If you are in the category trying ambitiously to setup your newly bought DELL XPS M1330 laptop for dual boot with GNU/Linux and ended up screwing up everything and finally Dell MediaDirect stopped working and don't know what to do, probably you've come to the right place, but you have to be ready for one fresh installation.
I bought my DELL XPS M1330 last Monday (15-October-2007) evening with the configuration – Intel Dual Core 2 2.2 GHz, 2GB RAM, 128MB nVidia GeForce Go 8400 GS, 13.3 Ultrasharp WXGA Display with TrueLife Monitory, 160G 5400RPM SATA HDD, Slot-Load DVD+/-RW Drive and some more bla bla components.
I need Vista for my office works which is on .NET Framework 3.5 (WPF, WCF) and GNU/Linux for my personal project in python and QT. Well, due to my carelessness, going ahead with Guided Partition (which behaved in a weird way, never had problem with that for past 2 years) the whole hard drive got allocated to Ubuntu. Not until I completed the installation and restarted, it occurred to me that I don't have Vista and MediaDirect anymore.
Banking on my years of experience with installing operating systems, I decided to re-install Vista and MediaDirect. My hatred towards the manuals made things worst by discarding the warning given in Dell MediaDirect CD. I installed Vista, blew up Ubuntu and MediaDirect, but got close to make it work right. The problem with MediaDirect is that, you cannot install direct from Vista Operating System or the CD itself during the boot. You have to first allocate the space (2G) for MediaDirect by booting with MediaDirect CD and then install the Operating System (Vista for example) and then complete the installation (MediaDirect installation) from the installed Operating System (Vista).
Another annoying thing is that, without setting up MediaDirect, hitting on the MediaDirect button next to power button will end up messing everything (the operating systems) and you'll have to once again re-install everything. But then, I decided to go for clean Install because its 3rd day since I bought this laptop and I am desperate to finish the installations and get to work.
Okay, stories aside, here is what you have to do to make things work. First boot GNU/Linux using Ubuntu Live CD (7.10), format the whole hard drive using GNOME Partition Editor (you can use any other software without booting with Ubuntu Live CD). The reason for me doing this is that during my trail and error basis installation, I messed up my HDD completely and was not detected in Vista Installation or MediaDirect, so I had to use Ubuntu Live CD (what a relief since I thought the HDD is repair).
Now that the partitions are erased and the entire hard drive is available for the installation, you are ready to go ahead with installation. Reboot the system replacing the drive with DELL MediaDirect 3.3. I have to give a note here. If you tried installing Windows XP prior to this, probably you might have disabled AHCI which is a wrong idea for MediaDirect 3.3 (as I have discovered during one of those frustrating moment where I came close to make it work).
Make sure that AHCI is enabled for SATA (to Enable/Disable, press F2 during reboot and enter the BIOS setup, go to On Board Devices section, choose SATA Operation and you will have two choices; Off and Enable) to avoid Blue Screen of Death while trying use MediaDirect by pressing the button and you'll never be able to boot into any of the Operating Systems after that.
Now, while rebooting, press F12 and select DVD-RW as boot device. Boot using MediaDirect, select option 2 when you are presented with 3 options: 1. Use entire hard drive (C:\), 2. Custom allocation and Q. Quit (the menu text varies, but this is what it says).
Enter 60 (calculated in GB) when you are asked to enter the amount of space to be allocated for your Operating System Installation (feel free to allocate the required space according to your need. Since I do most of my work in GNU/Linux and Vista is merely for Visual Studio 2008/SQL Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5, I allotted the minimal space - 60G for Vista). Once you are done, the partitioning starts with MediaDirect allotting extra 2G for MediaDirect operating system. Rest of the space is left unallocated.
When re-starting, remove the MediaDirect CD, replace with the Vista DVD and start Vista Installation in the allotted space for the Operating System (by MediaDirect; the 60G partition for example, the rest of the space apart from 2G for MediaDirect is left unallocated for Ubuntu). Once Vista installation is complete, remove the Operating System DVD, place the Drivers DVD and install the drivers.
Once drivers installation is complete, it's time to install DELL MediaDirect 3.3 (make sure the version is right for your laptop, it’s a blue color disk). Remove the driver DVD, place the MediaDirect disk and wait for the auto run (well, you can run the program directly too). Follow the instruction and complete the installation. Once the installation is complete, eject the disk and select 'MediaDirect' from the Start menu (All Programs) to complete the setup. Shutdown the laptop and now press the Dell MediaDirect button and you'll be able to launch MediaDirect without any problem. To make sure the Vista is intact, exit MediaDirect and login into Vista (reboot).
