[SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

nepeta · 2013-01-01 12:37:40

smile The three distros are Slackware, OpenSUSE and Crunchbang. I will probably keep Crunchbang and change out the other two periodically. What is the best way to do this?

previous question -> [I've been looking all over the place trying to figure out the best way to multi-boot. (Sorry if this term is incorrect.) So far I've seen so much stuff it's all just kind of turning to scrambled eggs in my head. Delicious, but not making very much sense.
So far I've seen people recommend putting grub on it's own partition and chainloading everything; using one os to control grub, which then chainloads everything else; using symlinks in the config file; and I think just straight up booting them? I'm very confused. 8?
Can somebody recommend a way to do it and give that method's advantages and disadvantages.
I remember something about having to update grub every time the kernel updated and ways to not let that happen but I didn't really understand any of it. It also seemed like grub2 would update itself but people were complaining about their menus getting really long and disorganized. How would things like that be prevented?]

Thanks.

Sorry if I did something incorrectly. I don't have much experience using the forums yet so please let me know.

Last edited by nepeta (2013-01-14 00:40:07)

fatmac · 2013-01-01 13:58:44

I think your question should be :- how do I multi boot distro1 with distro2.
If people know what you are wanting to do, then recommendations can be made.
As you have seen, there are different ways to do different booting.

Kevins4 · 2013-01-01 14:25:54

nepeta

It may depend on what you are trying to accomplish. I use Grub2 with Grub Customizer, a gui interface that is very simple to use and makes organizing, cleaning up menus and setting backgrounds nearly fool proof.
The Grub Customizer project is here https://launchpad.net/grub-customizer/
and
install help is here http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&t=84055
There are other boot loaders, Chameleon for example, though I know little about it. I think grub customizer uses the chainloader method and that is what I learned when I started learning Linux a couple of years ago.
Do set up /boot and /swap partitions separate from the os partitions. I like to set up a separate /home partition also so I can have all document, video, music, etc, files accessible from each os installed without duplication. I like using GParted to manage the partition set up and is should come installed on most distros.
One caveat on installing multiple distros. Some installation screens do not give the option, or you must look carefully for it, of NOT loading Grub in the Master Boot Record. If you have already set up grub with another distro, whatever work you have done will be supplanted by the new os' typical grub install. If you use Grub Customizer it is easy to go back to the distro you installed that with and reset the MBR back to your preferences with a single selection. Also, if multibooting with Windows, it must always be installed first then add Linux distros to your pleasure.
Good luck

ew · 2013-01-01 19:31:14

It doesn`t need to be complicated. This will work with grub2.

Install distro 1. Write grub to MBR.
Install distro 2. Write grub to partition
Install distro 3. Write grub to partition

Boot distro 1 and in terminal run

sudo update-grub

Reboot and the grub-list will show all distros.

That`s it. Not very complicated at all, as long as you use grub2.

When it comes to what partition you should have, I would create the following:

For distro 1 (main distro)
sda1 - /boot - ext 4 - primary partition
sda5 - / - ext 4 - logical
sda6 - /home - ext 4 - logical
sda7 - /swap

Distro 2
sda8 - / - ext 4 - logical

Distro 3
sda9 - / -ext 4 - logical

Other people will recommend other schemes, but I always use a separate boot partition
and have it as my only primary partition. For my main distro I like to have a separate home-partition,
the other distros get just one partition each, and they all share swap.

Last edited by ew (2013-01-01 19:59:28)

nepeta · 2013-01-02 07:33:25

Thanks. I will give it a try. Is /boot necessary? Will I need to do update-grub every time a kernel gets updated and will it make the list really long? How do kernel updates work? Is the old kernel kept until you get rid of it and grub2 just listing all of those? Do the OS's share a kernel? Sorry I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be. I think I will push forward with this or it will take me another week before I get anything done. Is there any benefit to chain loading?

I think I will try what ew said first and if I have any trouble with grub2 then I will try the Grub Customizer.

