Replace Vista with Unbuntu

[nvening]

Hi,

I currently have XP and vista dual booting.

I want to replace vista with unbuntu however im a bit unsure if grub will overwrite the current boot loader ok? Will it be ok??

also i am going to learn how to use it properly this time

[ikonia]

check wiki in the linux resource thread I posted and it will help you.

that will help you learn

[CrazyMonkey]

Linux installs bugger the Boot table for me (dont allow XP to install)
But as you are clearing Vista it should be ok. When re-installing Unbuntu i would think it would reconfigure your GRUB. Might not may have an option not too.

[ikonia]

what are you talking about ?

Just install ubuntu, put grub on the MBR and configure Grub to boot the correct OS's off the partitions.

[mike_w]

You shouldn't even need to configure GRUB - it should pick up Windows partitions by itself. When it comes to installing XP, I'm pretty sure it will quite happily trample over any partitions it doesn't recognise, as well as GRUB (Windows 2000 certainly does)

[directhex]

Linux installs bugger the Boot table for me (dont allow XP to install)
But as you are clearing Vista it should be ok. When re-installing Unbuntu i would think it would reconfigure your GRUB. Might not may have an option not too.

there's no "boot table". there's a 512 byte sector for the whole drive, then again for each partition. the "MBR" is the one assigned to the whole drive. since 512 bytes isn't enough for more than something trivial, usually the MBR will point to extra data held on a real partition (NTLDR and GRUB for example do this)