Just one note: it is now advisable to use Intel’s iwlwifi driver. It will apparently be merged into the 2.6.24 kernel, but until then you can download the driver and the microcode from http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwlwifi

One suggestion for the howto: Perhaps the first step could be a suggestion that the user make a full image (g4u, Ghost, Acronis, etc) of their drive if possible? This way they have the option to return to back to square one if they bork something?

In fact if I understood right, they were saying the Windows “ext3″ driver is actually ext2, so doesn’t include journaling.

For what it’s worth….

But thanks for the HowTo - gave me some more ideas to chew on!

As an update - my M1330 has been running perfectly under both Gutsy and Vista, aside from the usual Vista specific issues. Vista is truly poor IMO and should not have been released in the state it is in. My first set of essential Vista security updates put the M1330 into a hard reboot loop and I had to repair from the Vista CD.

Given what I know now and with the increased maturity of Ubuntu plus Virtualbox I think I would not have gone dual boot and would just run Gutsy - I spend 90% of my time on that side of the fence and the M1330 is an absolute joy to work with.

I am afraid the media direct button will loose its functionality because it will also start the GRUB. I haven’t followed your instructions, but after playing around a bit I ended up in this situation: If I press the media direct button Media Direct boots, but after a second or so the GRUB also comes up and sort of takes over. I can run Media Direct from within Vista without any trouble..

I am willing to reinstall everything if I end up in the following situation:
- Media Direct Button -> Starts Media Direct (nothing else)
- Power button -> Starts the GRUB loader.

Will this be the case if I follow your instructions?

My thanks in advance!

Hendrik

Ideally they should make the extended partition to some (say 130gb) and again partition that to 2 gb for Media Direct and 128 for vista.
In this case I can simply wipe of the Vista and divide in to two further partition and make dual boot vista, linux (with Media Direct as well)..

Received the laptop yesterday and I must say I was a little shaky when wiping the harddrive clean.. this guide had my heart in its hands there for a while…

After Vista I installed Sabayon Linux, but the installer couldnt find MedaDirect when configuring GRUB so it had to be done manually.

Peace.

For those who were asking about the Dell reinstallation discs from their wiki, don’t bother! The Dell DVD contains a regular Ubuntu live disc as well as a larger set of files to do a factory reinstall of Ubuntu on your M1330. If you want to do a dual/triple boot, then you can’t do it with that disc.

So instead of downloading the 4GB DVD from Dell, go grab the latest Gutsy Gibbon CD image.

Sorry If I make a lot of mistakes, but I’m Spanish and my English isn’t perfect.
My question:

When you arrive to partition editor (Installing Ubuntu) you already have 4 partitions.
Which ones are the logical in your How-To¿?¿ because you have a maximum of 4 primary partitions.

Thanks a lot for making this how to!!!

PS: Dou you know some how-to about installing VirtualBox?, because I’ve already installed it on my PC but I can’t use USB ports in my Virtual Windows XP!!!!!

First time installing Ubuntu and going through the instructions above.
Every time it hangs after this line:

* Running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local) [OK]

Any ideas what might be going wrong?

Thanks,

Greg.

Might be worth burninga fresh copy of the Ubuntu CD in case there’s somtething corrupt on there?

cheers

I don’t remember the primary/logical partitions being a problem during my install, as in I didn’t specify and let the tool decide.

Sorry - can;t help on the virtualbox issue.

‘ta luego!

Thanks again.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-games-33/sims-2-for-linux-or-at-least-binaries-230255/

and for DVDs

http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-play-dvd-under-ubuntu-linux

cheers

I want to intall this “triple boot” on my new 1530, and i got a few questions about it before to try.

1 - should it works fine with openSUSE? or works only with ubuntu? what do you think? ok, dont matter at all, i will try it and check it, but please, give me your opinion .

2 - when you delete de partition sda3 (extended, i think) and make the linux partitions ¿where is the MD after that? ¿did you reserved some site or did you use all the space available to fill it with the linux partitions?? that point it’s very mysterious for me.

3 - and the last question. After installing ubuntu and so…will i able to install codecs and fs-driver in MD ?? i think that is very important to see the videos of my /home partition.

thanks for your efforts!! its a very good work.

P.D: im spanish too, your ” ‘ta luego” was very funny, thats is the real pronunciation we make in Spain!

Ubuntu 8.04 is out on 4/24. Does anyone successful install (dual/triple boot) Ubuntu 8.04 instead of 7.10 ?

Here: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=102227

As far as this triple boot thing goes I lived with it for a few months and yes all worked fine but I found myself hardly ever using both Vista and Dell MD. So yesterday I basically wiped the whole machine and put on 8.04 Hardy Heron as the only OS!

My first Linux distro was a Debian cut many moons ago that fitted on 7 floppies. Since then I’ve tried most distros but I have to say that Ubuntu seem to have got it exactly right and the M1330 could have been built for linux. I run XP in Virtualbox which is perfectly good enough for any .NET projects etc and I am happy to reclaim the drive space ‘wasted’ on Vista and MD.

