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A new laptop issued to me is now running a product called "Safeguard Enterprise 5.35 Utimaco Software". Has anyone had success installing Ubuntu in this situation?

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    Our company uses a similar piece of software, and dual boot is explicitly not supported.
    – mpontillo
    Aug 24, 2010 at 5:01
  • I think I'm stuck. But I noticed their is an option on the Utimaco login screen to boot from other media. So will try that tonight.
    – Brian
    Aug 24, 2010 at 17:53
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    By bypassing these restrictions you may be subject to disciplinary action. Aug 24, 2010 at 21:46

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It's your company's laptop not yours. You should probably ask them if they agree to you installing Ubuntu. It's unlikely as they usually have good reasons to run encryption software on it.

There are a couple of compromises: you can likely run Ubuntu inside a VM like Virtualbox and the cryptographic solution will still work.

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You cannot if the mbr is being watched for changes. It will always revert to the old state. You need to turn that specific routine off before installation. You should turn it on afterwards. (Utimaco system password is needed!) Anyway I would not recommend it, thogh it works fine.

Why not boot your Linux from a pendrive instead?

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Have you tried using Wubi? It comes with the Live CD. Just install it via Windows.

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  • yes. It appeared to install successfully and asked me to reboot the PC. But nothing happened. The safeguard login appeared as usual. I typed my credentials in and the PC then loaded windows. No prompt for Ubuntu or anything.
    – Brian
    Aug 24, 2010 at 3:07
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I haven't used that software. Laptop hard disks are pretty cheap. If I had a corporate-issued laptop that I wanted to use to run Ubuntu, but I didn't think I would get meaningful support from the IT department, I'd buy my own hard disk, put their (the corporation's) hard disk in my desk drawer, and then install Ubuntu on my disk. If you ever quit or get fired or have to give the laptop back, take your hard disk out and give them back their (unused) hard disk.

In this circumstance, I'd give some serious though to encrypting either the entire system disk, or at least your home directory, because there's some chance that you will be separated from your laptop at some point in the future, and may have to negotiate (perhaps unsuccessfully) to get control of your hard disk again.

On the other hand, there's probably a reason I'm self-employed.

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