How to multiboot with 3rd-party boot manager

[hgfriend3]

I currently have a laptop with 1 HDD with several partitions containing DOS, 3 WinXPs (1 in a logical partition). I have a 3rd-party boot manager which manages all 4 OSes. Is there any documentation/info on how I can install linux (suse 11.1) on another separate partition or to an external drive using the same 3rd party boot manager?

Thank you.
CMaker3

PS. Exploring possibilities...

[caf4926]

You would install suse and make sure the bootloader is set to install just to the root partition.
Then, I would imagine you need to point your 3rd party application to the root partition where the boot code is.

[bcrisciotti]

Hi. Yes it is possible. Just as already pointed here put grub in the Linux boot partition. Which is your third party boot manager? I use gag that is also open source and it is very easy to set up cause it does not even require a running os to configure it.

[hgfriend3]

I am using xosl for my boot manager and it's also free.

So the answer is yes. The thing now is to get to the details on how to go about installing linux which I am installing on an external drive.

So I can install everything, including the bootloader on the external drive? I read somewhere that the linux boot partition should be on the first partition of the primary drive. But as I gather from the replies, I can put it on the external drive and just let my 3rd-party boot manager to point to it. Am I correct?

Thanks.

[caf4926]

I read somewhere that the linux boot partition should be on the first partition of the primary drive.

Not true.
It has been said that this was required by windows, but it is not true for this either.

As for installing on external drive, it may work, depending on your hardware and the boot manager you are using. Just try it.

[bcrisciotti]

You are right. Grub can be installed everywhere. So put it in the boot partition in your external drive os even in it's mbr then let xosl (which i know because i used it for a long time) point to that