Hi everyone:
I am new to linux and the forum. but after reading awhile, I want to figure out how to install SuSe11.1 and Ubuntu 8.1 on a dell M1210 laptop running xp pro sp3…
system config is as follows:
CPU 1.66Ghz duo
1GB ram
40 GB SATA HD
my question is what is the best way to setup ubuntu and openSuse? Any guide that is already written for this? Thank you in advance for any help!
newbie
Notes before we start.
a) This will not cover every conceivable set up and comes with absolutely no guarantee (cover your butt, see step one)
Step 1:
Back up everything you don’t want to loose. It will save a lot of stress if things go wrong…which they probably won’t…but don’t chance it.
Step 2:
Get a piece of paper and plan your layout. One partition for each OS + 1 partition for “swap” + one partition for store files you want to access from each OS (I call mine /shared). Don’t try and set up a partition for /home to be used on several OS’s. I did this once, Bruce told me it probably wouldn’t last long. He was right smile.gif Use a Linux “live cd” to partition your hard drive. The main reason for this is you’ll be able to lay the drive or drives as hda1, hda2, hda3, hdb 1 etc. Write this information down on your plan so that if you ever want to replace an OS, you’ll know which OS is on which drive. It’s a lot easier to do this than to remember which is which when your about to format one of them.
Step 3:
Windows must go on the first partition of the first hard drive. Not only that, any partitions formatted for Ext3 or Swap will not show up in Windows. In addition, if Xp and Vista are both being installed, Xp goes on first followed by Vista.
Step 4: Not all Linux OS’s recognize other installations and add them to Grub equally.
Examples:
Fedora’s typical Grub will have itself and Windows. During the installation of grub you will have a chance to add the other operating systems. Having you disk layout at hand is good. Long story short, if Fedora is being installed as part of a triple boot or more, put it on after Windows.
Sabayon and Fedora both use the Anaconda installer.
openSUSE has skipped over Sabayon just about every time which means adding it to grub manually.
Ubuntu has always picked up every OS and added it to Grub correctly so that all OS will boot without any adjustments needing to be made. So if Ubuntu is part of your plan, I’d suggest installing it last on any system with several OSs.
Heads Up:Beware kernel updates. If you update the kernel on one of your multiboot OS’s, you will have to manually change the kernel version on the grub file you re booting from.
Final Note:
Ram is getting pretty cheap. VirtualBox and VMWare Server are great way’s to test out a new OS without setting up multiboot machines.