Triple boot XP, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE 12.1

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

My Dell Inspiron 510m notebook had Win XP installed when new and I recently added Ubuntu 11.04 to make a dual boot system.
Info from boot_info_script:

Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of 
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks 
for  on this drive.

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 63 96,389 96,327 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 96,390 43,118,459 43,022,070 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 43,118,460 53,624,969 10,506,510 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda4 53,626,878 117,209,087 63,582,210 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 53,626,880 74,106,879 20,480,000 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 74,108,928 76,197,887 2,088,960 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Now I am trying to install OpenSUSE 12.1 so that I will have a triple boot system. I made 20 GB free on the 60 GB harddisk using a live
GParted CD and started the installation from a DVD which I had made from the downloaded ISO file (i586 version). Everything went well
until I came to the summary of the proposed installation before the actual installation process starts. It showed the following:

Booting
. Boot loader type: GRUB
. Status location: /dev/sda4 (extended)
. Change location
. Boot from MBR is disabled (enable)
. Boot from “/” partition is disabled (enable)
. Sections
+ open suse 12.1 (default)
+ windows
+ Failsafe - open suse 12.1

Several of these entries gave me concern.

Why is Ubuntu not seen (I suspect that this may be current OpenSUSE practice)?

What is the meaning of 'Boot from MBR is disabled'? Is this the normal boot into Windows as the original MBR used to do?

What is the meaning of 'Boot from "/" partition is disabled'? Is this the boot as installed by Ubuntu?
If I change this to 'enable' what effect does this have?

I suspect that the OpenSUSE installation assumes because it found a Windows partition that the original Windows MBR is on the disk
and will replace it with an MBR which will boot into GRUB which will be installed with the proposed new partitions for OpenSUSE.

My first idea is that I should try to install just the OpenSUSE 12.1 software, but not change the current boot as installed by Ubuntu 11.04
After that is done I can run ‘update-grub’ under Ubuntu which should find the OpenSUSE OS. Is there a way to prevent the boot being changed by the OpenSUSE installation process?

What is the simplest way for me to achieve the triple boot which I want?

#2

On 12/05/2011 10:36 PM, Podge15 wrote:
>
> Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System
>
> /dev/sda1 63 96,389 96,327 de Dell
> Utility
> /dev/sda2 * 96,390 43,118,459 43,022,070 7 NTFS /
> exFAT / HPFS
> /dev/sda3 43,118,460 53,624,969 10,506,510 c W95 FAT32
> (LBA)
> /dev/sda4 53,626,878 117,209,087 63,582,210 5 Extended
> /dev/sda5 53,626,880 74,106,879 20,480,000 83 Linux
> /dev/sda6 74,108,928 76,197,887 2,088,960 82 Linux
> swap / Solaris
> ----------

is the above info from before you made 20 GB free with the GParted CD,
or after…if before take another shot after, and if that CD has the
capability, please also collect and show us the output of

df -h

> Now I am trying to install OpenSUSE 12.1 so that I will have a triple
> boot system.

please review these resources:
http://tinyurl.com/ubuntu-to-openSUSE
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aforums.opensuse.org+triple+boot+ubuntu

> Why is Ubuntu not seen (I suspect that this may be current OpenSUSE
> practice)?

no, as far as i know no one here is afraid to say, write or see Ubuntu
anywhere…we want you (all the yous out there) to use what works for
them…

no i think you are not seeing Ubuntu because, welll…i’m leaning
toward the idea that the install script didn’t see it either… and, i
wonder if it is gone…maybe you carved out 20 GB from the Ubuntu space?
which is why i asked for df -h

i can’t answer the other questions…

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!

#3

Why not Ubuntu 11.10? Its’ better.

Because openSUSE setup still cannot detect Grub2.

It means that it won’t install Grub in MBR but a generic boot code, that will overwrite your Grub2 and make Ubuntu unbootable. Cool, eh?

It means that you’re installing openSUSE in a logical partition - that can not be booted directly. So Grub will be installed in the extended partition, the bootflag will be set on this partition and a generic boot code will be written to MBR. This default setup is intented for Window/openSUSE dual-booters, not to dual-boot or triple-boot with Ubuntu.

It will install Grub stage1 in the logical partition as well (which is not a bad thing but can only be booted “indirectly”, by chainloading)

It doesn’t assume anything. It doesn’t even check. It will brutally write a generic bootcode into MBR, just like Windows does.

Your first idea was right. And to achieve that, you should enable “Boot from /” and prevent openSUSE from overwriting the MBR … but the latter is not obvious.

(The pictures are from 11.4 - but it hasn’t changed a lot)

#4

Thank you for your suggestions and comments. I began the installation of OpenSUSE 12.1 again and when I came to the ‘Installation Settings’ summary, I started following the instructions in the previous reply:

Click on ‘Booting’

  • Open the Boot Loader installation tab

This shows ‘Boot Loader Settings’.

While looking at these entries, I saw near the top:

Type
	Boot Loader:  GRUB

where GRUB is in a list which includes ‘LILO’ and ‘Do Not Install Any Boot Loader’.

I chose the last as it was exactly what I wanted. There was then no need for any other Boot settings. Then I started the actual installation process which went with no problems. The ‘Perform Installation’ took 35 min. on my Dell, then there was an automatic boot and I could log in with the user name and password which I had previously specified.

Everything looked OK so I shut down the system in order to check on Windows and Ubuntu 11.04. Both could be loaded normally.
Finally, within a terminal in Ubuntu I ran ‘sudo update-grub’, after having saved the various grub files just in case.
A reboot then showed all three OS’s in the GRUB menu, the only strange thing was that the OpenSUSE entry occurred 6 times. So now I have my triple boot XP, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE.

#5

update-grub reads openSUSE boot menu (/boot/grub/menu.lst) and adds the entries it finds there.