For those of you trying to replicate a triple boot with 8.04 my first recommendation would be not to - just use Ubuntu only! However if you need Windows and/or MD then I would follow the steps above with a Gutsy CD then just upgrade from within Ubuntu –» Administration –» Update Manager. You’ll end up with a Horny, sorry Hardy Heron triple boot
Juan
1. Not sure - OpenSuse is pretty smart so I would think no problem.
2. I installed MD before changing the partitions then left those alone:

- /dev/sda1 fat16 (this is a Dell MD/boot partition I think)
- /dev/sda2 ntfs (Vista install)
- /dev/sda3 unknown THIS WAS WHERE I CREATED THE UBUNTU PARTITIONS
- /dev/sda6 fat32 (Dell MD partition).

3. Not sure - I didn’t really end up using MD that much.

Nice work man!

I get my m1330 in few weeks. cant wait. its my dream machine.

I think very nice guide! 1 question: i would like to quartro boot with OS X (mac). is it possible? Is so, please update HOW to install it. Is it also possible to share files and stuff between Vista/Ubuntu?osx?

bye

Triple will be enough I think. (if 4 not possible)just leave MD.

WHEN to install OS X? Ho to make it “share” files?

Bye

ty man

great work

Congratulations for the great article.

I followed your suggestion and the triple boot is now working with my XPS m1530.

Thanks a lot,
Maiquel Sampaio

Like to say thanks to this article - it proved very useful & quick - in fact I spent more time looking for documentation from my wireless provider than I did wiping and re-installing the above

Only Problem I’ve had is re-installing the MD, that ran into errors - not sure how much I’d use this facility so didn’t really care when it wasn’t listed in Grub.

Cheers

I didnt get one thing that why you want to wipe off the drive initially ? is there any specific reason ?? bcz my understanding says that we can squeze the drive using vista utility.

Kindly giv some xplanation.

Regards,

As I’ve said a few times since the initial post my M1330 is now only running Ubuntu Hard Ass Heron and is a lot better for it - this notebook is too good for M$.

I want to wipe my M1330 and just run Ubuntu (Hardy) - no Vista, no XP, no mediadirect.

However, I’ve heard reports that pressing the mediadirect button can corrupt the MBR if the mediadirect partition is not present. How have you avoided this situation (if you have)? What’s the best way to set up a nice and simple Ubuntu installation?

Thanks,
Roy

I hadn’t heard this but then again I haven’t pressed the media direct button since I installed Ubuntu only so maybe it’s not a real problem as such? I just did a standard install wiping the entire drive and have not had any issues since, runs like a dream.

Of course now you have brought my attention to the fact my M1330 has a self destruct button it is flashing ‘push me, push me’…. thanks for that!!

If you do find a solution please let us know as I don’t know how much longer I can resist the urge!!

cheers
Daryl

Just got my Dell XPS m1530, and directly started with your tutorial. It worked flawlessly. Many kudos. Thanks again.

Roel Peeters

Thanks for the reply, what about lo-jack ? My reason not to remove vista, is just to keep lo-jack activated on it.

What do you suggest ???

Am thinking of getting a XPS wit the 128GB Solid State Drive for Ubuntu only with MD (or XP) in a Virtual Drive - think it would work?

I bet that SS Drive w/ Linux only would scream.

Thanks!

Hello Darryl.mu,

My story is very similar. Got my new XPS M1330. Love the Dell. Hate the
Vista!!

I completely erased vista and install Ubuntu 8.10. Love it. I need some
help with Dell, Linux based drivers. Everything works perfect except
my DVD/CD driver. Do you have any Dell, Linux , drivers sites??

emailed me Bro_

(well if you consider installing Vista painless)

Just thought I’d share my experiences with setting up triple boot (Ubuntu/Vista/MD) on my XPS M1330…

I read this, but playing around with gparted off a Live CD I realised that maybe I could just resize the Vista partition down a bit so that I could install Ubuntu into the gap without having to also reinstall Media Direct and Vista. Plus I’d get to keep the Dell recovery partition.

Disaster. Utter disaster. After some fiddling I had the hard drive partitioned as I wanted and so I applied the changes and rebooted. Media Direct worked once, but after that any attempt to boot into Vista or Media Direct made it boot into Media Direct and it would crash a short while later with a blue screen. When I tried to boot into a Bart PE to restore an image of the hard drive it also blue screened (?!). Finally I went back to the Ubuntu Live CD and re-ran gparted, which told me that the hard drive was completely unformatted and didn’t even have a partition table. Hmmm.

Now I’m recreating the partition table and following the method you describe. So far so good - the Dell Drivers and Utilities CD is a tedious beast to use though!

Anyway, thanks for putting this write up online Christo