Tri booting hard disk - some doubts

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

At the fist, I would say that I am going to tri boot my hard disk with the following distributions:

openSUSE 12.1 (x86_64) / 64 bit OS
Ubuntu LTS 10.04 (i386) / 32 bit OS
Fedora 15 (x86_64) / 64 bit OS

Said that, I have already taken the full back. Other details are as follows:

Hard disk size = 250 GB
RAM = 2 GB
Processor: Supports 64 bit

Now to play with the hard disk, I am going to install the above said three distributions. Well the queries are as follows:

I read at google: “You have a “primary” grub in the MBR, controlled by one (exactly one) distribution, which has that distribution’s kernel entries. in addition, you have chainload entries, which point to the grub boot code in the boot partitions of other distribution installations.”

Does it mean that I should have a separate /boot partition with the first installing distribution (openSUSE in my case)…? How do I install these three?

I should make separate /home, /boot and /swap for each partition? Or only separate /swap for each partition…?

Whatever be the case, I know that there can be at most 3 primary partition - /root (openSUSE) /boot (openSUSE) /swap (openSUSE) and all other in the extended partitions, that is okay, but in the extened too, should I make separate partitions for each (/swap, /boot, /root, /home) of each distribution…?

And finally, how would the bootloader work in this scenario…?

Thanks.

2

No.

To make it simpler use either Ubuntu or Fedora 16 Grub2 as your main boot manager. So install openSUSE first, then either Ubuntu or Fedora. The latest you install will have its Grub in MBR.

Again, to make it simpler, make a separate /home and / . You normally don’t need a separate /boot partition (well … it depends).
You can (and you should) share the swap partition. So just create one swap but make sure you don’t “reformat” or “reinitialize” it or it will get another UUID and systems that mount by UUID by default (like Ubuntu and Fedora) won’t be able to find it.

Put the most important thing in primary partitions. You can boot without /home and swap, but you can not boot without /. So put the root file systems ( “/”, not “/root”) in primary partitions.

Either Ubuntu or Fedora Grub2 (16 not 15!) will boot everybody else. You need to run update-grub on the main system after each kernel update on one of the others.
You can also chainload the Grubs and boot in circle all night around if you have fun.

If you’re new to Linux, starting with 3 distros won’t help you learn faster … on the contrary.

To later add both kernel and chainload entries to openSUSE’s legacy Grub, you can use updategrub: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/how-faq-forums/advanced-how-faq-read-only/458238-updategrub-opensuse-legacy-grub-not-update-grub.html#post2329167. It’s available for openSUSE 12.1 in my repo (and works on 12.1 - I tested it yesterday).

3

On 2011-11-27 15:46, opensuse121 wrote:
> Whatever be the case, I know that there can be at most 3 primary
> partition - /root (openSUSE) /boot (openSUSE) /swap (openSUSE) and all
> other in the extended partitions, that is okay, but in the extened too,
> should I make separate partitions for each (/swap, /boot, /root, /home)
> of each distribution…?

You need only one swap, shared. /boot is normally not needed. If it is,
then it can not be shared.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

4

Oh it is really becoming too confusing, but I try and play, finally if nothing happens or I fail to install successfully, I would reinstall openSUSE 12.1 from starting covering the entire hard disk and accepting the default options by agreeing each time with ‘yes’.

Thanks.

5

Just tried to run updategrub in 12.1 (sudo updategrub) and got ‘file not found’ error. Opened Yast , Software Manager and entered updategrub in search box and got nothing. What repository is it in?

6

On 2011-11-29 21:06, rick2210 wrote:
>
> please_try_again;2411083 Wrote:
>> No.
>> To later add both kernel and chainload entries to openSUSE’s legacy
>> Grub, you can use updategrub: http://tinyurl.com/3zrjq5g. It’s available
>> for openSUSE 12.1 in my repo (and works on 12.1 - I tested it
>> yesterday).
>
> Just tried to run updategrub in 12.1 (sudo updategrub) and got ‘file
> not found’ error. Opened Yast , Software Manager and entered updategrub
> in search box and got nothing. What repository is it in?

None.
Why didn’t you read the link he gave you? The answer is there.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

7

Well … except that the article still refers to the 11.4 repo. You should install the 12.1 repo now.

sudo zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/please_try_again/openSUSE_**12.1**/ PTA

instead of

sudo zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/please_try_again/openSUSE_**11.4**/ PTA

Once you have installed and refresh this repo, you can install this package with zypper or yast, like any other package.

8

Well, it was really bad experience that I was not able to dual boot, with some memory remained unallocated, it was not going to boot …I don’t know what went wrong in the second installation of ubuntu…! So I again installed 12.1 suse in whole of the space.

Can one let me from any link or guide which from scratch can show the the dual booting of openSUSE with any other distribution like ubuntu LTS…?

Thanks.

9

Hi there,
I too experienced your dilemma … only a little different. My machine came with Windows XP Media Center which works very well and we have a number of things that require it. So we needed a multi-boot system. Dual boot was really no problem -but- when we wanted to add another choice, things became interesting. The other was another copy of openSuSE. Details are in the Web Page mentioned below.

We have a Web Page that describes our experiences in setting up this scenario. Is called

Starting Over

May be a little wordy but you should find something of interest in its paragraphs. There is a tool mentioned in it which I’m sure you will find of great help in these endeavors. It is called:
Super Grub Disk

Good Luck and Take care,
Chuck

10

Ah well but your guide is to be bought? Is something like that available free or some link where we can download? I already have bought PC and I heard that this opensource world is free of cost, like openSUSE 12.1?

Thanks.

11

No, but it was written in the last millenium …

Any machine you buy will come with Windows 98 or Windows XP
:open_mouth:

and recommends to buy computers from a company which first announced it would cease PC productions, than decide to keep its computer division … and will sell computers with Secure Boot switched ON, that will not even boot Linux (although I wouldn’t be surprised if MS makes an exception for openSUSE).

Looks like Canonical made a deal already: White Paper: Secure Boot impact on Linux

OK. Out of topic here (and too complicated, I guess) . Forget it …