Installing Xubuntu Dual Boot with Windows (11) on Toshiba Dynabook R734/K Laptop

Xubuntu is an Ubuntu-based Linux distro featuring the robust, customizable, yet lighweight desktop environment XFCE. Now on this post I want to share my experience installing Xubuntu and dual booting it alongside Windows 11 on my Toshiba Dynabook R734/K laptop.

Licosha — Oh linux world is so vast, there are just too many choices of GNU Not Unix/Linux OS or Linux distro out there to explore. And now my journey on exploring Linux distros is arrived on another Ubuntu-based Linux distro, one of Ubuntu official flavor, it is Xubuntu.

I started interested to Xubuntu because how it is said to be lighweight, mainly because it is using XFCE desktop environment, probably. Anything sounds lighweight, is what I looking for because I will use it on my old laptop (while “old” here is an unclear term) Dynabook R734/K.

So, the power and advantage of Ubuntu backed by it’s community and user base while still being lighweight on system resource usage, yet very customizable thanks to the mature XFCE environment, are the main points made me want to try Xubuntu and dual boot it alongside the already installed Windows 11 on my Dynabook R734/K laptop.

Steps installing Xubuntu – dual boot with Windows (11) (example on Dynabook R734/K laptop)

Xubuntu desktop overview on my Dynabook R734/K laptop

Xubuntu version: 22.04.
installed OS: Windows 11.
media booting method: Ventoy.
device: Toshiba Dynabook R734/K

Steps:

Download Xubuntu OS image from the official download page: xubuntu.org/download/
Prepare the Xubuntu installation media. Here I am using Ventoy to make the Xubuntu iso image to become a bootable media.
[Recommended] Prepare new empty partition on our laptop’s hard drive where the Xubuntu will be installed. For example we can use built-in tool on Windows “Disk Info” to easily split and make a new partiton on our hard drive. Usually the partition for a Linux distro should have a size around ±40 GB or more recommended. Give the new partition a proper label like “Xubuntu” or something like that so we can easily distinguish it.
It’s a good idea to disconnect all external devices especially storage devices before hand to ease the installation process (avoiding formatting/erasing mistakes).
Enter Dynabook R734/K “Boot Menu” (BIOS menu): Restart laptop, then when the power LED turned on (but the screen not turned on yet), repeatedly press the F12 key until it entered the boot menu/BIOS menu.
Now we are in the BIOS Boot Menu. If we haven’t plugged in the Xubuntu installation media (e.g. USB storage stick), now is the time.
The installation media drive should be detected in the Boot Menu list, we can just select it to directly boot into it (In my case here, to the Ventoy boot menu). Alternatively, we can adjust the boot menu to prioritize the installation media so it can boot it automatically if the installation media is detected when we restart the laptop by setting it:
1. On the Boot Menu main menu, choose “Enter Setup”.
2. On the side menu, choose “Advanced”, scroll down and choose → “Change Boot Order”.
3. For example here I use a USB storage stick where Ventoy and the Xubuntu iso image is in, so make “USB Memory” at the top of the “Boot Priority Options”. Don’t forget to click “OK”.
4. On the side menu, choose “Exit” → “Exit Saving Changes”.
Now in Ventoy boot menu, first we might want to switch to “GRUB2 Mode” (increase compatibility in booting Linux images), press Ctrl+R to switch to GRUB2 Mode. Next, just choose the Xubuntu iso image to boot the Xubuntu OS live media.
On the Xubuntu OS live media GRUB menu, choose “Try or Install Xubuntu” to boot into Xubuntu live image environment.
Now we are on the desktop of Xubuntu live image environment. Click “Install Xubuntu” to begin the installation process of Xubuntu, or “Try Xubuntu” to try Xubuntu on the live image environment first and later we can bring back the installation window from the “Install Xubuntu…” shortcut on the desktop.
Next proceed to Xubuntu installation wizard UI. Choose language → keyboard layout → connect to network (optional) → apps install preference (full or minimal), whether to allow install third party software option (recommended enabled).
On the “Installation type”, because I have prepared the partition where Xubuntu I want to install to, choose “Something else” so I can pick the partition manually.
Next the partition list window will appears. On the “Device for bootloader installation”, typically this should be the root of our PC main hard drive, that is /dev/sda.
Then on the partition list table, right click the partition we want to use where Xubuntu will be installed, and click “Change”. On the “Use as” input, select “Ext4 journaling file system”. Tick the “Format the partition” checkbox. On the “Mount point” input, select /, then click “OK” button below it to confirm the partition settings.
Next reselect the partition on the partition list table by left click it, then click “Install Now” button on the bottom menu to start installing Xubuntu to the partition.
Proceed with configuring time zone, user profile, and wait until the installation done. After the installation done, we can restart our PC and the next time we restart it there will GRUB bootloader menu allow us to choose what OS to boot, the (X)Ubuntu or Windows (or other OS if you use it :D).

This tutorial may also be the same whether we have another Windows version installed like Windows 7, 8.1, etc., and/or with another Ubuntu-based Linux distros (and maybe most Debian-based Linux distros), though maybe there will be minor differences only in the OS installation wizard UI.