The challenge then is to make the HP notebook dual bootable; make sure as many devices function under Linux as possible and (preferably) virtualise the Windows partition within Linux so that it doesn't become an either/or choice.
Partitions
The first hurdle is the extra partitions that HP create: the HP_Recovery drive and the HP_Tools drive. HP also has a bootable "boot" partition, meaning a total of four primary partitions! You can only have four primary partitions, which means that even blowing away one partition, the fourth would have to be an extended partition. So, one or both of these partitions have to go. Copy the files on the HP_Tools partitions to C:\HP_Tools and blow it away. You gain an immediate 5GB of space there.
Choosing to lose the HP_Recovery partition is a little more difficult. However the gains are worth it. You get back 15.3GB of disk space plus you regain continuity of the file system.
My preferred partitioning setup for a dual boot system is:
P1: NTFS (Windows)
P2: ext4 (Linux boot partition - /boot)
P3: Extended Partition
P4: Unused
EP5: FAT32
EP6: Linux swap partition
EP7: Linux LVM2 partition
The LVM partition is then allocated accordingly to the following mount points:
/ - unlimited
/home - unlimited
/var - limited
/tmp - limited
/sys - limited
This is fairly convoluted, but it fits my style of thinking. If you want to create a single root partition for everything then go for it.
In practice, I have setup the partitions as follows:
P1: NTFS (Boot)
P2: NTFS (Windows)
P3: Extended Partition
P4: ext4 (/)
EP5: Linux Swap
Not ideal and no LVM, however it does put the swap file at the end of the disk and still allows me to dual-boot. I decided not to use LVM because Ubuntu does not offer it as a native option (unlike CentOS and SuSe) and this is a notebook and not a server - I should be able to manage a contiguous file system on it. If I need more space I can always blow away the two NTFS partitions and use that space for /data.
Ubuntu Setup
After partitioning, the setup continues. I run an update and begin installing the additional packages from the software centre. This is a breeze. I find it amazing that Linux has gone from making it difficult to install software to being a complete breeze. Connecting to Ubuntu One cloud and all the files from my previous notebook are restored to this one. I also setup my login for Dropbox and synchronise with conduit. Setup time is quite quick.
I struggle with the Unity interface for a while before switching to Gnome with the Gnome Panel instead of the Gnome Shell. This makes it easy for me to enable compiz for a (real) 3D desktop. My real gripe with 12.04 (and Gnome 3.x and Unity) is that so many many thinks that used to "just work" are now broken. Some of these could probably be fixed easily if the packages were properly maintained and ported to GTK3. I can see why Canonical decided to pursue the Unity interface - it makes a lot of sense in light of the
One of the packages I struggled with is nanny. It seems that GTK3 really breaks this app. It is listed in the 12.04 software respository, however it fails to appear on the Unity dock. This was one of my reasons for moving to Gnome, however even that didn't fix things fully. There is a PPA listed privately to "fix" nanny, however although it allows the nanny-admin-console to run, you cannot make any changes. Ubuntu need to remove nanny from the software centre.
The other struggle I had was with virtualbox. After installing it I realised I hadn't enabled VTx in the BIOS. However, even after making the changes I couldn't run a 64 bit virtualised OS. I installed Vmware workstation and had no problem with it. Since virtualbox bolts into the kernel, I uninstalled virtualbox and re-installed. This time I had no problem with virtualised 64 bit.
Virtualising Windows 7
I tried a variety of methods of p2v'ing the Windows 7 partitions. Most of the methods I found were based on Windows XP, however I also suspect that installing Linux first might have compromised my efforts. Success was achieved by installing the latest version of vmware converter on Windows 7 and running it in standalone mode, but creating a vmdk for vmware workstation 8 on an external HDD. I was then able to create a virtualbox machine that will run the p2v'd workstation. Here's the full procedure:
1) Boot Windows 7. Download vmware converter and install on the Windows 7 machine to be converted.
2) Run the converter and create the vmdk on an external HDD. In my case 64GB was required and it took several hours. Make sure that as part of the conversion process you disable all hardware services - particularly the HP services. Also change the controller emulation to LSI SCSI. Note that if the external drive is FAT32, it will divide the vmdk into chunks.
3) Boot to Linux. Create a new guest OS in virtualbox and connect to the vmdk on the external drive, changing from SATA to SCSI. Edit the settings to make the RAM at least 1024MB. Enable PAE/NX, VT-x and IO APIC. Change the display settings to 128MB of VRAM and enable 3D and 2D acceleration. Change the network adapter from NAT to bridged.
4) Start the Guest OS, allow it to install all the drivers and then reboot. Install guest additions and boot again.
I've tested the vmdk running in both vmware workstation and virtualbox - both work fine. If you don't plan on using virtualbox you can create the vmdk for version 9. I turn off all of the unnecessary stuff in WIn7 to leave a vanilla shell running in 800x600 mode. Since I plan on virtualising the apps, the desktop is unnecessary.
The choice between vmware workstation and virtualbox is a difficult one. Virtualbox is free, but with vmware workstation you can virtualise the applications on the Linux desktop as though they were just another app. The advantages of this are too great to simply ignore. I've also found in testing the two (on the same vm) that vmware workstation is much less memory hungry - only taking the RAM it currently needs. That doesn't seem to be the case with virtualbox as the above trace shows.
Crossover
The last thing to install is crossover. This is the only commercial application I own. It is simply invaluable if you want to run a Windows app on a Linux desktop without emulation. I use this mainly to run Visio - an app for which there is no real competitor.
Conclusion
I now have my workstation working pretty much how I'd like it to be. I can do everything with it now that I used to plus I have access to Windows 7 whenever I need it. The next few weeks should bed down the installation.
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