Re: [LUG] Dual booting Debian and Ubuntu

[kevin <kevin.lucas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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


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