Now it's time to install Ubuntu. For the first time the guided installation didn't work for me (the first time it replaced the entire Vista). I had to choose manual partition instead. Manual partition is not as scary as it sounds if you know about partitioning and if you are familiar with GNU/Linux. If you are not sure, I suggest you Google some tutorial regarding GNU/Linux mount partitions before start manual partitioning. The good thing about Live CD is that, you can do those reading while installing the operating system.
Boot Ubuntu using the Live CD; and once Ubuntu is ready and running from the Live CD, double click the ‘Install’ on the Desktop. Follow the instructions and just in case, if you decide to go for manual partition for the same reason as mine (bad experience with guided partition), allocate 3G (or 4G) for swap and the rest of the free partition (which we let without allocating during our initial partitioning using MediaDirect) for root (/) with ext3 as filesystem (or your favorite).
Now complete Ubuntu installation following the instructions and at the end it will ask you to reboot removing the Live CD. You can be relaxed since we've completed the dual boot setup. Now it's all routine works (installing applications, video card drivers, etc...).
Don’t bother about whether you'll be able to launch MediaDirect after installing Ubuntu, MediaDirect appears to have no connection with whatever you do with MBR and it launches directly once you press the MediaDirect button on the laptop.
So, now we have completed the Dual Boot with MediaDirect working. Enjoy.
Note: I have read about installing Grub in special partition (taking special care of installing Grub in / alone) in order to make MediaDirect, Windows and Linux work. As for my experience goes (after 5 attempts to install MediaDirect, Windows and Linux), you don't have to do anything special about Grub. Just follow the order which I have mentioned above. It works.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Dual Boot in DELL XPS M1330 with Windows Vista, Ubuntu and Dell MediaDirect 3.3
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
63 comments:
When you do manual partition in Ubuntu, it might give a warning "File system doesnt have expected sizes for windows to like it. Cluster size is 2k (1k expected); number of clusters is 24026 (47959 expected); size of FATs is 94 sectors (18 expected)."
In this case, just ignore the warning and continue since this warning is due to the MediaDirect partition.
Perfect!! this is exactly what i was looking for, lets hope it's as easy as it looks!
Thanks!
Where did you install grub? I have read that it is necessary to install it in the partition which contains root (/) and not in the mbr of the disk, because otherwise media direct will not work anymore. It appears that media direct need a particular mbr to work. Can you confirm this or you put grub in the mbr and media direct still works? I have an Inspiron 1520. Thanks, gabriele bianchi
followed the instructions but i must have missed something along the way it seems im getting a blue screen of death when i boot into the media direct.
Hi Nino, I did receive that blue screen of death when I started my PC once, that problem is due to a possible alteration in the BIOS that you might have disabled AHCI and Memory card modules.
Enable them (or load bios defaults) and then re-install (here i can't help coz just resetting the Bios and rebooting doesn't help. Don't worry about Linux, that's the easiest part. The nightmare part is to make MediaDirect work with both the operating systems.
Hope this works... Strange... there is absolutely no help on how to resolve this MediaDirect issue on DELL. That's why I hate Proprietary Softwares, you have no clue on what's in there and how it works (Unfortunately for office works I have to stick to it).
I've done manual formattation with media direct cd (option 2), then I've installed Vista again etc etc...
Gparted in Ubuntu live cd see only 1.8GB hda hd and 150GB TOTALLY EMPTY on sda hd. Do you really have to restart again and format the hard drive with gparted??
Thankyou
Are you able to boot into Vista?
During Ubuntu installation, Choose manual partition instead of guided or automated partitions. I have explained about Manual partitioning in brief.
I never had this weird problem before. Ubuntu didn't recognize Vista partition (but it did recognize Vista in Grub) during Automated or Guided partition.
You can also check the size of your NTFS partition by mounting it in Live environment if you have any doubts.
Hope this solves the mystery.
Cheers!!!
works brilliantly; ubuntu on extended logical partition (/, swap, /home); grub in mbr recognises vista (as "longhorn"), ubuntu, and media direct (as "xp embedded"); media direct launches directly from button; vista & ubuntu launch from grub
did need to prepartition logical partition with gparted into ext3/swap/ext3 before doing ubuntu install (although that may have been my not using installer to full effectiveness - I felt sure it shouldn't be necessary but couldn't get installer to do it!).
