system are as follows:
- Format both drives
- Install Windows XP to the first drive
- Image a duplicate of the first drive to the second drive
- Expand the second drive partition to full potential
- Format first drive
- Install Linux to the first drive
Installing Windows
To start, insert the Windows XP installation disc into an external CD drive attached to the Eee PC. The Eee PC can boot from an external drive by pressing ESC during the ASUS splash screen. When the Windows XP installation menu has started, provided a backup of any user data is made, all partitions should be erased and a new partition on the first hard disk should be made. This partition should be the full size of the first disk. Instruct the installation of Windows XP onto that partition and indicate it should be formatted with FAT32 (quick). Follow the instructions to complete the installation of Windows XP.
Move Windows Installation
Once the Windows XP installation is complete, insert a copy of Ubuntu-Eee into the external CD drive. Boot from this disc into a live session to perform the move of Windows XP. For this process, I chose to use the “dd” command included in Linux for imaging the drive. There are several other methods available, but this is a simple method for the size of the drive. With a few commands, the master boot record (MBR) and the Windows XP partition can be duplicated to the second drive. This duplication method is an exact duplicate of the entire partition, so the process can take a long time (approximately 50 minutes).
Start by opening a terminal from “Applications > Accessories > Terminal.” The first command executed will take just a couple seconds to duplicate the MBR. Provided a backup of all essential data on the second disk has been made, issue this command in the terminal:
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=1
This command will duplicate the MBR from the first disk to the second, which includes the Windows bootloader and the partition size. For safe measure, I formatted the partition created on the second disk with FAT32 using the Partition Editor in “System > Administration.” In order to format that partition, select “/dev/sdb” from the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner. Next, right-click on the partition labeled “/dev/sdb1″ and choose “Format to > fat32.”
Now, the long process of duplicating the partition with Windows must be completed. Issue the following command, in terminal, to do that:
sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1
Once that command has completed, it is a good idea to format the first disk to Ext2 in the Partition Editor. I have 2GB of RAM in my Eee 901, so I chose to not establish a swap partition.
Installing Ubuntu-Eee
To complete the dual boot configuration, start the install of Ubuntu-Eee. When prompted to partition the disks, I always choose to manually configure. From there, edit the partition on /dev/sda to use the Ext2 partition type, formatted, and mounted at “/” Next, I editted the partition on /dev/sdb to use the fat32 partition type, not formatted, and mounted at “/media/winxp”
Once the installation of Ubuntu has completed, upon restart, the option to boot into Windows XP or Ubuntu should be given by the GRUB menu. Congratulations, the Eee PC is now dual booted.
Currently, Ubuntu-Eee does not work 100% upon install on the Eee 901, but there are a few work-arounds. I have tested these and will be posting my findings on these soon.
[...] has put up a post on how to duel boot your 901 or 1000 so as a form of quality control I followed his instructions. He has the 901 and I have the 1000 [...]
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I am very new to the Linux OS and it is very comforting to know there are others out there willing to help. Before I stumbled upon your post, I was stressing over the possibility that I couldn’t get Windows and Ubuntu on different drives. I almost gave up on Ubuntu in the process. Thanks again for this great aid, this should be a sticky on the Ubuntu section of the eeeuser forums. I applaude your efforts.
I have both the 901 and 1000.
I am trying to find a way to dual boot Ubuntu and XP.
But I’m trying to run XP from a 16GB SDHC and run eeeUbuntu from the SSD HDD.
Any suggestions?
My understanding is that in order to run XP from a SD card it needs to be a class 4 device. I leave these matters to Michael, since he is smarter and works with Windows alot more than I do. I run Linux 99% of the time and have for years now so my windows skills are getting a little rusty.