Tripple boot system

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Maybe I should be asking this in the Ubuntu or Mint forums. I apologize if I am in error.

I have an i7 / 12mb HP laptop which is currently a dual boot Win 8.1 / OpenSuse 13.2.

I have been using OpenSuse as my primary for a few months and getting very comfortable (and amazed) with it.

I would also like to add Ubuntu or Mint to my grub menu, but I don’t want to mess up my Suse install. Lord knows it took me a lot of work to get around that pesky Windows boot loader just to get to the grub menu. Yes, I am still pretty new to Linux but learning pretty fast now that its in daily use.

I believe many folks here are probably running multiple OS computers. Is there an easy guide someone can reference?

Thanks in advance.

2

I’m about to post about a triple boot system. It doesn’t involve ubuntoo or mint, but perhaps it might help you.

Bart

3

General things. Assuming you installed all as EFI boot then the EFI BIOS determines the OS the is default boot. You must set this in the BIOS.

If MBR then things become trickier you need to install Ubuntu and NOT install grub to the MBR but to the ubuntu boot/root directory.

Note about home: You can share tghe swap with other Linux OS but you need to think about sharing home.

  1. Because the different Linux may have different version of the same desktop it can lead to problem with the config files. So if you use the same user name don’t use the same desktop ie use gnome in one KDE in the other. Note this still can lead to some problems with applications since again different versions may use different config options/foramts

  2. It is better to use different user names thus different user directories to keep potential conflicts to a minimum

  3. note that the UID (user ID) is really more important to the OS then the actual name. So If say your UID on A is 1000 (default openSUSE first user) and 1000 on Ubuntu (don’t know what default is there) then all is good and the user Joe on A as permission to use JoeU on B files So if they are different UID this could possibly lead to problems if you use the same user name!!!

  4. so simpilest to use a different user name and UID on the Linux systems You can setup a shared directory to share data.

  5. Ubuntu defaults to haveing the home on the root partition so if you take defaults it is not an issue. But you will need to mount the other OS’s partition to share data.

4

I do that.

On the second linux, I mount my home partition as “/xhome” instead of as “/home”. So my home directory is part of the root partition. I then use symlinks to make most of what I use available.

This is to avoid conflicts between the user config settings on different linux versions.

5

I dont (running oS 13.2 on my DE’s). I don’t have dual/tripple boot. I’m lucky to have a server that for the moment servs 4 VM`s running(virtual PC’s):
-oS13.1
-Win 2003SBS
-Win8.1 uppgrade (win8.1.1?)
-oS Thumbleweed

That is also a method. I have more VM’s that are not started for the moment. The big advantage is that its easy to restore a VM-file if something gone wrong. Works for me but not necessary for others for differents reasons.

regards :slight_smile: