Ubuntu Installation :: Multiboot 2 Distros On 1 HDD?
Apr 13, 2011
I want to multiboot several Distros for experimental purposes. My main distro is Ubuntu 10.04.Hard drive is partitioned like such: /dev/sda1, grup bios, size = 977 Kib/dev/sda2, file system ext4, size 1.8 Tib, this is mounted on / /dev/sda3 linux swap, 4.3Gib.My question is can I use Gparted to partition a second space out of sda2, and install another Distro? Do I mount it on / ? and will grub boot see both OS without destroying the kernel of my old distro? I am assuming to partition my hard drive I have to unmount it, but can I do this without using a live cd? So many questions and so little help, because apparently this is an easy thing to do.I am just worried just seems that what I just described is too easy and I will probably destroy everything and have to start over.
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Dec 6, 2010
My drive was set as LVM during installation of FC3 and has worked fine, but now i need to upgrade to some newer distro and would like to "try before i buy" one, without losing my current data and functionality (email and browsing). Once i find something that i like, then i would want to use the new distro and still have access to my old data files.
My thoughts were that i needed to somehow create a non-LVM partition in which to download and install the newer distros, but that is scary at the thought of making a mistake and losing everything. And from the success story it appears that is possibly not necessary since he uses only LVM. i tried using WINE a while back and something in the windows program started reformatting/deleting my linux account in /home and i lost everything, so i'm not thinking highly of virtualizations, and i've reverted to "if it ain't broke don't fix it"...
But now all the multimedia requires newer flash, and new flash requires new browser, and new browser wants new kernel, etc... so the time has come to try the new stuff, even though the old stuff works fine. i have a /boot ext2, and the rest is / LVM. i would like to try ubuntu or debian, knoppix, FC?. Most of the info i've found for multiboot has been anti-LVM, so it has not been useful and i'm overwhelmed by all the information. Could someone who used LVM and loaded other distros give me some detailed pointers on how it works and maybe some successful example scripts or partition tables, etc.?
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Jul 24, 2011
Im trying to install a multiboot with multi distros, in this case Slackware and Linux Oracle. I have Slackware running for a while now and try to install it in other partition. Suppose I have Slackware in /dev/hdb and planning to install Oracle Linux in /dev/sda. My plan is:
1.Format /dev/sda
2.Install Oracle Linux in /dev/sda using boot disk
3.Modify lilo.conf
4.Run dual boot
But the problem is during the Oracle Linux boot installation: 1.It doesnt recognize the partition and file format that Slackware did in /dev/sda 2.The installation disk then force me to create another partition for memory swap and root directory 3.At first attempt I created a partition in /dev/sda with RAID format which didnt get recognized by Slackware so that I had it wiped out at the next attempt of installation.4.Just before the process of partitioning /dev/sda, Oracle Linux installer from the boot disk cannot detect my dvd drive although the PC was booted from its very drive (Why?) so It was asking me if I need to point out the location of another copy of the image file, which is located in /dev/sda1. The installer read it from /dev/sda1, I think not from DVD drive. This always happens in all attempts.5.At the end, it cannot finish the process of the installation and I have to abort it, without knowing the reason for it. This happens in all attempts also.
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Aug 25, 2010
Have you ever heard of multibooting many distros from the same partition?
Do you need to find a way to install the new Ubuntu 10.04x LTS into an existing partition as another option to multiboot?
Simple, you don't need to download or install any scripts or executables. read on @
[URL]
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Jun 1, 2010
I am trying to install Ubuntu10.04 on my machine which already has on it, Win XP. Lemme lay down the setup of my machine first of all.
I got a new 320GB HDD of which I have taken 20GB as the primary partition and installed Win XP on it. Took another 220GB as an extended partition for my data storage. Around 63GB was remaining which I left it as unallocated. Decided to try Ubuntu, but preferred to boot it from the windows bootloader. Downloaded and burned the Ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso(have a AMD x3 425 machine) and tried an install on 30GB of the 63 left.
I did not try any partition scheme. I chose the manual partition option, made a 28GB ext4 partition, made it primary, mounted the /, took another 2GB for the swap and proceeded. Chose advanced option and installed grub on the 28GB(/dev/sda6) and completed the installation.
Since no grub was installed, Ubuntu was not available. So then, used the bootpart utility to point grub to the windows bootloader, but it did not work, was giving me error when I chose Ubuntu from the bootmenu modified by the bootpart.