I think I will partition like this and leave boot out unless necessary for simplicity's sake. How's this?

sda1 - Crunchbang /
sda2 - Shared files
sda5 - OpenSUSE /
sda6 - Slackware /
sda7 - swap

VastOne · 2013-01-02 07:52:44

You can use smxi or kernel-remover to purge the old unwanted kernels.

From your master grub (MBR), you will have to update-grub anytime you install a new kernel to a device other than that one.

So if you had a test distro setup on sda2 and grub MBR master is on sda1 main distro, and you installed Liquorix kernels on the sda2 device to test, you have to boot into the distro on sda1 and update-grub.

nepeta · 2013-01-02 08:01:44

Thanks for clarifying. Is the arrangement of the partitions okay? Does it really matter what order I put them in for Linux?

VastOne · 2013-01-02 08:03:17

Looks perfect to me... Very similar to my setup...

nepeta · 2013-01-14 00:37:35

I got them set up. I just have them installed on their own partitions and ran update-grub and they were all recognized although the titles weren't very detailed and I had to go into the entries to see exactly what they were. I'll probably fix it whenever I get this silly slackware all set up. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be but I'm learning a lot. Thanks again.

Vegetarian Spelling Unit · 2013-01-14 00:44:15

Sounds like a real headache. I just use VMware if I'm in the mood for distrohopping.

nepeta · 2013-01-14 00:48:51

Yeah, I had no idea what I was getting into. I cannot get my wireless set up. I haven't really gotten any further yet either. I hope it's a good learning experience at least.

ew · 2013-01-15 20:35:20

nepeta wrote:

Yeah, I had no idea what I was getting into. I cannot get my wireless set up. I haven't really gotten any further yet either. I hope it's a good learning experience at least.

Isn`t wireless working on any of your installed distros? Do you know what wifi-card you have?

nepeta · 2013-01-17 02:55:29

Is fixed now. NetworkManager was running in Slackware and interfering with manual setup. Have gotten GUI set up too. Wireless works in every distro.

Last edited by nepeta (2013-01-17 02:57:34)

ew · 2013-01-17 12:19:20

nepeta wrote:

Is fixed now. NetworkManager was running in Slackware and interfering with manual setup. Have gotten GUI set up too. Wireless works in every distro.

Happy you got it working. Wireless is the one thing that has to work:)

nepeta · 2013-01-20 14:09:53

Thanks. Now I'm just going to be crazy and re-install it for the lulz. tongue I'm wondering whether I should keep the kde stuff on there or not since I'm using xfce. I guess I could just remove it but it feels cleaner just to redo it since I haven't really done too much with it yet. It should be much easier this time around.

Old Codger · 2013-01-21 19:05:48

I'm looking to do something similar with CrunchBang, Manjaro and Salix. What size hard drive do you have and how did you split up the partitions, megabyte or gigabyte-wise? I have an 80GB drive and was wondering if that would be large enough. CrunchBang will be my main OS for my real day-to-day work, the other two for learning and experimenting.

Codge

dura · 2013-01-21 19:20:29

^To partition your harddrive use sudo gparted from a live usb. 80gb is fine. I'd partition it into 20gb each, but whatever.

Make sure to back up all important files and folders first, just in case.

Do you have a distribution already installed on the machine that you want to keep? If so, we can change the partition table in gparted. Resize the hdd so that you leave space to install the other distributions: click on the partition, right click, then 'move', and change the size. Then click 'Apply'.

Once you have moved the partition table, you will be left with 'Unallocated Space'. Right click on this, click 'New'. Then do the same as before, moving the partition half way, or whatever size you want. 1000mb is a gb. Click 'File system type', and specify 'ext4'. Click on the remaining space, and click 'New', use the remaining space up, leaving 1mb unallocated. Again, specify 'ext4' as the filesystem type.

Click apply.

You now have partitioned your harddrive into 3 partitions. When you install Manjaro, or Salix, specify the correct partition (i.e. something like sda3, sda4 or whatever). Having a look in gparted will tell you which partition is which.

