Dual-Boot Debian and Windows 8

The installation will be done on a second hard drive.

If installing on separate hard drives then it will install similarly to a Windows 7 dual boot.

If you need further assistance here is a short walk through.

1. Boot into your bios. normally by hitting the F2 before windows boots

2. Change boot priority so that USB or CD boots first.

3. Disable secure boot save and Reboot

4. Open one time boot menu by hitting F12 repeatedly directly after turning the computer on.

5. Boot your CD or flash drive

6. Start installation and make sure that you install Linux onto the correct Hard disk.

Windows should still remain the default boot choice.

To access Linux after installing you will need to open the one time boot menu(Normally F12 before windows starts) and choose the correct hard drive.

If you would like to boot Linux by default then go into your bios and change the boot priority so that the Hard drive with Linux is first.

Here is the documentation for Debian

Hi Zachary,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. So you are suggesting I install 64-bit PC (“amd64”) architecture on my Intel i7 system? That's the solution to the problem everyone is having installing Debian and Windows 8 dual-boot? Well, when my hard drive arrives I'll give it a try.

Thanks, Jeff

64-Bit architecture is not the solution to the problem, but an i7 should definitely be running 64-Bit.

The problem people have, myself included, with Windows 8 and Linux dual boot is, Windows 8 and Linux's Boot sectors do not get along because Windows 8 does not like sharing. Booting from separate hard drives eliminates that problem. So the solution is in your implementation, you should not have any problems getting your dual boot running.

Let me know how it goes (=

Zach

Still waiting for the hard drive.

Hi Zachary,

I'm installing Debian Wheezy "amd64" on a Toshiba P75-A7200 Laptop. (Intel i7, Intel HD Graphics 4600). It is going to dual-boot with Windows 8.1 on a second hard drive. I did a net-install from DVD using wifi. At the beginning of the install I had to load firmware for the wifi (iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode). No problem, worked fine. The install was for a desktop. After rebooting all I got was a dark screen and a blinking curser that I could do nothing with. I figured it was a graphics driver problem and since I couldn't do anything I decided to re-install (reformatting the drive) without the desktop option selected. This worked well and I was able to boot to either OS. Now I can't seem to connect wifi. If I try to apt-get update, for example, I keep getting messages like can't resolve host...ie. ftp//debian.xxx. I would like to fix this without re-installing. I have searched and found a number of "fixes" but nothing has worked. I made changes to /etc/network/interfaces. I've tried ifconfig to enable my wireless device. I've tried dhclient to get an IP address via dhcp. I could use Ethernet but that's not a fix.

To install Debian I first went into the "bios" and disabled secure boot so I could boot the DVD. After the install the computer would only boot to Win8; no Grub. I found that if I held down the F12 key, for boot options, when starting the computer I could choose the drive Debian is installed on. This worked and as I am the only person using this computer this is OK.

Thanks, Jeff

Can you connect to your WiFi at all? If not i would say its probably a driver. The WiFi driver that is on the Install CD you loaded probably did not transfer its self over.

Hook up the Ethernet and re-install the drivers for the WiFi?

Let me know how that goes!

Zach

Hi Zachary,

I'm logged on with my Debian machine. It's dual-boot with Win8. Here's the long story short. I decided to try installing Debian testing (jessie) to see if more current drivers/firmware were included. First I installed the base system and then Gnome, via Ethernet. In the past I seem to have had better luck installing this way. I used a method of installing a program I hadn't seen before. I found it at https://wiki.debian.org/Gnome. The instructions were: To install it, first make sure that tasksel and aptitude are installed: apt-get install aptitude tasksel

Then, install the gnome task: tasksel install gnome-desktop --new-install

I really don't know if it made a difference but I do know I have a working Debian system with a GUI. Now for the wifi. I downloaded the firmware (firmware-iwlwifi_0.40_all.deb). This file included the firmware I needed for my Intel HD4600 wireless adapter (Intel Wireless 2230 firmware, version 18.168.6.1 iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode), something like that. Ater that I entered the commands to enable the device and enter the essid and passkey and get an ip address from the router. This seemed to work except the wireless wasn't really working; slower than the first dial-up.

After searching some more I found a discussion about disabling 802.11n because this seems to create problems with the speed of the wireless. So I entered the command echo "options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf. This enters "options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1" into the file iwlwifi.conf or creates the file if it doesn't exist. Then I tried to unload and reload the firmware via: sudo modprobe -rfv iwlwifi sudo modprobe -v iwlwifi but got an error message about it being used at the time. Since the file (iwlwifi.conf) now exists I decided to reboot. And there you have it, a working Debian box with a flying wireless. I've got sound, video, and everything. I can even see the windows hard drive and everything on it.

Jeff (The Fool on the Hill)

Hey Jeff Congratulations! Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux!