Update; After some urging I have succeeded in getting Ubuntu (
ubuntu-14.04-desktop-amd64) and windows 8.1 (
no 8.1.1 update) to play nice together on my Asus sonicmaster laptop…
for what it's worth the build is stable after 1 day of testing so have a solid backup ready or on your own head be it.
Step 1. Have windows (
dual boot in my case) set up as you want it before looking at ubuntu.
Step 2. Make some unallocated blank space… I freed up 20 g by deleting an unwanted recovery drive at the end.
Step 3. Download (
ubuntu-14.04-desktop-amd64) and make it into a bootable usb… I used rufus_v1.4.3 because its free, automatically detects the correct setting for that disc and has never failed me.
Step 4. With the usb in and the bios set to look for it, boot up the laptop to the windows boot manager (
remember that mine is a dual boot) then select other and tell it to boot the usb instead.
Step 5. Ubuntu doesn't detect the windows installs so will incorrectly recommend a standard setup which would bugger my system… pick "do something else" i.e. the bottom one.
Advanced install… select new partition table.
Step 6. Select the free space and make a small swap drive… 1 g is fine.
Step 7. Select the remaining free space and make a normal Linux drive with a mount point of "/" and then point the boot option to this new drive… in effect this tells it to stay more or less self contained.
Finish the install and allow it to restart (
don't forget to remove the usb) and then connect it to the networks if you want the updates… if you don't want windows as default then this is all you have to do but it is worth noting that selecting the windows boot manager from the Ubuntu screen still works perfectly for me so far.
To be clear, this will make Ubuntu the default and windows an optional boot… I would personally then use Acronis to make Ubuntu part of the windows boot screen (
&) or turn it into an virtual drive with hyper-v if I wanted to keep it but that’s un-tested and outside what the op was asking for.