Hello,
I have an AMD64 X4 CPU with 4 disks.
How I can install and boot this operating systems in parallel :\
It seems that I need the right strategy, so that BIOS and startup works fine with all tree OS’s.
How can I do this?
Greetings,
Here is some basic information that you might find useful:
Each hard drive can have up to four PRIMARY partitions, any of which could be marked active and bootable. No matter what you might hear, only one of the first four primary partitions can be booted from. That means you can boot from Primary partitions 1, 2, 3 or 4 and that is all. In order to boot openSUSE, you must load openSUSE and the grub boot loader into one of the first four partitions. Or, your second choice is to load the grub boot loader into the MBR (Master Boot Record) at the start of the disk. The MBR can be blank, like a new disk, it can contain a Windows partition booting code or generic booting code to boot the active partition 1, 2, 3, or 4. Or, as stated before, it can contain the grub boot loader. Why load grub into the MBR then? You do this so that you can “boot” openSUSE from a logical partition, numbered 5 or higher, which is not normally possible. In order to have more than four partitions, one of them (and only one can be assigned as extended) must be a extended partition. It is called an Extended Primary Partition, a container partition, it can be any one of the first four and it can contain one or more logical partitions within. Anytime you see partition numbers 5, 6 or higher for instance, they can only occur inside of the one and only Extended Primary partition you could have.
What does openSUSE want as far as partitions? It needs at minimum a SWAP partition and a “/” partition where all of your software is loaded. Further, it is recommended you create a separate /home partition, which makes it easier to upgrade or reload openSUSE without losing all of your settings. So, that is three more partitions you must add to what you have now. What must you do to load and boot openSUSE from an external hard drive? Number one, you must be able to select your external hard drive as the boot drive in your BIOS setup. Number two, you need to make sure that the external hard drive, perhaps /dev/sdb, is listed as the first hard drive in your grub device.map file and listed as drive hd0. I always suggest that you do not load grub into the MBR, but rather into the openSUSE “/” root primary partition which means a primary number of 1, 2, 3 or 4. If number one is used, then that will be out. You will mark the openSUSE partition as active for booting and finally you must load generic booting code into the MBR so that it will boot the openSUSE partition. I suggest a partition like this to boot from /dev/sda:
The same could be applied to /dev/sdb if you wanted to boot from the second hard drive through your BIOS settings:
It is hard to be more specific without knowing which OS resides on which hard disk or partition and what you ultimately want to end up with.
Thank You,
jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
>
> Here is some basic information that you might find useful:
>
> Each hard drive can have up to four PRIMARY partitions, any of which
> could be marked active and bootable. No matter what you might hear, only
> one of the first four primary partitions can be booted from. That means
> you can boot from Primary partitions 1, 2, 3 or 4 and that is all. In
> order to boot openSUSE, you must load openSUSE and the grub boot loader
> into one of the first four partitions. Or, your second choice is to load
> the grub boot loader into the MBR (Master Boot Record) at the start of
> the disk. The MBR can be blank, like a new disk, it can contain a
> Windows partition booting code or generic booting code to boot the
> active partition 1, 2, 3, or 4. Or, as stated before, it can contain the
> grub boot loader. Why load grub into the MBR then? You do this so that
> you can “boot” openSUSE from a logical partition, numbered 5 or higher,
> which is not normally possible. In order to have more than four
> partitions, one of them (and only one can be assigned as extended) must
> be a extended partition. It is called an Extended Primary Partition, a
> container partition, it can be any one of the first four and it can
> contain one or more logical partitions within. Anytime you see partition
> numbers 5, 6 or higher for instance, they can only occur inside of the
> one and only Extended Primary partition you could have.
>
> What does openSUSE want as far as partitions? It needs at minimum a
> SWAP partition and a “/” partition where all of your software is loaded.
> Further, it is recommended you create a separate /home partition, which
> makes it easier to upgrade or reload openSUSE without losing all of your
> settings. So, that is three more partitions you must add to what you
> have now. What must you do to load and boot openSUSE from an external
> hard drive? Number one, you must be able to select your external hard
> drive as the boot drive in your BIOS setup. Number two, you need to make
> sure that the external hard drive, perhaps /dev/sdb, is listed as the
> first hard drive in your grub device.map file and listed as drive hd0. I
> always suggest that you do not load grub into the MBR, but rather into
> the openSUSE “/” root primary partition which means a primary number of
> 1, 2, 3 or 4. If number one is used, then that will be out. You will
> mark the openSUSE partition as active for booting and finally you must
> load generic booting code into the MBR so that it will boot the openSUSE
> partition. I suggest a partition like this to boot from /dev/sda:
>
> 0. /dev/sda, Load MBR with generic booting code
> 1. /dev/sda1, Primary NTFS Partition for Windows
> 2. /dev/sda2, Primary SWAP (4 GB)
> 3. /dev/sda3, Primary EXT4 “/” openSUSE Partition Marked Active for
> booting (80-120 GB)
> 4. /dev/sda4, Primary EXT4 “/home” Your main home directory (Rest of
> the disk)
>
> The same could be applied to /dev/sdb if you wanted to boot from the
> second hard drive through your BIOS settings:
>
> 0. /dev/sdb, Load MBR with generic booting code
> 1. /dev/sdb1, Primary NTFS Partition for Windows
> 2. /dev/sdb2, Primary SWAP (4 GB)
> 3. /dev/sdb3, Primary EXT4 “/” openSUSE Partition Marked Active for
> booting (80-120 GB)
> 4. /dev/sdb4, Primary EXT4 “/home” Your main home directory (Rest of
> the disk)
>
> It is hard to be more specific without knowing which OS resides on
> which hard disk or partition and what you ultimately want to end up
> with.
Since he wants 2 versions of XP, there is one further piece of inforamtion
peculiar to Windows which needs to be included: Windows wants the first
Primary partition on your first hard drive. It assumes that this particular
partition belongs to Windows and demands that it be there in order to
install a version of Windows on any other paartition. There are workarounds
but for simplicity install one copy of XP to first partition. That will be
drive C: as far as Windows is concerned.
You can now install the other systems about anywhere you want but I always
try and install all the Windows systems before installing Linux - Microsoft
is not very “nice” about how they treat other systems, to say the least. In
this case, one version of XP installed to the first primary followed by the
second version installed to the second partition (Windows will call it D:)
followed by the Linux unstall to the third primary + swap and /home to
extended partitions with the GRUB boot loader installed to the MBR has been
the least problematic for me, mainly because it minimizes the grief Windows
can cause.
–
Will Honea