dual boot and grub?

[Daniel Dalton]

On Tue, 13 May 2008, Tony Baechler wrote:

> Hi,

Hi,

>
> Daniel Dalton wrote:
>> - Is the grub configuration that is used on the last installed linux? So if 
>> I install ubuntu last will the /boot/grub/menu.lst file that is used by the 
>> system be there or on the debian partition?
>> If so why is this and should I do something to only have one grub 
>> configuration through out all my partitions?
>
>
>
> I don't use grub but I can say this from practical experience installing 
> Linux and Windows.  The boot manager needs to be installed in the MBR, 
> regardless of what OS you use or which boot manager.  I think you said you 
> have Windows installed so it probably put its own boot sector in the MBR but 
> not necessarily so.  Also, each bootable Linux partition needs a boot loader 
> such as lilo or presumably grub.  Therefore, my guess would be that all your 
> Linux partitions need grub installed because grub actually boots the kernel 
> once the boot manager calls it from the MBR.

Oh so I should keep /boot on both partitions?
Even though I think it calls the ubuntu one.

>
> This is just a suggestion, but I would look at the mbr package.  If you run 
> install-mbr from Debian or another linux partition, it will install its own 
> MBR code which doesn't need grub or lilo but will call the boot loader for 
> the partition you specify at boot.  In other words, I have my system set as 
> follows:  hda1 is Windows, hda2 is Linux, hda3 is swap and hda4 is an extra 
> FAT32 drive to exchange files between the two OSes.  To boot Windows, I just 
> turn on the computer and do nothing because it's already the default active 
> partition.  To boot Linux, I press the letter "a" for advanced and the number 
> 2 for the second partition as soon as I hear the second beep but before the 
> actual boot process starts.  The reason for pressing the "a" first is because

How did you get it to beep?

> hda2 isn't marked active and Windows and/or the BIOS is limited to only one 
> active partition.  Linux doesn't care if it's active or not but it won't boot 
> an inactive partition unless you go into advanced mode.  From there, either 
> the standard Windows boot loader takes over or lilo runs, depending on what 
> OS i'm booting.

Ah ok.

>
> As always, there are several howto documents on multiboot setups.  I suggest 
> you read them, at least two were for grub.

I'll do a little bit of research.

>
> You asked about deleting Ubuntu.  I can't help you there but I would just 
> delete the partition.  However, with that many distros installed, I would 
> probably set aside another small partition for /home.  Otherwise you'll have 
> to backup your /home dir for every distro separately.

Yep, actually I just installed ubuntu for fun so I have to /home: one on 
sda3 and one on sda6 so one is ubuntu's and one for debian.
Debian is my main system, but ubuntu is nice to play with.

-- 
Daniel Dalton

http://members.iinet.net.au/~ddalton/
<d.dalton at iinet.net.au>