Old Codger · 2013-01-21 20:26:07

I do have CrunchBang already installed using up the whole drive, so I'd like to make room for the other two distros. I don't mind wiping the drive and starting again, I have my /home backed up and other important stuff is on a separate second drive.

I have played with GPartEd, "sliding" the partition borders around and even managed to trash the drive, all part of the learning process I guess. I was wondering if 20GB per distro is overkill or not enough. I won't be storing much in the new /home folders, they're purely for educational purposes, CrunchBang will be my permanent OS.

dura · 2013-01-21 20:48:23

It's up to you really. I think the minimal recommended size for a partition holding an operating system is 12gb or something, giving about 10gb for the system to feel comfortable with. If you are going to use #! for daily work then you could just cut the others down to whatever you want.

If you want to start again, use a live usb to partition your hdd. Click on sda, right click 'delete', then 'new', and partition it into 3. Leave a remaining 1mb unallocated. Format each partition as ext4 filesystem type.

Old Codger · 2013-01-22 03:42:24

What's the purpose of the unallocated 1MB partition?

KrunchTime · 2013-01-25 05:39:28

Kevins4 wrote:

One caveat on installing multiple distros. Some installation screens do not give the option, or you must look carefully for it, of NOT loading Grub in the Master Boot Record. If you have already set up grub with another distro, whatever work you have done will be supplanted by the new os' typical grub install. If you use Grub Customizer it is easy to go back to the distro you installed that with and reset the MBR back to your preferences with a single selection. Also, if multibooting with Windows, it must always be installed first then add Linux distros to your pleasure.
Good luck

Good tip!

KrunchTime · 2013-01-25 05:44:00

Vegetarian Spelling Unit wrote:

Sounds like a real headache. I just use VMware if I'm in the mood for distrohopping.

That's fine if you just want to check out a distro(s). However, others want to run multiple distros for various reasons. Also, running a distro in a VM is not always the same as running it in a true environment.

KrunchTime · 2013-01-25 05:45:42

ew wrote:

When it comes to what partition you should have, I would create the following:
For distro 1 (main distro)
sda1 - /boot - ext 4 - primary partition
sda5 - / - ext 4 - logical
sda6 - /home - ext 4 - logical
sda7 - /swap
Distro 2
sda8 - / - ext 4 - logical
Distro 3
sda9 - / -ext 4 - logical
Other people will recommend other schemes, but I always use a separate boot partition
and have it as my only primary partition. For my main distro I like to have a separate home-partition,
the other distros get just one partition each, and they all share swap.

Why do you use a separate boot partition?

KrunchTime · 2013-01-25 05:47:42

Kevins4 wrote:

I like to set up a separate /home partition also so I can have all document, video, music, etc, files accessible from each os installed without duplication.

Separate /home partition to be shared by all distros? If so, that's not a good idea.

CrunchBang Linux

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#1 2013-01-01 12:37:40

[SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#2 2013-01-01 13:58:44

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#3 2013-01-01 14:25:54

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#4 2013-01-01 19:31:14

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#5 2013-01-02 07:33:25

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#6 2013-01-02 07:52:44

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#7 2013-01-02 08:01:44

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#8 2013-01-02 08:03:17

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#9 2013-01-14 00:37:35

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#10 2013-01-14 00:44:15

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#11 2013-01-14 00:48:51

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#12 2013-01-15 20:35:20

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#13 2013-01-17 02:55:29

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#14 2013-01-17 12:19:20

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#15 2013-01-20 14:09:53

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#16 2013-01-21 19:05:48

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#17 2013-01-21 19:20:29

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#18 2013-01-21 20:26:07

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#19 2013-01-21 20:48:23

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#20 2013-01-22 03:42:24

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#21 2013-01-25 05:39:28

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#22 2013-01-25 05:44:00

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#23 2013-01-25 05:45:42

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

#24 2013-01-25 05:47:42

Re: [SOLVED] How do I boot three Linux distros?

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