[LAU] Multiple Linux Operating Systems on Grub, Help or Info appreciated

[TheOther]

Viktor Mastoridis wrote:
>  small history,
> 
> I am using Ubuntu Studio for a year now, and with the release of 9.04 
> Jaunty, I decided to do a clean install of it.
> As for a long time a wanted to try Studio64, I decided to partition my 
> hard disk and install that as well (Studio64 2.1)
> I also like and need Frescobaldy, but I just couldn't install it on a 
> Debian platform, so I decided to make one more partition and install 
> Open Suse 11.1.
> Finally, I made one more partition for future OS tests and one partition 
> for the files.
> All in all, on my 500gb hard disk I created 6 partitions and installed 
> the OS's in the following order:
> 50gb partition 1 : Ubuntu Studio
> 50gb partition 2: Open Suse
> 50gb partition 3: Studio64
> 50gb partition 4: empty
> 180gb partition 5: files
> 20gb partition 6: swap
> 
> Now, of course, every OS created it's own boot loader and when I finally 
> installed Studio64, although it recognised the other OS's, and gave me 
> the option to boot into them, a Grub error 12 would appear (no files).
> 
> Browsing Forums, I bumped across Grub Super Disk and I am able to boot 
> into  every single OS from there. But alas, I am not literate enough to 
> create a valid menu.lst on the master boot record.
> 
> I would appreciate any hints or (links to) simple and clear instructions 
> on the net. I am ready to reinstall all the OS's if needed. I start to 
> understand that a small separate /boot partition would be very useful, 
> but I don't have a clue how to set it up.
> 
> Viktor

Hello Viktor,

The process is quite simple, once you understand how the parts 
inter-relate.  And I do this without a separate /boot partition.

1.  Go into the last operating system you installed, Studio64 if I 
understood you correctly.

2. Make a directory for each operating system you wish to boot into.
such as:

/UbuntuStudio
/OpenSuse

in the directory structure of your Studio64 system.

3. Edit the File System Table file, called fstab.  You should find it 
as /etc/fstab.

Specify the partions for UbuntuStudio and OpenSuse and have them 
mounted to /UbuntuStudio and /OpenSuse.

4. Reboot your Studio64 system so that the changes to /etc/fstab will 
be implemented.

5.  You should now be able to change to the /UbuntuStudio directory 
under Studio64 and look at the /grub directory for UbuntuStudio.  This 
will tell you which files you will need to reference in the Studio64 
grub menu.lst file or grub.conf file.  Do the same thing for the 
/OpenSuse directory.

6.  Edit the Studio64 /grub directory menu.lst file or grub.conf or 
whatever it's called.

Here's what I used to do when I was running Fedora and OpenSuse.  Add 
the appropriate lines for the kernels you wish to boot.

It's very important to comment out any "hiddenmenu" grub command. 
I've done that with #hiddenmenu below.  The "timeout" grub command 
allows you the specified number of seconds you have in which to choose 
a Linux system to  load.  If you make no choice, then the "default" 
system is loaded.


# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this 
file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda1
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=/dev/sda1 rhgb quiet
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img
	
title openSUSE 10.2 (2.6.18.8-0.5-default)
	root (hd0,4)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.8-0.5-default root=/dev/sda5
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.8-0.5-default
	


Then to make life easier for yourself, boot into UbuntuStudio system 
and make directories for /OpenSuse and /Studio64.  Update the 
/etc/fstab file for UbuntuStudio so that when you reboot into 
UbuntuStudio you can see all the files in the OpenSuse system and the 
Studio64 system.

Do the same procedure for the OpenSuse system.

Now, no matter what operating system you are in (as root), you can see 
all the files in the other systems.  I think it's a very good idea to 
have the /Data directory in all the systems as well.  This was the way 
I was able to share linux data with a Windows95 partition I also had 
set up.  Just like with the other linux systems, Grub could boot into 
the Windows system.  You just had to install Windows first, then 
install the linux systems.

A final suggestion:  I don't know why you would need a 20GB of Swap 
partition.  I've got 1GB of memory and a 30GB hard drive.  I am 
running without a Swap partition at all.  I've rarely seen more than 
500MB of my 1GB of memory being used at any one time.  If you like, 
make your Swap partition 2 times your memory size, but no more.  A 
thought.

Best,
Stephen.