Great! Thanks very much for this. Installed Fedora 8 by partitioning the disk using GParted from the Ubuntu install disk then rebooting to the Fedora 8 install disk.
hola, y si quisiera instalar tambien windows xp? como haria? o mejor, cuando en ese proceso se instalaria?
gracias
Hey evangelist!
What if i wanted to Install a copy of Windows XP pro aswell?
YOur guide looks awesome!! Im dying to try it out!!
Alex
Oh! I forgot, I own a dell XPS 1530, not XPS 1330.. I guess thats not a problem since it came with MediaDirect3.3 aswell.
Dell laptops also come with an utility partition and a restore partition for vista, I guess there's no way one could keep at least the utility partition??
(restore partition installs loads of crap software from dell)
Thanx again evangelist!
The same should be working with Windows XP/MediaDirect on any models as well. Personally I feel keeping the restore partition is a total waste since they install lots of crap-ware while restoring the operating system.
Yeah youre right! crapware!
Thanx for the reply.. I think i didnt make myself totally clear (sorry).
I meant having MediaDirect + Vista + XP Pro + Ubuntu
So, i read somewhere its best, if you want to have vista + xp yo install xp first and then let vista recognize your xp installation, so i guess if i wanted to do the whole MD + vista + xp + ubuntu then I should maybe try
1 installing MD,
2 then xp,
3 vista,
4 then finish MD installation on vista
5 then Ubuntu.
Cheers!
Alex.
Alex, did you get this to work? Please post update. I want to get a dual boot XP/Vista with working Media Direct 3.3. I am not interested in Ubuntu. It sounds like you are going to try to install XP first before Vista, I was thinking the other way around after the MD 3.3 boot cd formats and partitions my hard drive. My only question is if MD creates four partitions (when selecting option 2) (the four partitions created are the Utility partition, the MD partition, the OS partition, and a data partition). So if I install XP or Vista on the OS partition, I would have to install the other OS on the data partition. THere is your four primary partitions. So then how do I get a separate "data" partition for the data shared by Vista & XP??
MD does not create 4 partitions by itself if you select the Option 2. It creates one partition for MediaDirect and the next you can specify the size for the Vista (for ex, 30G) and then start installing Vista in the 30G.
Once Vista and MediaDirect is done (test it by pressing the MediaDirect key before going any further), you can install Windows XP in the remaining space (probably allocate another 20G for Windows XP OS) and once everything is done and the Boot Loader is fixed to boot from both operating systems, you can create a new partition for the data to be shared in NTFS (let’s say 30G is pending unallocated after all the installations) which can be shared by both Vista and XP.
Probably you will have to confirm with someone else about getting the MediaDirect to work by both the operating systems while the OS is already booted.
But I cannot guarantee the success of my suggestions since I didn’t try installing both Windows in same machine for a long time since I didn’t require.
Try Linux in virtual machine if you have any thought about it.
would any 1 be kind to make me copies of all the recovery disks for the m1330 that came with it. i accidently formated my whole drive and i lost my disk.. ty
and i will pay u some money 4 them
nudeloving23@msn.com
Hi, you don't have to worry about the deleted recovery partition as all the softwares comes in separate cd/dvds in the pack. Chill dude...
Or, you can try this option:
https://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/missing_wrong_damaged?~ck=ln&c=us&cs=19&l=en&lnki=0&s=dhs
Thanks for this!
Finally I got it working, after media direct button screwed up my partitions, so I had to make fresh install. :(
Thanks
Marek
Just leave it, Just found the aritcle on opentopix, I heard it was much faster on a windows, compared to the ubuntu
i just posted something about ms vs ubunt, but didnt come out.
Have you experienced MediaDirect wiped out partition table? http://ubuntu.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4030519
You might found this interesting, http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=182495
I am trying to do something even more risky. I want:
1. power button boot vista
2. media directo button boot ubuntu
3. having a vista with 2 "drives" c: for windows, d: for data
If i get that working, i'll let you know... propietary aint the problem... the problem is crappy documentation :(
Excellent summary. Worked like a charm on my new XPS M1530 as well (basically the same machine as the 13")
Can anyone who managed to get this working (including the author) confirm whether they have GRUB installed in the MBR or elsewhere, and if so where?
It stores GRUB in MBR, but you might want to check out the below link to disable the MediaDirect button on DELL XPS M1330.
http://ubuntu.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4030519
Hi! I just got a Dell XPS M1530, intel core duo 2.2ghz, 250GB HD, 3GB RAM.
This is my first Dell machine, so I still don't know what to do about MediaDirect.
Anyway, I am a Linux neophyte and I was thinking of creating three partitions on the hd:
1) ubuntu 7.10
2) vista
3) "data", aka mp3s, videos, pictures, etc... that I could access from both OS and wouldn't be touched if I decided, for example, to downgrade to XP or something.
It's not clear to me whether the procedure that you have described would allow me to do that... Thanks in advance for any hint you can give me.
Hi,
Definitely the above procedure with a minor alteration will allow that.
Follow upto installing Vista and then while installing Linux, instead of allotting the rest of the free space for it, allot about 25% (or whatever required) of the available free space (finish Linux installation) and then format rest of the free space in Vista with NTFS (Gutsy supports NFTS read/write so no worries).
thanks, evsngelist!
I was thinking of allocating roughly 100GB to vista, 50GB to ubuntu and the remaining 100 or so to data.
By the way, do you think MediaDirect is even worth installing?
hi bettasbetta, I personally have never used MediaDirect in the last 6 months and I don't believe I will use it in future either.
I am planning to try out the below URL.
http://ubuntu.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4030519
You can try that too.
i followed the link u posted and read the entire thing... that's some really convoluted stuff, Man!
i think ur procedure is the most straightforward, and i'll follow ur advice and read about manual partitioning before i go for it.
About MD... if the alternative is trying to disable the button altogether (and my understanding is that it doesn't always work), then i'll try to make it work like u did. I take it that now if u hit on the MD button all u get is the MD splash page and then u can boot normally, right?
Thanks again for ur patience. i've had my new xps for three days now and i can't wait to set it up and get to work with it!
hi bettasbetta,
I did try out the dd command link that's in the post, but it didn't work out for me, I tried getting help, but it didn't work out for some weird reason.
I am not sure about others, but i guess disabling the MediaDirect button ain't guarantee to work.
Of course, I didn't try more than twice since I am on few deadlines regarding my work and personal projects, so I decided to try it out another time.
Btw... I completely dumped Vista and installed Windows XP with 15G partition just for office works (Occasionally) and rest for GNU/Linux.
However, I have to try out something later which is still at theoretical stage. First partition using MediaDirect, install Windows XP, Install MediaDirect and then remove Windows XP while installing Ubuntu and thus keeping MediaDirect and Ubuntu alone.
Theoretically it's possible, but I have to try it out some other time. Getting Windows XP Drivers for SD Card, BlueTooth was a hunt literally and finally I've managed to get them. I'll write about installing Windows XP in DELL XPS M1330 in my other blog later some time. (About where to hunt for drivers, etc).
Enjoy XPS... I am waiting for Penryn processor powered next range of Laptops from DELL (Probably around June 2008) :-) Above everything their promise that they'll ensure their machines runs Linux without a glitch makes it an interesting prospect altogether.
thanks for this nice guide !
worked like a charme :)
unfortunately it's the same case for me:
I hardly use media direct & would like to dump vista in favor of windows xp,
if you make any progress on this topic please inform us :)
here's a link with all needed drivers for this laptop & windows xp (sp2):
http://rafanto.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/
windows-xp-sp2-su-dell-xps-1330/
Hi Evangelist!
As a total linux rookie, I'm proud to announce that I have completed the vista/MD/ubuntu dual boot and everything seems to work fine.
The system is currently partitioned as follows:
~30MB dell utilities
~90GB vista
~100GB free space
~20GB ubuntu "/"
~20GB ubuntu "/home"
~2GB ubuntu "swap"
~2GB mediadirect
The 100GB free space is going to be a shared "/data" partition. After reading a lot of threads on the ubuntu forums I have decided to format it as a NTFS partition and to have ubuntu read it using ntfs-3g.
I could really use some good advice because I would hate to mess it up and have to start from scratch now that I've gotten this far into the process!
thanks again
btw, I'm really loving ubuntu!
hi bettasbetta,
Go ahead with NTFS partition as Ubuntu reads/writes NTFS partition without any problem.
Hi,
Firstly thanks for the well documented guide, just what i was looking for having just purchased a M1330.
The problem I have is that when i try to boot he live CD the screen turns off, then 10 mins later informs me that it will run in low-graphics mode, i then select a screen res (1280-800-32) and hit continue. It then turns the screen black for a few mintues before bringing up a prompt.
I have also tried setting the res in the boot menu but it does the same thing.
any ideas what could be happenig?
FYI: im using the amd64 version and i have the WLED screen.
Sorry for the newbie question (and my english), but after following this guide what will happen when I press the MD button after having booted in Vista and in Ubuntu? I already bought my laptop but not received yet, but I'm curious about it...
hi Sohlagger,
Once you've installed MediaDirect, Vista and Ubuntu; if you press Media Button in Ubuntu, Rhythmbox opens and MediaDirect opens under Vista.
Hi Christopher, I am so sorry, I have no answer for your question since I am using 32-bit with Intel processor.
Hello Evangelist,
to my regrets your guide didn't work on my XPS. I strictly followed your instructions but once I pushed the media direct button, Media Direct tried to boot and end up with a bluescreen. After that it seemed to me that power button and MD button have been swapped cause when I hit the power button MD started (and of course crashed) but on the MD button vista boot as nothing has happened.
Can you give me a hint what went wrong?
How important is it to install the drivers first (before finishing MD installation)? And do you may know what role does the Intel matrix storage driver plays in this (shitty) game (because readme talkes about some AHCI Drivers for storage controller and ide/sata drives that have to be installed if not listed in the device manager)?
Thanks a lot for every comment.
lostID
PS: What I didn't say is that I intended to install Vista business instead of the delivered Vista Home Premium, but this should not be the striking point, shouldn't it??
Details:
Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz
250GB
MD v. 3.5
Bios v. A07 (11/09/07)
Hello Evangelist,
Don't bother anymore about my last post.
I found a solution to my problem.
My hint to the audience: Don't create any further partitions during Vista/(XP?) installation. Just set up the two partitions created by the MD install CD.
So, may I didn't follow your instructions strictly enough ;-).
Have a nice day,
LostID
Hello Evangelist,
Don't bother anymore about my last post.
I found a solution to my problem.
My hint to the audience: Don't create any further partitions during Vista/(XP?) installation. Just set up the two partitions created by the MD install CD.
So, may I didn't follow your instructions strictly enough ;-).
Have a nice day,
LostID
Wow, thanks for this article. I just installed XP, Fedora 8, MediaDirect, as well as a 50G shared NTFS partition. Your directions worked great!
Hi, Thanks for the guide, it worked great first time, except for one minor problem - now whenever Vista restarts, it gets a quick blue screen flash and reboots - that will go continuously (assuming I keep selecting vista in the boot choices instead of ubuntu).
It boots fine from off, so I can always just shut down and start instead of restarting. The bsod always comes at the point that the webcam light normally flashes when vista starts up correctly.
I can work around this easily, but any ideas on why this might happen?
Hi, Thanks for the guide, it worked great first time, except for one minor problem - now whenever Vista restarts, it gets a quick blue screen flash and reboots - that will go continuously (assuming I keep selecting vista in the boot choices instead of ubuntu).
It boots fine from off, so I can always just shut down and start instead of restarting. The bsod always comes at the point that the webcam light normally flashes when vista starts up correctly.
I can work around this easily, but any ideas on why this might happen?
I have a question that might save a lot of people time. If you havent messed with this before (e.g. youve had vista and media direct without messing anything up for a while and now want to install ubuntu) wouldnt it be possible to boot the ubuntu live cd and install ubuntu going through manual partitioning to allocate space for ubuntu and go on installing grub etc. without having to reinstall Media Direct and Vista at all?
@ Rick Schumeyer,
so you (kind of) say, omitting vista of this whole process works and doesn't screw your data when pushing the MD button, if the unit is turned off ?
many thanks in advance
Hi Anonymous,
Well, as I have stated in this blog, this is only for those people who tried to be smart like me and messed up Vista (or XP) and GNU/Linux (any distro) along with MediaDirect (erasing the partition) and wish to find out a solution to solve it.
In theory, if you wish to just keep GNU/Linux and MediaDirect alone (for the sake of not messing with partition) without Vista, you can erase the whole vista partition and install GNU/Linux while installing leaving just the MediaDirect partition. I am not sure about this, but just an idea, someone who has already messed up the system can try this and let me know or I will try the next time and let you all know.
