how to dual boot with xubuntu
Forum: HD Install
Topic: how to dual boot with xubuntu
started by: mrs peanut
Posted by mrs peanut on Jan. 13 2007,11:23
what should i add to grub to be able to dual boot?i am currently using dsl 3.1 and want to attemp a duel boot with xubuntu,an experiment to see if this old laptop can do it!
which os should be installed first?
any help would be much appreciated.
Posted by mikshaw on Jan. 13 2007,13:51
Look at Grub's menu.lst and use the existing lines as a guide. there are 3 main parts to an OS entry:1) the label displayed by Grub.
2) the kernel you want to boot, including any boottime options
3) the initial ramdisk image, which is sometimes not needed.
The boot files will most likely always be installed into the /boot directory of the target partition, so you can get file paths there. Often the kernel is named "linux" or something very similar.
Another option is to backup your current Grub and then let Xubuntu install its own bootloader to replace it. You can go into that and add te entry you already used for DSL.
It doesn't matter which is installed first. You usually have the option to install a bootloader (typically grub or lilo, depending on the distro), or to skip the bootloader install and use the one you already have. In some cases the existing bootloader can influence this decision. In my case, I already had Grub installed in Suse when I installed DSL, so i just used that. When I installed Slackware, which comes with Lilo, I also skipped the bootloader install. However, when I decided Suse was eventually going to be removed I installed Grub in Slackware, using the same settings I had in Suse's Grub.
So...Grub can be shuffled around quite a bit. As long as it's properly installed, and knows where to find it's config, there should be very little trouble.
Posted by mrs peanut on Jan. 13 2007,14:58
thanks, off to give it a go now!
Posted by mrs peanut on Jan. 14 2007,02:55
well, what a disaster!got xubuntu installed, figured out what need to be changed in the grub menu list,installed dsl 3.1 - and it all went to pot!
dsl automatically installs grub, so i had two bootloaders and no way of getting rid of one of them.
i tried to add xubuntu to dsls grub but its read only, so no go.
xubuntu is still on my hard drive with no way of booting it so dsl is back up and running.
i have no idea where to go from here.
thanks anyway ,your info allowed me to figure out grub and editing it.
Posted by mrs peanut on Jan. 14 2007,11:11
aha! success!i was able to edit dsl , cdrom/boot/grub/menu.lst by using sudo su and beaver in terminal.
(cdrom because frugal is like running from disc)
i added xubuntus boot details (by mounting the partition it was on and copying from xubuntus menu.list) to dsls grub menu.lst.
saved and rebooted and here i am in xubuntu!
both boot perfectly.
it doesnt seem to matter that there are two grubs,the dsl one seems to be in charge!
a steep learning curve for a newbie to linux!
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Jan. 14 2007,17:59
You can have grub installed on the mbr of the device, or on each partition, (which can be chainloaded) so that is why you may have 2 grubs.However, during the machine's boot, it will first look at the mbr.
Or maybe dsl's installation overwrote your old grub in the mbr.