So tried booting with the same install cd, chose Live Ubuntu this time and mounted the 28GB, copied the first 512bytes using dd if=/dev/sda6 of=ubuntu bs=512 count=1 to a usb drive. Rebooted into windows and copied the file to C: and added it to the boot.ini. Rebooted and tried choosing Ubuntu from the boot menu but it does not work. I get a blank screen with the cursor blinking.
The machine is new and BIOS is LBA enabled by auto.
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Aug 4, 2010
I decided to install my 4th OS, centos. I had some problem and I want to share my experience in this case. After several install and a few kernel panic message, I could successfully dual booted with Ubuntu 10.04 and centos5.5.
First: Boot from DVD and I got kernel panic. A bios update solved my problem (MSI).
Second: When I installed centos without grub and after the install when I wanted to boot in I got something like this: Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
After 4 days I found out this:
1. I installed every OS, Ubuntu was the last one.
2. I left an unpartitioned free place for centos
3. I installed centos at last. During centos installation, at partitioning, choose "create custom layout"
4. Choose the free place as / and on the next screen you can choose, do NOT install grub.
5. Reboot > in grub choose Ubuntu 10.04 (in my case centos5 already was listed there, but don't go there), because we need to edit the grub.cfg file in ubuntu
My original grub.cfg file, (centos part) was like this:
menuentry "CentOS release 5.5 (Final) (on /dev/sdb3)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,3)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set bc47e87e-88c6-4756-8f47-361298b23a16
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.el5 root=/dev/sdb3 }
I changed it for this:
menuentry "CentOS release 5.5 (Final) (on /dev/sdb3)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,3)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set bc47e87e-88c6-4756-8f47-361298b23a16
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.el5 root=UUID=bc47e87e-88c6-4756-8f47-361298b23a16
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-194.el5.img }
Save, restart and this time I could boot in to centos. After Ubuntu kernel update, you need to edit grub.cfg again!
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Sep 25, 2010
've been looking for the answer both on the web and this forum but I couldn't find it;How can I put Ubuntu, Encrypted Ubuntu (Luks + LVM), Backtrack and eventually WinXP on the same drive with a Grub2 as a bootloader?I'm a bit confused about partitioning; I suppose that I need only one /boot partition to store the kernel of the encrypted Ubuntu, while the other distros will have their /boot within each partition, like this:
1) 500 Mb; /boot for the encrypted Ubuntu on partition #2
2) 10Gb; Luks + LVM Ubuntu
3) 10Gb; clear Ubuntu (whose /boot is in same partition #3)
4) 2Gb; Backtrack
5) [Win..]
In this case, will the update-grub command find and recognize correctlyll the OSs or should I edit something in the "40_custom" file
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Jun 11, 2009
I have a USB PenDrive (FAT32 file system) that has 2 boot options. Boot option 1 = runs a program that updates my BIOS. Boot option 2 = runs a program that executes a basic hardware test on the PC. I don't need to access any HDD or load any operative system. the pen drive is using a DOS bootstrap (like the one you obtain when you format a device using /s option under DOS).
Can I use an advanced graphical bootloader to accomplish the same thing? It would be nice to have a background bootsplash logo of the company, while the user selects one of the two boot options, using the cursor keys. Just like GRUB...
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Oct 1, 2010
I just got a new netbook and want to install several distro's to play with so would appreciate any advice you have. I have a 160gb drive so was going to dedicate 10gb to each distro and to xpsp3 that is comes with and about 2-4 gb for meego. Here are the distro's i want to install if possible...I am in love with KDE again so starting with Kubuntu
the last 100gb I was wanting for mp3/movies/docs.i was planing on putting the 100gb in NTFS so it could be shared with each OS? Not sure if that is possible or if there is a better solution but i want to be able to access the files from each os - in linux you just mount that partition to access it? and then i would also be able to access it via windows. I am assuming windows cannot see the ext3 file system and/or it is easier to use NTFS?right now xpsp3 is installed so not sure if can back it up via usb or if i can just download a version and burn a cd as i have a key and use WinToFlash to put it on a flash drive or can i just make partitions leaving the xpsp3 install on the netboot?
Any opinions on filesystem / order of installs / how much drive space is ideal per distro / is it even possible for that many os's / which boot loader to use?
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Sep 17, 2010
I have used Ubuntu 8.x before side by side with win XP with absolutely no problems, today I have a windows 7 working great, but it was not enough for me so I've installed winXP on another NTFS partition, and then installed the Ubuntu 8, but the problem is that grub didn't detect windows 7 only detected Ubuntu and win xp ( and win XP under the name "windows Vista" !!). I did rename the win XP thing, not big thing, but there still the main problem of windows seven, it's not detected yet. So what I have done is downloading Ubuntu 10.10 beta and repeated the same thing after deleting the previous partition that Ubuntu 8 was on and created new one and used it. But the problem stays the same.
