Vostro 1500: boot XP form MediaDirect button & Ubuntu from Power button

(edits in green)

So, I got my Vostro 1500 the other day (see this page for my first impressions), plus a 320GB HDD from another supplier. I had been wanting to migrate to Linux, and this seemed the ideal opportunity. I realised that simply dual-booting it with windows would result in the MediaDirect button becoming a 'self-destruct' button, so I was excited to read Kossel's "How to boot ubuntu using MediaDirect Button" thread, but it didn't explain exactly what I wanted to do (boot XP from MediaDirect button & Ubuntu from Power button), and as others might want a more specific guide, I thought I'd do one. So here it is.

As always, proceed at your own risk!

-----------------What you need--------------------------------------

Vostro 1500 (see the link above for my spec)
MediaDirect 3.5 CD
Ubuntu 7.10 (64bit) ISO, burnt to CD
XP Pro SP2 CD

The latter requires special mention. You will need to integrate the SATA drivers onto the XP disk. To do this, use a program called nLite. It's freeware (remember to donate!), and really easy to use. You can also integrate service packs and hotfixes, and change many of the setting that you only normally have access to after installation. You can integrate all of the Dell drivers (indeed, I did so), but the main one is the SATA driver. The current one (as of this post) is here.

Download it, and extract the files with 7zip. Then, when nLite asks for drivers, point it in the direction of the files. It will read the inf file and ask you to select the appropriate drivers from a list. You want to select both the Intel(R) 82801HEM SATA RAID Controller (Mobile ICH8M-E) and the Intel(R) 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH8M-E/M) ones.

When you've finished creating your slip-streamed XP, burn the resulting ISO to a CD.

Oh, and you'll need a HDD with nothing on it (well, nothing that you want to keep!)

-------------------here we go----------------------------

1. Boot from MediaDirect (MD) CD (we'll be booting from CD's quite a bit; all you do is press F12 at start-up and select 'CD/DVD').

2. On the installation menu, select option 2.

3. Choose how big you want the XP partition to be. I chose 18GB.

4. Click Y to partition the HDD.

5. After it has done its stuff, remove the MD CD and put in the XP CD.

6. Restart, and boot from the XP CD.

7. At the partition menu, I was presented with this:

Code:

-: Partition 1 {fat}                 47 MB
C: Partition 2 {unknown}             18434 MB
D: Partition 3 {unknown}             284707 MB
F: Partition 4 (MEDIADIRECT) {fat32} 2055 MB

(The first partition contains Dell utilities, the second will be for XP, the third is spare, and the fourth is self-explanatory)

8. Delete F and D. You will now have this:

Code:

-: Partition 1 {fat}     47 MB
C: Partition 2 {unknown} 18434 MB
   Unpartitioned space   286762 MB

9. Highlight partition 2 and press Enter. Format using NTFS. Let XP install.

--------------30 minutes later-----------------------

10. After XP has installed, eject the CD and turn off.

11. Boot with Ubuntu CD and select "start or install Ubuntu" from the menu.

12. When the desktop has loaded, double-click on the Install icon.

13. Choose language, location and keyboard.

14. At "prepare disk space", choose manual. You will see this:

Code:

/dev/sda
    /dev/sda1 fat16 /media/sda1 49 MB
    /dev/sda2 ntfs  /media/sda2 19329 MB
    free space                  300691 MB

(sda1 is the Dell Utility partition, sda2 is where XP is installed)

15. Highlight "free space" and choose "new partition". Check "Primary", choose size (20000), check location "beginning", use as "ext3", and make mount point "/". (this is where we will install Ubuntu)

16. Highlight "free space" and choose "new partition". Check "Logical", choose size (4000), check location "beginning", use as "swap". (this will be Ubuntu's swap-file)

17. Highlight "free space" and choose "new partition". Check "Logical", choose size (276690), check location "beginning", use as "ext3", and make mount point "/home". (This will be my main partition for all my files. I've made it ext3 as I expect to be using Ubuntu mostly, and XP can read/write to ext3 with the appropriate app)

This is what you should then see:

Code:

/dev/sda
    /dev/sda1 fat16 /media/sda1 49 MB
    /dev/sda2 ntfs  /media/sda2 19329 MB
    /dev/sda3 ext3  /           20003 MB
    /dev/sda5 swap              3997 MB
    /dev/sda6 ext3  /home       276690 MB

(You will note that XP is installed in the second partition, and Ubuntu will be installed in the third partition. This is important for later on.)

18. Click next, and ignore the "File system doesn't have expected sizes for Windows to like it" warning.

19. Choose your name and password.

20. The drive will be partitioned and Ubuntu will be installed.

---------------------30 minutes later-------------------

21. When installation is complete, click "continue using live CD".

22. Open the terminal (applications > accessories > terminal), and type...

Code:

sudo grub

...followed by...

Code:

find /boot/grub/stage1

...which will return...

Code:

(hd0,2)

23. Enter...

Code:

root (hd0,2)

...followed by...