Hi steve, I am not sure about your problem. Though I never had any hardware problem with my XPS M1330 (along with Vista though I had to re-install windows vista with windows xp at later stage coz it *@&#ed up my partition), couple of my friends had hardware issues with DELL XPS M1330.
Your problem might solve while re-installing the operating system[s]. But, I am not sure about that.
@kernelOfTruth
Embarassingly, I never tried that, and now that I have, I wish I hadn't!
What did work: I could boot to XP or Fedora ok; while in XP I could press the media direct button, and that was ok.
But apparently pressing the MD button while the power is off was a bad thing to do.
alright guys, just follow stairway27's howto and omit some steps/modify them, that way MediaDirect will work with windows xp
https://stairway27.net/blog/2008/02/23/m1330-quadruple-boot-mediadirect/
I've done similar steps & MediaDirect, Windows XP & Linux (in my case Gentoo) work fine
the crucial step was to switch back to AHCI-mode / keep AHCI-mode, without it MediaDirect takes over the laptop & produces bluescreens without even letting boot anything else ;)
Hi,
Thanks for a good guide. I now have a working Dell XPS1530 with Ubuntu, Vista and MediaDirect. Here is how I did it:
1. Used Vistas partition guide to shrink the main partition (see http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm)
2. Booted with the LiveCD
3. Choose Manual Partition (not guided)
4. Created one ext3 partition for "/" and one swap partition. I set my SWAP to same as my RAM.
5. Finished the install
6. Everything works, including the MediaDirect button
I am a complete beginner when it comes to computers, but thanks to wonderful people like you, who share their computer skills I got through the installation.
// Jonas, SWE
Hi Jonas,
does that mean you didn't have to wipe your harddrive entirely? could you explain where you made the partitions in windows partition editor?
thanks
Laurence
Hi, Jonas did that since he didn't screw up the media direct beforehand. So, if you haven't screwed up MediaDirect yet, you don't have to go for fresh install.
Just boot the live CD, (If you have Vista installed, it has partition tool within, you can use it to make free space for linux or you have to do with live cd), start installation, resize the partition (the windows one, don't ever touch the MediaDirect) and install into the free space that you've just obtained.
For linux partitions, just follow my guide (one for / with ext3 or any file system u like, ram size * 2 for swap and max reqd space for /home).
have fun.
Thanks for the reply, ive been thinking about my install alot, and what i really want is the dual boot with 150 gig for vista, 50 gig for linux and 50 gig for a d: data partition (ntfs). Would the easiest way be to wipe the drive and start from scratch? and if so i take it i can use your guide to achieve this?
thanks
Laurence
Yep... if you are looking for fresh install of everything (Windows, MediaDirect, Linux), then my guide fits perfectly...
Just follow the steps... Have fun...
I found a way to install vlc player in Media Direct.
I would recommend keeping Media direct as it saves battery power when you are say traveling and only want to play videos/songs..
Its easy to install VLC player.. I have posted it here.
Thanks for that tip Milind, I haven't tried it out yet, but will try it out soon.
Hi!
I followed your instruction's all the way until the very end where you became a little unclear about how you installed grub. I decided to create three partitions on the free space between the media-direct partition and the Vista partition. These three logical partitions were; /boot, /swap and / (manual partitioning of course).
I can confirm that on the Dell XPS M1330 which I did this then grub automatically discovered and configured everything, and that Media Direct still works.
Cheers,
Steinard.
Hi Steinard,
You don't have to do anything special for the GRUB as I've mentioned in the foot note of my blog. GNU/Linux takes care of it (as you may have already discovered it).
Cheers.
Rhonald
sorry if i am in the wrong topic. but can you do it with xp/vista/medidirect multiboot? if can pls advice. thanks.
Cheers man! This how-to's ben really helpful, now my media direct button is not an auto-destroy button anymore :)
I'll add that these instructions also apply to MediaDirect 3.5 (I bought my dell on summer 2008 so it came with a newer version of MD) and with Ubuntu Intrepid.
This saved me lots of time fiddling with the annoying media direct partition, whose value is yet to be determined.
Thanks!
William
Thanks for the guide.
I did nearly the same steps you described on my brand new xps M1530 and it worked great.
I have the dell media direct working when i push the home button, grub installed on the mbr, vista on a small partition (40Gb) and a debian 5 system up and running.
I installed Fedora on the M1330. There are some instructions on how to get everything working with Fedora 12 at
http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~hamkins/M1330_fedora_12.html
Post a Comment