I have 80 GB - all one partition - windows 7
and 1 TB - 359 GB -storage
-26 GB - windows XP
-26 GB - Ubuntu 10.10
- ~4 or 5 GB - swap
-443 GB - storage
I know it's not organized enough but I couldn't do better using win7 storage management tool So what should I do to make windows 7 detected by grab and bootable, and I really don't want to format any drive,specially win7.
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Jul 28, 2010
I got a PC (32 bit) from my friend that has Fedora & Ubuntu on single HDD. Now I need to install Suse on the same HDD without destroying other distros. What are the prerequisites for this? & how to do this step by step. I'm not sure how the before installation is done?? I'm not sure about grub editing/tweaking. At present installation of SUSE is very important.
Ubuntu 10.04
Fedora 13
OpenSuse 11.3
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Apr 3, 2010
I have a laptop with 250 GB SATA HD that has the following:
Win7 Pro installed first with sda1=system reserved partition, sda2=C: drive, sda5=separate software application programs to differentiate from Windows' Program Files. Ubuntu 9.10 was installed next (sda6=common swap partition for all Linux distros, sda7=Ubuntu root, sda8=Ubuntu home). Then Opensuse 11.2 was installed with sda12=root and sda13=home. Finally FedoraCore11 was installed with sda9=boot, sda10=root and sda11=home. Ubuntu and Suse have grub loader in their own root partitions.
Suse's grub menu controls all OS's. From this grub menu I can select Windows or any other Linuxes. Suse uses legacy grub because it was installed right after Ubuntu 9.10 which uses (legacy) grub.
Here is opensuse's grub menu:
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed Mar 31 11:49:28 EST 2010
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader
default 1
[Code]....
Somehow I also messed up Windows' boot file and boot partition table. Now I am still trying to use Windows installation CD to repair Windows but it has taken several hours and am still waiting for screen response. I cannot boot into any Linux distro either.
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Apr 3, 2010
I am desperately looking for a how to : multiboot. Checked bodhi.zazen's thread, but its totally with reference to GRUB Legacy. I have karmic installed and also vista. wondering if there is a step-wise guide to multiboot with reference to Grub2. I want to add a SUSE, Fedora and Lubuntu, but have no clue as to how. I messed up my comp earlier trying to multiboot so now I just dual-boot Windows Vista and Karmic Koala.
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Aug 18, 2010
I'm having an issue with GRUB, I have four OSes on my hard drive. Here they are in the order I installed them:
Windows 7 (Windows bootloader)
Ubuntu (GRUB 1.97)
YLMF OS (GRUB 2)
Debian (Some ancient bootloader)
(For those of you unfamiliar with it, YLMF OS is an Ubuntu-based distro re-skinned to look like Windows XP. Other than the theme and branding it's exactly the same as Ubuntu) Each time I installed another operating system, it replaced my original bootloader with its own. I made the mistake of installing Debian last, thus leaving me "stranded" with an old version of GRUB. Since at the time I was relatively inexperienced with Linux, I solved the problem by reinstalling Ubuntu, which then replaced the bootloader with GRUB 1.97.
I mainly use YLMF OS, and so when I wanted to change some GRUB menu settings (the default entry, timeout, etc.) I naturally changed the /etc/default/grub file in the YLMF OS partition, not the one in Ubuntu. Once I rebooted I realized that my changes weren't being applied for that reason. Thus my problem is that my computer is using the GRUB that Ubuntu installed, not the one YLMF OS came with. How do I change which version of GRUB is used when I boot up? Yes, I could just change the settings in the Ubuntu partition, but YLMF OS came with the newer/est version of GRUB, so I want to use that instead.
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Sep 9, 2011
I have a triple boot system with Windows XP, Debian Lenny, and Fedora in that order as far as the disk partitions, and Lenny's grub controlling the multiboot. This has worked well for yearsRecently the Debian got corrupted with someependency issues, and I want to install Squeeze inplace of the existing LennyI don't need to save anything from the Lenny). Is this possible, usinga startup install CD for on-line installation of Squeeze over the Lenny partitions, and also without disturbing the Windows and Fedora boots? If it is, are there any manual steps to be taken during
the installation?
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Sep 29, 2010
Just migrating to linux but I don't want to give up linux just yet so I've stuck in a 2nd hard drive to install linux on which I've done, now I have windows on one hard drive and linux on the other but my computer boots straight onto linux. I need the option to choose which os to boot into on startup which I've heard GRUB is the best option but I have no idea how to go about setting this up.
