How to dual-boot Linux Mint Debian Edition

and Windows 7
This is the latest article in the series on dual-booting Linux and BSD desktop distributions with
Windows 7. And this one provides step-by-step directions on how to dual-boot Linux Mint
Debian Edition (LMDE) with Windows 7 on a computer with a single hard drive. LMDE is the
branch of Linux Mint that is based on Debian, rather than on Ubuntu.

If attempting to dual-boot a distribution with Windows 7, it is highly recommended that you try
as much as possible to keep them completely isolated. And if installation is on a single hard
drive, that means letting the Windows 7 boot manager be responsible for dual-booting such
that when you restart the computer, the Windows boot menu will look just like the one below.

Following the recommended method, LMDE’s bootloader, GRUB, will be installed in the boot
partition of the LMDE installation. Setting up dual-booting in this manner ensures that neither
OS will interfere with the other’s boot programs when it comes time to upgrade.
The directions provided in this tutorial presents specific instructions on how to make space for
LMDE when installing Windows 7 anew, or when installing on a computer with an existing
installation of Windows 7.

Let’s start with the case where LMDE is going to be installed on a disk with an existing
installation of Windows 7. If you want to install Windows anew, just scroll down to that section.

Existing Installation of Windows 7: If your computer has an existing installation of Windows 7,

The first step is to boot into Windows 7, and type diskmgmt.msc or partitions in the menu’s
search field. The Disk Management tool, shown below, will open. In the example used in this
tutorial, there are just two disk partitions. The data partition, drive C, is what we can shrink to
make space for LMDE. To have Windows shrink it, right click on drive C and select “Shrink
Volume…”

The system will then present the best option for you. Unless you know what you are doing, stick
with this option. Windows has already determined by how much it can shrink the partition
without blowing itself up. In this example, drive C is about 100 GB, and Windows has freed up
about half, or about 50 GB. That half will be used to install LMDE. Click on Shrink.

Here is the result of the surgery Windows 7 just performed. You can see that there are now
three partitions, where there used to be just two. The freed up space is shown as the
“unallocated” partition. Exit the Disk Management tool, insert an LMDE installation DVD in the
optical drive and reboot the computer. Scroll down to the section on Installing LMDE Alongside
Windows 7 to continue with the second stage of this tutorial.

New Installation of Windows 7: Boot the computer from the Windows 7 installation CD and
click to the disk partitioning step. If the hard drive is not partitioned, that is, if it is a new disk,
the image below represents what you will see. If there are existing partitions on the disk and
you want to overwrite their contents, select each one and click on Delete. Note: The Delete
button is visible only after you click on Drive options (advanced).

Now, you will have to determine how much space to use for Windows 7, and how much for
LMDE. This segment of the tutorial was carried out in a virtual environment with about 100 GB
of disk space, and I chose to use half for Windows 7 and the other half for LMDE.
Here is the same step after changing the disk size to my specification. Click on Apply.

By default, the Windows 7 installer will create two partitions as shown. Partition 2 is the main
Windows 7 partition, and that is what has to be selected before clicking Next. The free space
where LMDE will be installed is shown as Unallocated Space. Click Next.
After Windows 7 installation is completed, boot the computer from the LMDE installation DVD.

Whether you installed Windows 7 anew or just freed up space from an existing installation of
Windows 7, you are now ready to install LMDE alongside Windows 7.

Installing LMDE Alongside Windows 7: After installing Windows 7, or after freeing up space on
a disk with an existing installation of Windows 7, boot the computer from the LMDE installation
DVD. Click until you get to the disk partitioning step. Unlike the Linux Mint installer, LMDE’s
installer does not have an automatic disk partitioning option; disk partitioning must be done
manually. Click on the Edit Partitions button to start.

GParted is the application used for disk partitioning. Select the unallocated space and click on
the create new partition button.

