Dual booting windows 7 64 ultimate and Ubuntu 14.04 lts on an OptimusV

[TheGSL]

I have an Optimus V, i7 240 cpu and 765gtx gpu, had it for about 11 months now, 4 gb ram.

I have recently binned w 8.1 64 bit off and now dual boot.

I am using w 7 64 bit ultimate and ubuntu 14.04 lts.

Installed w7 first, it has a slipstreamed sp1.

Before I updated it I installed ubuntu.

This was onto a 60gb ssd hd.

30 gig partition for w7.

26 gig for unbuntu.

The recommendation is to install w7 first, then install ubuntu, so that you can keep them separate
bootloader wise, which is what I did.

Ubuntu install very easy, I wasn't bothered about setting up other partitions, so it will do everything
for you, and then when you next boot it goes into grub, and you can select either ubuntu or windows 7.

Worked perfectly, ubuntu installed correctly everything for the optimus, and works 100% out of the box
really.

w7 still doesn't install the usb 3 drivers properly, so had the usual farce getting them to work, but sorted
it in the end when I finally tracked the right drivers down from intel.

In fairness, ubuntu was updated last in July - w7 was released in 2009, so I can cut it some slight slack.

In all, absolutely pain free really, ubuntu looks lovely on the laptop and works very well, and comes with
virtually everything initially you might need, just a few downloads here and there, but it is well integrated.
If you are thinking of trying linux and want an easy dual boot install then I recommend it. Just make sure
your windows os is already installed, and if necessary you could make more space on your os hd by shrinking
the windows installation in order to install a linux flavour. It only needs about 5 gig or so to install on the optimus
for ubuntu, some are even smaller.

Hope this is of interest / help.

 

[Joey]

Thanks for sharing. I was wondering dual boot install would work with win7 (last did that with winxp).

Although, I'm now running w7 in a virutalbox, I'm still not sure what the benefits for me would be to move to dual boot. I use win mainly for work and if at any point I let myself be sidetracked I move a screen to the left (literally sidetracked, so ), into my own desktop. Home sweet home.

J

 

[TheGSL]

Just as a quick update to the above, it is possible to use the intel gpu in order to save power in ubuntu,
just go into nvidia-settings from either the prompt or the search box, and select use intel gpu from the prime
heading.

Logout - back in, intel gpu now used. If you want to use the nvidia gpu, same process in reverse, or use a utility.

At least Nvidia Optimus can be used in this way, even if it is by hand.

Glad it was of interest. If people made the latest games for linux then windows would be half dead in
the water.

 

[Wozza63]

Win7 still receives all updates for drivers and compatibility issues, release date is irrelevant. Windows always seems to have an issue with one driver. I'm glad it went ok, I have a triple boot with W8.1, Xubuntu and Mint. But its a pain to get into the Linux OSs due to W8s terrible locked BIOS stuff.

 

[TheGSL]

Do you use UEFI in the bios? Is that what you mean?

If so turn it off, unless you need it, it's always been disabled in my bios.

 

[Wozza63]

Yeah, but for some reason when I try to get back in to W8.1 it moans. I haven't done it in a while so can't remember exactly what happens. Perhaps its because I'm on the developer version of W8.1 idk.

 

[TheGSL]

As I recollect, if it was on (uefi) when you installed w8.1, then you would need to turn it off in the bios
then do a fresh install, one of the reasons for uefi as I understand is the security of the os, your installation
of 8.1 is locked to the uefi whilst it is turned on.

You could try looking around the internet to see if there is a way around it, but otherwise if you can do a
fresh install then the above would work so far as I know. I've never had the uefi turned on in my optimus,
really unecessary for me, but someone working in certain areas might need that level of security.