Calling All Computer Nerds

[Twitch]

Is there a Linux OS that will play friendly dual booted with Windows 7? Im at my wits end with 7 on reboot. Im perfectly happy with it until its time to shut it down and restart it, which I may add I only have to do for the stupid update process or my battery dies, but 10 min is ridiculous. I blame the MS's update procedure, damn updates are clutter.

Anyhow, Id just go with Kubuntu, but Id like to keep my 7 partition, because lets face it, you cant survive without MS.

My machine is clean as a whistle, this 10 min reboot process is pissing me off though.

Any suggestions or am I going to have to dump 7 in order to have Linux without a conflict or put it on another computer?

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Yeah, you will never have to update Linux.

Maybe try installing the updates when you want to instead of when it wants you to, and rebooting when you're going to do something like, take a shower, make coffee, bang your girlfriend, etc.

[marcus]

It's not the distribution that matters per se, it's the boot loader. Windows boot loader is not friendly with Linux, but most Linux boot loaders will dual boot with windows fine. Lilo and grub both work for dual booting purposes. So you are doing this in the right order, just get an ubuntu install disk (or whatever), shrink the windows partition, and install away.

[Twitch]

Yeah, you will never have to update Linux.

Maybe try installing the updates when you want to instead of when it wants you to, and rebooting when you're going to do something like, take a shower, make coffee, bang your girlfriend, etc.

I have it set up to look but not download until I say so. It doesnt take long to rack up 30 updates waiting to be downloaded and installed. Guess I could plan them like that though.

It's not the distribution that matters per se, it's the boot loader. Windows boot loader is not friendly with Linux, but most Linux boot loaders will dual boot with windows fine. Lilo and grub both work for dual booting purposes. So you are doing this in the right order, just get an ubuntu install disk (or whatever), shrink the windows partition, and install away.

Ive had no problems dual booting Linux with XP using GRUB, but Vista/7 Ive had issues.

[marcus]

Ive had no problems dual booting Linux with XP using GRUB, but Vista/7 Ive had issues.

I have never really done it with Vista or 7. Again, without knowing which issues you are having, the problem is most likely in Windows. MS seems to like to make it difficult to dual boot with Linux by using a very simplistic bootloader and making assumptions about how you want to partition the disk. This webpage has some useful tips, apparently there can be issues in Vista and 7 if you resize the windows partition outside of windows:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringWindows#Resizing%20Windows%20Vista%20/%207%20Partitions

There are ways to shrink the windows partition within windows as well, partition magic being one. There are freeware applications to do this as well. You could give one of those a try. Let us know how it goes, I like embarking on these kind of projects.

[Twitch]

Win 7 will let you shrink and expand the partition natively. One of the things I like about 7, one less 3rd party program I need. I dont remember the issue either, but it probably is indeed Windows related. MS changed the way Windows is booted for Vista/7.

I think I may just try Linux and a good Vbox that will run under Linux.

[Axewielder]

I experienced what could very well be the same issue with my W764 machine. The auto update process actually stalls on the OS load, and it continues booting after some process times out and it gives up. The event log clearly shows that part of the update failed. It will keep reattempting when you restart, usually working on the 2nd or 3rd attempt. Then, I discovered an "optional" update on the Windows Update site related to failed updates. I installed that, and haven't seen the issue in a couple of months. In conclusion, go check out the optional updates.

[Cliff]

I had a GRUB working with Ubuntu and Vista on a laptop just fine (this was a while ago, but if I remember rightly I made the partitions via Windows). Haven't tried it with Win7 though.

[Twitch]

I experienced what could very well be the same issue with my W764 machine. The auto update process actually stalls on the OS load, and it continues booting after some process times out and it gives up. The event log clearly shows that part of the update failed. It will keep reattempting when you restart, usually working on the 2nd or 3rd attempt. Then, I discovered an "optional" update on the Windows Update site related to failed updates. I installed that, and haven't seen the issue in a couple of months. In conclusion, go check out the optional updates.

Will do, thanks for the heads up.

[Twitch]

You dont happen to know the KB number for that update do you, or a link to that update? Seems Im using all the wrong keywords trying to find it, having no luck.

[Axewielder]

You dont happen to know the KB number for that update do you, or a link to that update? Seems Im using all the wrong keywords trying to find it, having no luck.

There's no way for me to recall that with certainty. Just download anything related to Automatic Updates, there aren't usually too many optional ones to sift through.