Code:

setup (hd0,2)

This will allow you to boot from the Ubuntu partition. You might notice that it thinks Ubuntu is in the second partition; that's because it is counting from zero, just to confuse you.

24. Shut down (wait until Ubuntu ejects the disk, then press enter).

----------------------almost there------------------

25. Press the power button which will present you with a boot menu. Select "Windows XP".

26. When XP has loaded, put the MD CD back in and press Windows+R to get the run dialogue up. Enter...

Code:

E:\dellkit\rmbr.exe DELL 3 2

...where E is the CD/DVD drive. This is the key stage; the first number is the partition that you want to boot when the Power button is pressed, and the second number is the partition that you want to boot when the MD button is pressed.

27. Remove the CD and shut down XP.

-----------------------that's about it-------------------

Optionally, you can make Ubuntu load without delay by typing this into the terminal:

Code:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

and changing the timeout from "10" to "0"

You will notice that in Ubuntu, the MD button starts the media player, which is quite cool! In XP, the MD button doesn't do anything, but the power button turns the machine off, bypassing the shutdown dialogue. In Ubuntu, the power button brings up the shutdown/logoff dialogue. Choosing the 're-start' option in XP does unfortunately shut down XP and start Ubuntu, but that's not much of a problem.

I mentioned earlier that you can get an app that allows XP to read/write to ext3 partitions. You can get it here. It should be noted that if XP crashes whilst the ext3 partition is mounted, it may damage the data on the shared partition. I'm considering other options; anyone got any recommendations?

Finally, you can make XP look a bit like Vista by using the Zune theme. It's officially Microsoft, and you just download the msi and click on it. Fantastic!

 

Thanks for posting.

 

I have a similar setup in a dual boot vista/xp, thanks for pointing out that the power button in xp doesnt shut down xp correctly, I hadnt spotted that.

 

You're welcome, Chelet.

Mc1, I actually quite like the instant shutdown 'feature', though presumably, if it was pressed accidentally when you were working on something, you might loose your work. One thing I forgot to mention is that re-starting XP causes XP to shut-down and Ubuntu to load, presumably because it's associated with the power button.

 

Re: the problem with the power button not powering down XP properly:

You might like the idea of desktop icons for shutting down or hibernating, which of course you could then have keyboard shortcuts to use ... so ctrl-alt-u could be shutdown... I use ctrl-alt-h to hibernate my main desktop pc.

Well it's easy with PsShutdown:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/miscellaneous/psshutdown.mspx

 

Thanks for bringing that to my attention, Rostok.

The power button does the same as adding "f" to the PsShutdown command: Forces all running applications to exit during the shutdown instead of giving them a chance to gracefully save their data.

I'll have to have a hunt through MS TechNet; I bet there are some cool things in there.

 

Hello, your post is great. But i have some question :

1. what is GRUB, cause i see in the Kossel's "How to boot ubuntu using MediaDirect Button" thread, someone talked about its installation on the partition of Ubuntu, but your post doesn't talk about it.

2. And u sait that if XP want to read/write something on ext3, it requires a application ? But if i want to run XP like my first OS (Ubuntu is just for fun) what must i do ?. --> Dose the option "use as nftf" existe. And Does Ubuntu can read/write on a partition NTFS of windows?

3. Can we merge sda3 20003 MB with sda5 3997 MB ?

Thx for your answers

 

1. GRUB is a bootloader (more info here),a little bit of code which is necessary for the PC to load the OS. Steps 22 and 23 set it up on the Ubuntu partition.

2. If you are going to be using XP most of the time, format the "/home" partition as NTFS. Ubuntu can make/read/write NTFS partitions natively.

3. I think you can, but it is apparently best to keep the swap file separate from the root partition. As there is no benefit from having them share a partition, I would continue to keep them separate.

 

Hello All!


This post is in respect to "Reformat Vista for XP on Dell Vostro 1500" which has been very helpfull to me but i have become stuck.

I have followed your exact steps here:

You can use it to integrate which-ever drivers you want, plus service packs, updates, etc, and customize XP too! (you'll need to be able to burn a CD of the resulting, slipstreamed OS) I'd just stick with integrating the SATA divers though. You can download them at this link. You will need a program like 7zip to extract the files, and then you point nLite to the folder. When it lists the drivers at the location, you want to select BOTH the Intel(R) 82801HEM SATA RAID Controller (Mobile ICH8M-E) and the Intel(R) 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH8M-E/M). Then, burn your ISO onto a disk and you've got your custom version of XP.

But once i get to the stage where i agree to windows and press F8 i reach a blue screen with "setup could not read the CD you inserted, or the CD is not a valid Windows CD. Please insert one of the following products CD's into the CD-ROM drive etc etc etc"

The windows i used in the nlite setup is a legitimate windows professional cd complete with lisence key.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank You

Cesc

 

So, is your problem that you can't burn the ISO image (that nLite creates) onto a CD?