Booting Multiple Linux Systems

Is it possible to Dual / Triple / Quadruple Boot more than one Linux system. -- In theory it ought to be but how do you get round the problem of having different Root partitions ( /) .

When you partition the disk what do you call them ( the ROOT partitions) -- or even if you've got multiple disks how do you set it up.


Thanks.

I tried a multiboot with Fedora Core 2, SuSE Personal and Windows XP. I was able to boot to SuSE and WinXP. I think, I need to add Fedora image to my GRUB to get it working.

When installing fedora I opted not to create any boot loaders. Strange, but Fedora didn't gave me any option to create a boot floppy. Anyway I managed to boot to Fedora using SuSE boot disc.

On my test PC, while installing Fedora I just created a / partition only. I'm using swap same one that SuSE uses.

Well, I'm also expecting for a techno kind of talk about multiboot.

Regards

You are able to boot multiple systems. I had Debian, Slackware and EvilEntity installed on a test machine a little while ago before I blew out the install.

Moved to General Qeustions

Hello -- thanks for the replies.

I suppose when installing system 2 whether it's Mandrake or another version of SUSE then if I'm using just 1 root partition for each system then I just set the bootloader to choose which partition(s) to boot and ensure the relevant FSTAB has the right entries in it. I assume if I make the HOME directory on a separate partition I can share that on all bootable systems assuming the data format is the same (reiserfs). However it's what to put into the bootloader that I'm having difficulties with.

My Partitions are /hda1 -- Windows XP OS
/hda2 --Windows'D' Drive data NTFS Read only for Linux
/hda3 -- WINDOWS 'E' FAT32 Read / Write Share with Linux
/hda5 -- SUSE 9.1
/hda6 -- swap
/hda7 -- homes / general data etc etc.
/ hda8 -- SUSE 9.0

Boot on /hda in MBR (I've a backup if MBR gets screwed -- Use Windows(ugh) recovery console with FIXMBR).

After SUSE 9.1 installed there's no reference at all to SUSE 9.0 -- but the system is still there.
Using the SUSE 9.0 CD disk I can change GRUB and boot SUSE 9.0 but then I can't see SUSE 9.1

If I then boot from SUSE 9.1 CD to fix GRUB I can then get back to SUSE 9.1 but lose all sight of SUSE 9.0

I'd like to be able to choose which system at boot time.

Thanks.

This is what I have, and its working fine.

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Jul 13 07:51:51 2004


color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 20
gfxmenu (hd0,7)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows XP Pro
* * root (hd0,0)
* * chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SuSE Linux 9.1
* * kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 vga=0x31a splash=silent desktop resume=/dev/hda7 showopts
* * initrd (hd0,7)/boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title Fedora Core 2
* * kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 root=/dev/hda6 vga=0x31a splash=silent desktop
* * initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
* * root (fd0)
* * chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe
* * kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0* 3
* * initrd (hd0,7)/boot/initrd

I can boot SuSE, Fedora and Windows XP.

Hope this will work for you.


Regards