Note: When installing LMDE or any other Linux distribution, it is recommended that four
partitions be created for the following file system directories:

 /boot – This should always be the first partition created on the Linux side of the
installation. It is where boot-related files will be located.
 Swap – Unformated space used by the system as virtual memory
 / – The root directory. This is where almost every thing needed to run the system will be
installed. Unless a separate partition is created for them, the other major file system
directories, like /usr, /opt, /tmp, /var and /usr, will be located under /.
 /home – Your home directory will be located here. When you are logged in to the
system, files and folders that you create will be, by default, in your home folder under
/home.
This is what the new partition creation window looks like. Notice that by default, GParted will
want to create this partition as a primary partition. Because the system allows us to create a
maximum of four primary partitions and because we intend to create four partitions just for
LMDE, it becomes necessary to create this as an extended partition. An extended partition
makes it possible to create many more partitions under it than the traditional maximum of four.
The thing to remember is that the partitions created under the extended partition are known as
logical partitions.

Numbering of logical partitions starts at 5, and as we will see further down, the first logical
partition will always be /dev/sda5, even when the extended partition it is created under is
/dev/sda3.

To create the extended partition, the only change you need to make here is to select “Extended
Partition” from the “Create as” dropdown menu. Add.
Select the unallocated space under the newly created extended partition, and click on the new
partition button to start creating logical partitions.

Our first partition, which will be /dev/sda5, will be mounted as /boot, and is where boot-
related programs will be installed. On a new installation of LMDE, only about 15 MB of the
space allocated to this partition is used. Note that as the kernel is upgraded, the space used
here will grow. So if you intend to use this installation for a long time, try to allocate as much as
you can afford to. 500 MB is now the norm. For file system, you may select ext2 or a journaling
file system except btrfs. Add.

The second partition will be used for swap, which is the space that will be used as virtual
memory. Most distributions, depending on available disk space, tend to allocate about 2 GB to
it, which is the size allocated in this example. Add.

The third partition will be mounted at /, the root file system. This is where almost everything
will be installed. How much space should you then allocate to it? For guidance, a new
installation of LMDE takes up less than 3 GB of disk space. Therefore, anything more than 3 GB
should be enough. If you have disk space to spare, be generous and allocate 6 GB to 10 GB.
Add.

The last partition, which should be allocated all the available disk space, will be mounted at
/home. Add.
After all the partitions have been created, click on the arrow as shown to apply the changes.
Then exit from GParted.

Back on the main installation window, click on the Refresh button to see the new partitions. For
each LMDE partition, double click on it or right click and select Edit from the context menu. The
task is to set the mount point and file system.

This is the “Edit Partition” window. For the boot partition, be sure to select /boot as the mount
point. For the file system, you may select ext2, as in this example, or ext3 or ext4. For the root
and home partitions, /dev/sda7 and /dev/sda8, the mount points must be / and /home
respectively, and the file system can be any available journaling file system except btrfs. Keep in
mind that Ext4 is the default on virtually all Linux distributions. Do not format the swap
partition, just mount it as swap.
If you are satisfied that the mount points and file systems types have been selected, click
Forward to continue with the rest of the installation.

By default, the installer installs GRUB, the boot loader, on the Master Boot Record of the hard
disk. Because of the recommendation made at the start of this article, we want to install GRUB
in the boot partition of the LMDE installation. In the scheme used in this tutorial, the boot
partition is /dev/sda5, the first logical partition. Select it from the dropdown menu and click
Forward.

After installation of LMDE is completed, the system will reboot into Windows 7, and that is
because Windows is not aware that it now shares the hard drive with another OS. The final task
then is to add an entry for LMDE in Windows’ boot menu. The easiest method of doing that is
to use EasyBCD, a proprietary but free application from NeoSmart Technologies. So, download
EasyBCD, install and launch it. Click on the Add New Entry tab, then click on the Linux/BSD tab.
From the Type dropdown menu, select “GRUB 2″ (LMDE uses GRUB 2 as its boot loader). Click
“Add Entry” button, then on the Edit Boot Menu tab.
By default, Windows 7 will be booted first, but you may change that to LMDE. If you make any
changes here, click on Save Settings before exiting EasyBCD.
On every reboot, you will get this.
And if you select LMDE, you will get this. If for any reason you change your mind, you can still
boot into Windows from here by selecting the Windows 7 entry.