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Tag Archives: windows 7


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Boot Linux using Windows 7 boot loader

Windows 7 and Linux live together on the same hard disk in perfect harmony. I had Windows 7 installed first, and a few GBytes of free space at the end of the hard drive which I left unpartitioned. Here is how to install Ubuntu:

  1. Download Ubuntu and burn the ISO on a CD.
  2. Boot from the CD, and install it. Make sure that you choose an empty partition, and also make sure that you select to install the boot loader on the Linux partition (example: on “/dev/sda3”, and not on the main MBR “/dev/sda”).

Until here you have an Ubuntu installation which you cannot boot, yet.

Here is how to configure the Windows 7 boot loader to include Ubuntu in the boot choice menu:

  1. Download EasyBCD and install it. EasyBCD is free for non-commercial use and offers a nice GUI to edit the Windows 7 boot loader menu.
  2. Do the following in EasyBCD — Add New Entry -> Operating Systems -> Linux/BSD:
    • Type: GRUB 2
    • Name: Ubuntu
    • Device: (Automatically configured)
  3. Finally, click on “View Settings” in EasyBCD. You should see something similar to the following:

    Entry #2
    Name: Ubuntu
    BCD ID: {1d486d61-64cc-12a5-7d94-af2f5df01535}
    Drive: C:\
    Bootloader Path: \NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr

EasyBCD ships the “stage1” boot loader of GRUB2 (\NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr), so you don’t have to do anything else. Just reboot your Windows 7, and the boot menu should present a choice between “Windows 7” and “Ubuntu”.

A note of caution: It is highly recommended that you do a backup of your whole hard disk before you try to install Ubuntu or modify the boot loader options.

P.S. There is no “boot.ini” in Windows 7. You could modify “boot.ini” in Windows XP to achieve the same result, but this does not apply for Windows 7.

References:


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KVM-Qemu Virtio storage and network drivers for 32-bit/64-bit Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2000

…bundled as ISO images, so that you can easily mount and use them in a KVM guest.

UPDATE: It seems that Fedora started to provide the latest drivers bundled as an ISO. Check the official Windows VirtIO Drivers page for links.

Download locations follow:

These are static ISO images, and I’ve built them by downloading the ZIP sources dated 24.09.2009 from the official WindowsGuestDrivers KVM page and then converting them to ISO image files by using K3b.

Note that Virtio provides noticeably faster disk and network access.

Please review the official page of Virtio for sample KVM command line arguments which set up Virtio storage and network devices. You may notice that there is an (undocumented) parameter “boot=on” specified for the “-drive” option. This “boot=on” parameter is vital for the “-drive” option, or else Windows 7 won’t like your drive and won’t install on it.

Note about Virtio storage drives and the Windows 7 installer
I was able to install Windows 7 right from the start by using a Virtio storage drive within the KVM guest. At first the Windows installer didn’t see the Virtio disk at all but there is an option to install additional storage drivers. I installed the Virtio Windows drivers from the above ISO images, the Windows installer detected the Virtio storage disk properly and everything went quite smooth afterwards.

Resources: