Multi Boot Linux Distros Using GRUB

[PeteF]

Multi Boot Linux Distros Using GRUB

I need to setup a multi-boot system for several Linux versions.
I did some searching and most info on using GRUB as the bootloader
relates to multi-booting Linux with MS windows products. However,
I just want to multi boot between various Linux distros. I keep
hitting dead ends so I need some advise.

Ok, so far did the following:

* Downloaded.. gparted-livecd-0.2.5-5.iso
from.. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php
I needed that to partition the Hard drive.
Note: All the downloads in this message are FREE.

I burned the LIVE CD as an ISO using CDBurnerXP Pro 3,
at x1 speed, booted to it and partitioned a 20gb hard
drive to 4 equal partitions as follows:

* Partition 1 - Installed TAFUSION FRONTIER SIMPLY MEPIS Linux
Note: I believe GRUB was installed too as part of the
normal installation but I have no idea what GRUB version.

* Partition 2 - Installed FREESPIRE Linux v1.0.13

* Partition 3 - unformatted

* Partition 4 - unformatted

Now the system only boots to FREESPIRE but I'd like to
make it multi-bootable to either version with the option
to install and run additional versions of Linux on the
remaining 2 partitions.

* I downloaded... grub-1.94.tar.gz
from here.. ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub

To extract .tar and .tar.gz files on Windows 9x/NT/2000/ME/XP,
I needed to get.. PowerArchiver 6.1

* I downloaded... PowerArchiver 6.1
from here.. http://www.sfsu.edu/ftp/win/utils/
and installed it to my other Windows XP computer.
Keep in mind I have 2 computers, one for Multi-booting
Linux and one for my general use, using Windows XP.

Next I was reading an article on how to use GRUB for
multi-booting here... http://f3wm.free.fr/linux/grub.html

Now I'm confused because the article says to
go here... ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub
and download.. grub-0.5.96.1.tar.gz
but the most recent version dated June 2006,
seems to be... grub-1.94.tar.gz

So now I'm reluctant to go further because I don't know if
the 1.94 version will work by following instructions from
the article above that references the 5.96.1 version. Or
is that 0.5.96 ???? Which one is the most recent version?
It's very confusing.

How can I tell if GRUB is already installed on my partition 1 ?
If GRUB is installed already how can I tell what version it is?

After all those questions are answered, is it even possible
to make my system as detailed above to multi boot or should
I start from scratch following some other instructions?

I'm just amazed how complex all this is just to get the
system to multi-boot. I'm willing to do the work but it's
a struggle all the way to even an expert level computer
person who has never worked with Linux before. Hopefully
I documented all the steps above in such detail that the
next person can simply follow along and avoid the hours
and hours of time it takes to figure all this stuff out.

---pete---

[Tortanick]

Um, you are aware that most linux distros will install grub for you (a few use LILO), you don't need to manually grab the latest, or indead any version, even when dual booting from windows just install linux AFTER windows then let the distro auto add grub for you.

Anyway lets see:

On freespire look at /boot/grub/menu.list you edit that file to add the option to boot mepis,

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
or look at the mepis partition however you prefure if this dosn't work

now go to /mnt/boot/grub/menu.list and read the grub menu mepis installed, Grub won't look at this but you should be able to copy and paste the varous options into the freespire menu.list

they'll be in the following format, this is just a rough guide, there can be a LOT of diffrences.

title Linux kernel 2.6.4
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.4 root=/dev/hda1 ro 3
initrd /boot/initrd.img

Note: this may not work if you have seprate boot partitons, chances are you don't, they arn't really recomeneded any more anyway.

This should work for most of the time, you may have to setup chainloading if it dosn't. And you'll need to work out witch partition grub looks at for menu.list but if it only has one option then that will be easy

Tip: its possible to share a /home partion easily between many distros, but you'll need to manually syncronise the user accounts, easyest done by duplicateing the relivent files (/etc/passwd /etc/shadow if I remember)

[PeteF]

Um, you are aware that most linux distros will install grub for you (a few use LILO), you don't need to manually grab the latest, or indead any version, even when dual booting from windows just install linux AFTER windows then let the distro auto add grub for you.


Ok, let's assume that GRUB will be installed with each version
of Linux. No MS Windows on this computer, so we don't have
that complication to deal with.


On freespire look at /boot/grub/menu.list you edit that file to add the option to boot mepis,

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
or look at the mepis partition however you prefure if this dosn't work

now go to /mnt/boot/grub/menu.list and read the grub menu mepis installed, Grub won't look at this but you should be able to copy and paste the varous options into the freespire menu.list

they'll be in the following format, this is just a rough guide, there can be a LOT of diffrences.

title Linux kernel 2.6.4
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.4 root=/dev/hda1 ro 3
initrd /boot/initrd.img



Ok, I did grasp the concept of what needed to be done from your instructions
above and finally got it to work. I'll explain below how I did it.

For some reason I was not able to to get to the /boot directory for the
version of Linux I was operating from, so I ran Puppy Linux live from
the CD to access the /boot directories from partition 1 and partition 2.

Using Puppy, I went to partition 1 and partition 2, /boot/grub looking
at the contents of file.. menu.lst . On Partition 1 (MEPIS) I copied the
boot up section from that file to the same file on Partition 2 (FREESPIRE).
However, that did not work because for some reason Partition 2 was
booting using a different file named.. menu-normal.lst . The GRUB
versoins seemed to be dramatically different between FREESPIRE and
MEPIS and I couldn't get it to work with this configuration.

