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Re: [LUG] Dual booting Debian and Ubuntu

 

On Sat, 2009-11-28 at 16:34 +0000, kevin wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-11-28 at 15:38 +0000, Philip Whateley wrote:
> > On Sat, 2009-11-28 at 15:17 +0000, kevin wrote:
> > > On Sat, 2009-11-28 at 12:50 +0000, Philip Whateley wrote:
> > > > I have a Lenovo laptop, nominal 320Gb HD partitioned as follows:
> > > > 
> > > > sda1 30Gb ext3 flagged 'Boot' with Ubuntu 9.04 amd64 installed
> > > > sda2 30Gb unknown filesystem (probably not formatted) nothing installed
> > > > sda3 4Gb Linux Swap
> > > > sda4 Extended, containing
> > > >         sda5 230Gb ext3 /home
> > > > 
> > > > I would like to install another distro on sda2, preferably Debian Lenny
> > > > 32bit so I can dual boot, but I am concerned about breaking Grub etc. I
> > > > don't want to virtualise Debian within Ubuntu, as one of the objectives
> > > > is to be able to boot from an alternative system if I break Ubuntu.
> > > make a copy of your /boot/grub.conf
> > > 
> > > install Debian
> > > 
> > > It should find your existing grub and just add to it....
> > > 
> > > if it doesnt then when you have booted in to Debian just add your old
> > > ubuntu section after the last line 
> > > 
> > > an example of Dual boot Fedor and Winxp 
> > > 
> > > #boot=/dev/sda
> > > default=1
> > > timeout=12
> > > splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> > > #hiddenmenu
> > > title Fedora (2.6.27.9-73.fc9.i686)
> > >   root (hd0,0)
> > >   kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.9-73.fc9.i686 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
> > > rhgb quiet
> > >   initrd /initrd-2.6.27.9-73.fc9.i686.img
> > > title WinXP
> > >   rootnoverify (hd1,0)
> > >   map (hd0) (hd1)
> > >   map (hd1) (hd0)
> > >   chainloader +1
> > > title Fedora (2.6.27.7-53.fc9.i686)
> > >   root (hd0,0)
> > >   kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-53.fc9.i686 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
> > > rhgb quiet
> > >   initrd /initrd-2.6.27.7-53.fc9.i686.img
> > > title Fedora (2.6.25.10-86.fc9.i686)
> > >   root (hd0,0)
> > >   kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25.10-86.fc9.i686 ro
> > > root=UUID=29eaae06-882f-4a65-9b86-e5e617025f7a rhgb quiet
> > >   initrd /initrd-2.6.25.10-86.fc9.i686.img
> > > 
> > > dont forget to unhide the boot menu (as above) or you will have to catch
> > > the grub menu by pressing a key on bootup.
> > > > 
> > > > I have looked online for information to guide me, but found nothing on
> > > > Ubuntu Forums or Debian, or via Google search (although plenty on dual
> > > > booting with Windows which I have done in the past, and also
> > > > virtualisation). I am a bit concerned about experimenting, as I have
> > > > come across horror stories about broken MBR and Grub.
> > > > 
> > > > Can anyone on the list point me towards any information (online or
> > > > paper) on how to do this?
> > > > 
> > > > Many thanks
> > > > 
> > > > Phil Whateley
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > Regards
> > > 
> > > Kevin Lucas
> > > Minions Post Master(Sub) reprieved repressed(possibly!Definitely!)
> > > Po House, Minions,
> > > Liskeard Cornwall 
> > > PL14 5LE
> > > 01579363386
> > > 
> > > 
> > Thanks Kevin.
> > 
> > Does that mean that the MBR will be moved to the Debian partition? I
> > guess it doesn't matter too much, except that all the configuration
> > files on /home are for Ubuntu (I'm planning to create a separate folder
> > for Debian and mount that as home to keep the configs separate), but I
> > am interested in the way this works.
> > 
> No the installer should ask you where you want the MBR to be I would
> keep it where it is on HD0 or sda1 so you can boot "all" your linux
> distros' off the same grub menu.
> 
> 
> > Is there any way of installing Debian and then editing grub.conf on sda1
> > to find it, so the MBR stays on sda1?
> Yes that should just "happen" if it's already booting off sda1
> > 
> > Please excuse what are probably dumb questions.
> Just remember all paths are relative to /boot/ which is a small 100 meg
> partition usually on sda.
> 
> and all operating systems are referenced HD0,0 HD1,0 etc which map to
> sda1 sdb1 etc so for you Deb Lenny should come out on HD0,1 (first disk
> 2nd partition)
> > 
> > Phil
> > 
> > 
> Regards
> 
> Kevin Lucas
> Minions Post Master(Sub) reprieved repressed(possibly!Definitely!)
> Po House, Minions,
> Liskeard Cornwall 
> PL14 5LE
> 01579363386
> 
> 
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Many thanks to both you and Brad for all the helpful advice.

Phil Whateley


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