lets-eat-gary Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 Hi people. Just got a new computer - XP 3000, 512 MB, 160 Gb SATA. At the minute i've got XP installed, i am going to install Mandrake 10.1 as soon as i have it, but i also want a development (or possibly 2) version of linux too. What is the best order to install the OS's. Here is want i'm thinking SATA drive 1: /XP /Yoper /Ubuntu /Mandrake 10.1 - i thought installing mandrake last might make sense as it seems to automatically set up lilo. - Can i have more than 1 home/swap partiation on one drive. Also would it be easy to add another version of Linux (i.e -mepis) on a spare IDE drive, so it would be for example:- SATA drive 1: /XP /Yoper /Ubuntu /Mandrake 10.1 IDE drive 1: /Mepis Anyone any hints on this before i start! cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 Various distro's are quite inconsiderate when it comes to bootloaders; they'll include windows, but not other linuxes. So my advice, each time just create a bootfloppy, so you know: no floppy in the drive: windows. Floppy for system X: system X. Same for system Y and Z. On various /home partitions, you can use the same on all systems. Or choose not to have one, in which case your data will go onto the / partition of that particular distro. Naturally, you can make separate /home partitions, one for each system. On swap: just create one swap, they will all find and use it. (Unless you want to be able to suspend to disk, in which case you have to have separate swap partitions...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lets-eat-gary Posted November 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 Is there not a way i could do this via lilo? Wouldn't it be possible to install yoper without the bootloader, then install mandrake and set up yoper lilo entry manually? Cheers for the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 Absolutely, it's easy to do. I boot five separate OS's with lilo. See this FAQ: http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=5082 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 the best thing is imho adding the other linux-distros to lilo or grub (depending on your preferences). it is not very hard to do, although you have to spend attention to what you are typing. and don't forget to restart lilo (lilo -v) when finished. when hacking the lilo file, start with one alternative linux-distro, finish its config, and restart in order to see if everything went well. if everything is okay, you will have an idea of how to add the other distros. it will save you some headaches. ;) btw.: if you really want to tinker with linux, how about trying one of the advanced distros (source based ones) on a free partition? you might run into some problems from time to time, but as you examine a system like e.g. slackware or arch, you will learn a lot. although you should read some manuals first :P if you just started with linux, ignore slack, gentoo, debian or arch and stick with simpler distros like the ones you selected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtriley98 Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 I've got a pc that is linux only. I use grub and have one distro install grub on the MBR, the other distros I write grub to the boot sector of the drive the distro is installed to. Then use a live distro (mepis, knoppix, or pclinux) and copy the menu list in the boot sector to the MBR. Here is what my /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like. timeout 30 color black/cyan yellow/cyan default 0 title linux kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent vga=788 initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img title linux-nonfb kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img title 263-7 kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk root=/dev/hda1 devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img title failsafe kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 devfs=nomount initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img title floppy root (fd0) chainloader +1 title Suse kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 vga=0x31a splash=silent desktop resume=/dev/hda5 showopts initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd title MEPIS at hda6, kernel 2.4.26 kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.26 root=/dev/hda6 nomce quiet splash=verbose vga=791 hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.mepis savedefault title MEPIS at hda6, kernel 2.6.7 kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7 root=/dev/hda6 nomce psmouse.proto=imps quiet splash=verbose vga=791 initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.mepis savedefault title mandy10.1 kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda9 devfs=nomount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent vga=788 initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd.img title Vidalinux Desktop OS (2.6.8.1-vidalinux_r2) root (hd0,9) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-vidalinux_r2 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc real_root=/dev/hda10 vga=0x317 video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr splash=silent acpi=off initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.8.1-vidalinux_r2.img title Vectorlinux 2.6.7 kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7-ide4 ro noinitrd root=/dev/hda8 root (hd0,7) title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.8.1-3-686 root (hd0,11) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-686 root=/dev/hda12 ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-686 savedefault boot title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.8.1-2-386 root (hd0,11) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-2-386 root=/dev/hda12 ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-2-386 savedefault boot title=Yoper GNU/Linux 2.6.8.1-7 root=(hd0,10) kernel=(hd0,10)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-7 root=/dev/hda11 vga=791 splash=silent initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.8.1-7.img title=slackwhere root=(hd0,9) kernel=(hd0,9)/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.26 root=/dev/hda10 vga=788 splash=silent ro noinitrd title=slackwhere2.6.7 root=(hd0,9) kernel=(hd0,9)/boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.7 root=/dev/hda10 vga=788 splash=silent ro initrd=/boot/initrd.gz I change the distros from time to time and I'll leave the old distro on the boot loader in case I feel like reinstalling for instance Vidalinux. I 've never had a windows partition on this machine but I would think my cut and paste style (i.e. don't do too much thinking ) should work for you. I don't keep to many notes but I should tell you I switched from lilo to grub some time ago because I was having trouble configuring either suse or fedora core with lilo, grub worked and I haven't looked back. hope this gives you some ideas. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jet2k5 Posted November 6, 2004 Report Share Posted November 6, 2004 If you are going to install Ubuntu, install it last. For me I was dual-booting with ArchLinux and Windows and when I installed Ubuntu it detected both Arch Linux and Windows. And I think I had mandrake installed too and it also included it too, so my best guess if you want a bootloader that will automaticly write entries to grub to boot up other distros on the hard drive than I strongly suggest that you try Ubuntu last, worked for me. The only problem that I seem to have once in a while is that when Arch updates a kernel it requires me to re-run LILO, but when I do it over writes the grub bootloader, so usually I have to go back and install grub again...from he ubuntu cd. -Luis P.S. Ubuntu is a kick a$$ distro, I'm sure that your going to fall in deep love with it! Enjoy :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.