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Aug 23, 2010
I want Truecrypt to ask for password for Windows XP as usual but with the standard [ESC] option, on selecting that, i.e via Escape key, I want it to find the grub for the (unencrypted) Ubuntu install. I've installed Windows XP on the 120Gb hard drive of a Toshiba NB100 netbook then partitioned to make room for Ubuntu 10.04 and installed that after the Windows XP install. When I encrypt Windows XP, Truecrypt will overwrite the grub entry in the master boot record (MBR), I believe (?) and I won't be able to choose between XP and Ubuntu anymore. So I need to restore it back.
My setup:
Partitions:
Windows XP, NTFS (to be encrypted with Truecrypt), 40Gb
/boot (Ext4, 1Gb)
Ubuntu swap, 4Gb
[code]....
The key area of the problem is how to instruct Truecrypt when escape key is pressed, and how the Grub/Ubuntu can be made visible to the truecrypt bootloader to find it, when the esc key is pressed. Also knowing as chaining.
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Aug 18, 2011
I've just created a bootdisk (ssd) with multiples Squasfs images I can choose to boot at the Grub2 menu.No I tried to put the sqfs-images into a ramdisk. Therefore I edited the script '/usr/share/initramfstools/ scripts/ casper'. I used the 'dirty hacks'in the ubuntuforums.org/boottoram howto but I suited them for my needs.Now the Systems stops after the kernel and doesn't find a root system.
The sqfs-image without the modification of the 'casper'-script still boots but doesn't load into ram completely.
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Apr 24, 2010
I dual boot multiple distros of Ubuntu and I'm trying to use my /home from 9.10 for 10.04 also.Is this possible? If not, does anyone know if I can copy sections of my 9.10 Crossover files to my 10.04 /home. Biggest thing is for WoW which takes forever to load each new distro I upgrade to.
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Dec 2, 2010
I have 2 distros installed right now and generally keep the main one and install and look at other distros.My question is this; Can I install a second distro and not let it take over my frub/boot menu and NOT let it control the boot menu? If so how would I do it? I always get confused when I install the second distro when it asks what to do,use / or boot as the option etc...
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Mar 21, 2011
I appologize if this has already been posted but there are 1001 pages here and I did do some searching - I'm just soooo tired by this point. This whole linux thing is starting to lose it's luster. I've never used linux before and wouldn't know how do deal wtih command line anything - whether its understanding what the system generates or entering it.
For the last 3 days I've tried to install, first - xubuntu, then openSuSe, then ubuntu desktop on my desktop unit then to run ubuntu netbook live on my laptop with the intent of doing a permanent install (if I could see I would be able to get everything working right by trying live first).
So I follow the instructons given on the ubuntu site, using the universal usb creator - it tells me that the operation was successful or something like that. So I proceed to 'attempt to' boot from usb but I find out my bios (on the laptop) does not support booting from usb (go figure!). So I go get this thing called PLoP, burn the .iso to a cd, put the cd in my drive and the usb inserted in the computer too and I reboot and enter my boot menu, select to boot from the optical device (my cd with PLoP on it) and use PLoP to select and boot from usb. Ubuntu runs for a bit I get past the logo with the status bar under it, then I get all this techo whatchamo spit out at me on the screen. Don't know what it means, just know it means I won't be enjoyin any Ubuntu tonight. Very sad.
I did manage to type in help and hit enter and in the list of commands given I noticed one that I though was interesting. "exit" So I put in exit and hit enter and it spit out a bunch more stuff at me. I only mention this because that is what is in the pictures I've attached. One pictures is before entering "exit" (on the laptop) and the othe after entering "exit" (on the laptop). There is also one that shows the screen from my desktop (after entering "exit"). I tried to run Ubuntu live one last time on it right after my last laptop fiasco; and, if you notice, some of the same information is given between the desktop and laptop. (matching infromation between the machines is after entering "exit" on both machines).
I attached the pictures and specs on my laptop hoping they may be useful. I've done all I know how and I'm just starting to get really tired here. If I wasn't so sick of Windows I'd have probably given up by now. I just can't bring myself to blame Ubuntu though. I am certain that Ubuntu is fine. Its either, first, user error, or somthing with my machine. Just that Ubuntu says the same thing about both machines. Hope someon can help. Sorry for the long post.
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Feb 19, 2010
My hard disk is :
/dev/sda2 Primary Linux ext3
/dev/sda3 Primary Windows
/dev/sda5 Logical Linux ext3 /boot
/dev/sda6 Logical Swap
/dev/sda7 Logical Linux Ext3 /home
/dev/sda8 Logical Linux ext3 /
[Code]...
