i want to triple boot my system with debian ubuntu and windows xp. i already have uuntu and windows xp and i want to install debian without getting ubuntu effected. what is the selection of the root criteria as presently dev/sda7 but i have free space and while trying to install debian the root moutn point is being set to this free space. is thia going to cause problem and if yes how should i install debian. Thank You

You will need to create a partition and filesystem in the free space if you want to use it for Debian. I don't understand what your reference to sda7 means? Maybe posting some partition information with the "sudo fdisk -l" command output would help someone to help you. Which partition(s) are Ubuntu and windows on?

If you are using GRUB to choose your OS the easiest thing to do may be to install Debian to the free space (partitioning as mentioned) and tell it not to install GRUB to the MBR. You would then boot into Ubuntu and update GRUB (it's something like sudo update-grub) and the Debian install would be added to your list of choices in GRUB.

Yes some clarity would help.

Multi booting is not that tough. I have several installs (13) across 3 drives.

While I do not have anything but Linux on this box I also take care of my Dreaded Mother in Laws computer which currently has Vista, Ubuntu 8.04 (soon to be removed) and Debian Wheezy (Xfce).

The cryptic sda7 reference is puzzling. Assuming 3 partitions for MS and an extended partition for everything else and installing on just one partition (/) with only Ubuntu in there. The highest number should be sda6.

If you had installed Ubuntu on 2 partitions this would be an easier job as you could simply install Debian using the same /home as Ubuntu (2 installs=2 / + 1 /home) which takes up less space if you are short of it.

We really need to know the size of your drive or drives, what you want to do with Ubuntu and Debian. Also how much of your drive has to be (personal bias) wasted on MS.

i aplogize for putting my question in a cryptic fashion. i'm trying to build the LFS system someone on this forum suggested me to use debian since ubuntu had problems regarding glibc. for what i'm worried for the istallation of a new os is that some time back i was trying to install fedora with ubuntu and windows already present and i dnt what caused up an error tha none of the linux system were recoverable with the eror reading unable to find root partition. now at present while installing ubuntu i had given 4.1 GB swap space, 10GB ext4 partition mounted at /, and 85 GB ext4 partition mounted at /home. Now i have a 41 GB ext 3 file system for LFS partition and 49 GB free space which i would like to use to istall for debian. my windows partition uses 54 GB file system. while trying to istall debian the 49 GB free space was mounted at /; so my question is will there be any error so as to the 10GB axt4 partition which was mounted at / as there were no mount point seen with the other two ext4 partition.
After running sudo fdisk -l the following is the output

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa42d04a3

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 257039 128488+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 257040 105113294 52428127+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 105113356 604669951 249778298 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 604670535 625137344 10233405 db CP/M / CTOS / ...
/dev/sda5 105113358 234147374 64517008+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 234147840 242147327 3999744 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 242149376 262148095 9999360 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 262150144 428888063 83368960 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 428890112 507992063 39550976 b W95 FAT32
ankit@ankit-Inspiron-1012:~$


Thank You

Ah, that is some help.

First, the Fedora install probably did eat your other Linux installs. The RH branch (Red Hat) of Linux distros use an installer that dual boots with MS very easily but requires all other partitions to have a mount point designated.

If you have other Linux partitions created they will be used for something if you do not specifically designate no mount point.

The Debian branch installers are easier to deal with in this way. You will have to use the manual partitioning option when you get to the partitioning part of the install.

This will not use any partition with out you designating a specific mount point.

You have plenty of room for a completely independent install or you could use the same /home as Ubuntu. You would need a unique user name for the Debian install so that there are 2 separate /home/<user name> directories to contain the ~/.hidden files that are the user specific config files for each OS.

Nearly 50gigs is plenty for 2 partition install so I would not worry about it.

When multi booting it is important to know what you are going to do so before you start draw up a plan with at sketch and notes about what the file system is supposed to look like when you are done. This helps avoid mistakes when installing.

I usually use a LiveCD and create the partitions I want before installing and write down their names (sdX) and label (if any) and then use the regular Debian install disk to install with.

Have FUN.

does this mean that i do not need to provide mount point to the partition of ubuntu when the mount point for the partition to be used for debian install is /. i'm attaching the image of the partitions of the disk as given by disk utility program.
Thank You

Attached Thumbnails

 

If what you mean is that you are going to install Debian on one partition and that partition is going to be in the Free space that is 49GB then no you do not need to give a mount point for any other partition.

The Debian installer, as does the Ubuntu installer, assumes that the mount point you give for / in the installer is for the OS being installed. It should then simply install the entire OS on the designated / partition.

The Fedora installer would have done the same thing. It would have, however, mounted one of your other Linux fs formatted partitions (10GB-ext4, 85GB-ext4 and 41GB-ext3) as /home, another as /var and the last as /something else (I can't recall there priorities it may be /etc).

The Debian installer does not do that. It just puts it where you tell it to install.

A 2 partition install is better than a 1 partition install although that is, of coarse, up to you. It is your box.

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Thank You for the help in case of any problem i will get in touch with the forum

Great. Have FUN.