Long story short, I started over again, this time I installed FREESPIRE to
Partition 1 and installed MEPIS to Partition 2. The system was now booting
from Partition 2. Next, I used PUPPY to manipulate the file.. menu.lst on
partition2 (MEPIS) by copying the FREESPIRE boot section from
file... menu-normal.lst on Partition 1 to file.. menu.list on Partition 2.

Now I have my multi-boot system between FREESPIRE and MEPIS.:)

Tortanick, thanks for the help!
I have lots more to learn, but at least I'm getting more comfortable
with Linux. Now I have 2 versions to play with and 2 empty partitions
remaing that I can expand to. I'll probably put PUPPY on partition 3.
Maybe I'll experiment with a swap partition too.

I can see many advantages to operating Linux, but it's going to take
considerable time and effort to get up to speed. I need a recommendation
of a good book on Linux to get up to speed on the main differences between
Linux and Windows. Internet is fine for some things, but I need a well
organized book for the basics because Internet is often very confusing
due to info coming from too many sources that is often outdated or
inconsistant or disjointed. Any suggestions for a good book on Linux?

Thanks again!
That goes for all you guys.;)

---pete---

[Tortanick]

Never tried freespire so I can't comment on the diffrences, but good to see you got it working :)

About swap partitions, I'd just have a swap partion twice the size of your ram and thats that.

As for books, O'relly media (http://www.oreilly.com/) is a good source.

P.S. did you know you can have more than 4 partitions? http://gparted.sourceforge.net/faq.php. read number 4, however if you make for priamry partitons you won't be able to make any extended partitions

[PeteF]

Never tried freespire so I can't comment on the diffrences, but good to see you got it working :)

As for books, O'relly media (http://www.oreilly.com/) is a good source.


I'm quickly coming to the opinion that FREESPIRE similar to MEPIS
but with many of the bugs fixed and features added that the Mepis
team neglected to do. So far, many things have been a struggle in
the TAFUSION Frontier Simply Mepis version I'm testing now. Now
that I'm running FREESPIRE side by side, I'm finding out it's not
me (the problem), it's MEPIS which is probably released before
it was properly developed. Try Freespire out, you might like it.

BTW: I looked at the O'relly site you recommended and a search
on Linux resulted in over 20 titles. What I'd like to know is,
what book(s) do most Linux fans say is a must have in their
arsenal of Linux reference books. Hopefully someone will know.
Thanks.

---pete---

[Tortanick]

Well I genrally use forums and google rather than books to learn a new OS. however I'd guess you best bet is to get a book basedon your perticular distro, and I couldn't find any freespire ones. Linuxquestions is a good place to ask for book recomendations.

Also have you looked at PClinuxOS? It looks very similar to freespire but without having to subscribe to get software.

[Pi rules]

I tried Freespire but it was too commercial for my tastes.

There are some Linux books out there, but mostly for the most popular distros like Red Hat/SUSE. Most have user forums with very helpful FAQs and guides to get you started.

Have you thought about Ubuntu? There are some very helpful guides for it, and I believe that there is a book that just came out that I've heard good things about.

[RAK]

Also have you looked at PClinuxOS? It looks very similar to freespire but without having to subscribe to get software.


I must admit, Tortanick, that PClinuxOS looks more impressive everytime I try it. So far, it is the only Live distro that was able to mount my printer. And I didn't even have to use that typewriter thingy with all the letters and numbers on it (I'm a bit command-line deficient, I'm afraid:confused: :smash: ) .This became such a frustration with Puppy, that I was tempted to reach for a rolled-up newspaper. (Bad Pup!) . The developer wasn't kidding that printer support on Puppy was a "work in progress".
I used the full PClinux CD, but I'll try it next on JR., since the full version runs a little slow in memory. I'm still a little leary of partioning and dual-booting. Oh well, one step at a time.

[PeteF]

I tried Freespire but it was too commercial for my tastes.

Have you thought about Ubuntu? There are some very helpful guides for it, and I believe that there is a book that just came out that I've heard good things about.

I'm not sure what you mean by being too commercial.
Freespire just feels right compared to to MEPIS, but I have very
limited exposure to other Linux distros. I think I just need to pick
one and stick with it rather than jump from distro to distro.

I think it's wise to go with Freespire becasue it's related to Linspire
which is sold in retail stores like CompUSA. I assume Linspire would
be a more developed system and support more hardware.

Keep in mind my objective which is to install on older PCs
and have a very simple OS that just does basic operations
like web browsing, Email, and simple wordprocessing.

Forget Open office! It seems too impractical to use that.
I'm testing on a 2.4ghz P4 and the Open office apps typically
take 30 to 60 seconds just to load. To me, this is a deal
breaker because I'll never be able to sell the Linux concept
to people who are used to MS Word starting up in 3 seconds.
60 seconds to load is what Windows does when the PC is
malware infested.

As for books, I'm thinking that there must be some common
factors about all or most Linux OS's that one book would cover.

---pete---

[Tortanick]

I'd advise against the "pick and stick" idea.

As for open ofice I found a suggestion on wikipedia, Tools - Options - OpenOffice - Java and disable "use a java run time environment"

If that fails you can use Koffice, or wait untill they setup preloading.

As for books, like I said Linuxquestions (http://www.linuxquestions.org/) is the place to ask, although the Linux Bible looks like it might be what you're after