After this install I wished to try out Backtrack 4 which I installed on /dev/sda2. The version of GRUB which was installed with Ubuntu 9.10 got wiped out and the version of GRUB with backtrack was installed . However the menu did not consist of the Ubuntu 9.10 booting option . How should I edit menu.lst so that I can get all my Ubuntu 9.10 booting option along with my backtrack installation
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Sep 12, 2010
I know it's possible to to have multiple distros on one hard disk, and set it up so you can just have one /home partition and use it for all of the distros on that system. My question is, how efficient is that? Does it bloat the /home out with a whole bunch of stuff that might slow a particular distro down because it's filled with stuff from another? (I.e configs). And let's say I have two distros that are of different bases, say ubuntu and arch, does this make a difference? I know obviously that my personal files will all be accessible and not matter which distro they are being read from, but I'm talking more about the hidden stuff.
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Dec 15, 2010
I dual booted Karmic on my old laptop. I just received my new machine, Envy 17 with a 160 GB SSD and a 640 GB hard drive with Windows 7 pre-installed. I want to multiboot Windows, Maverick and the CAElinux distro, on the SSD I am thinking. I am in the process of searching the forums in regards to partitioning strategies and hints to smooth the installs.
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Jun 21, 2011
I currently am in an adventurous phase and want to try other distros while still having a reliable, stable Ubuntu installation to fall back on. I'm currently in the process of partitioning my disks, and I realized that I might have trouble booting them, as the most recently installed would control GRUB and clobber any previous GRUB setup. So what I want to know is how to go about managing everything so that only one distro, preferably Ubuntu, has control of the GRUB menu at boot up, and will still recognize the other distros on other partitions.
I plan to have three 15GB root partitions, one swap, and one home partition for each distro.
Would I create a /boot for each distro? Or create one /boot with files from each distro copied there? Or should I do something else entirely?
I just don't want the distros to interfere with each other. Also, I don't want to use VMs for this, because I want to see what a real full-performance install is like for each distro.
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Feb 13, 2010
Do you know where I can find old debian distros like 2.0?
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Apr 27, 2010
how to dual boot off of a usb. I am trying to learn to do them manually. What i do know is that i need a GRUB, and a splash screen of chuck norris., 2 ISO's, my usb is 16 GB FAT 32, grubbed up.
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Aug 8, 2010
How is this supposed to work out? I noticed some distros are really good about recognizing your other linux distros and some not. They keep recognizing windows, but not other linux distros. Also, I have run into a few problems when my operating systems were on different hard drives. I have my operating systems running from a small 250gb laptop hard drive with special mounting and am using my TB hard drive for internal storage /data.However, my last attempt at installing a linux partition on the TB hard drive with Windows and another linux partition on the laptop hard drive didnt work out so well. Updating grub via the command line didnt sort this out. Sudo su root Apt-get update grub (or grub update) or whatever didnt work before when I tried it.
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Oct 31, 2010
With the startup disk creator on Ubuntu (Currently running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS) I realised you could boot Ubuntu from a USB and then install it onto the HDD if you wish to. *Side note* Still amazes me you can run a whole operating system from a USB memory stick drive *End Side note* Now My question is: 'Is it possible to have multiple distros of Linux on a USB memory stick and choose which one you wish to boot from when you boot up the computer?'I was hoping to get a seagate portable HDD ((here) and load quite a few different Linux distros on it to get a broader view of Linux than just Ubuntu (Although Ubuntu does rock ).
Is there simple ways of doing this? I have read around this forum and Google and a suggestion was given to install all of the distros onto the portable HDD/ USB memory stick and then install Ubuntu onto it last as its good for picking up other OSes in its GRUB. (Again if my idea on GRUB and its workings are wrong please point it out - got to keep learning)
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Jan 22, 2011
i decided to build a home server on an AMD64 (buyed some years ago) for file storage, printer sharing and something else... I've searched a lot for "the best distros for server" and discarding extreme solution (like command line only) what remains is: Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian
Now the problem: how to install more than one distros on the same hdd? what i know is that i need a bootloader (grub/lilo) and partitions for boot,swap, and remaining space will be split for the distro itself.
I think is a good idea to have a partition only for files (/data) that all distros can access, but for sure i'd like to have one /root and one /home partitions each distro!
I can't understand if the correct way is first of all to install a distro (let's say ubuntu), then set up everything such as partitions and bootloader and then install other distros. I'd like to know if it is possible to manage dinamycally the space reserved for distros, so i'll be able to install 2,3,4,5...distros with no problems.
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