The first thing that you have to understand, when using the grub that MEPIS installs, is that grub doesn't really care what you put in the title line. More on this in a second or two.
For example when I set up my partitions on a 250 Gb drive I created ten partitions. The first one was a windows partition. I will give this computer to my son when I get my next one and he needs windows to play all of his windows based cd rom games. He's 5 1/2. He has been dual booting windows xp and MEPIS for about over a year, on his own.
So the first partition has win xp on it.It is only 10 gigs. The next partition is a 6 gig partition that is formatted as ext2. This is where root is installed. The third partition is a 1 gig partition formatted as linux/swap. Now make an 'extended partition' out of ALL of the space that you have on your hard drive. This extended partition can then be divided into whatever sized partitions that you will need.
Now take the extended partition and make a home partition of about 120 gigs. This is where you will install your home. Then make as many partitions as you want operating systems of about 10 gigs each. So if you want four extra linux operating systems then you would make the normal three partitions for root, swap, and home then make four more partitions of ten gigs each.
This my grub/boot/menu.lst
timeout 10
color cyan/blue white/blue
foreground ffffff
background 0639a1
gfxmenu /boot/grub/message
title MEPIS 6.0 at hda2
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1
title MEPIS test 6.5 at hda5
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1
title Windows at hda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title MEPIS at hda7, kernel 2.6.15-1-586tsc
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1-586tsc root=/dev/hda7 nomce quiet vga=791
title 6.5 beta 7 backup root partition at hda10
rootnoverify (hd0,9)
chainloader +1
title MEPIS 3.3.1-1 at hda9
rootnoverify (hd0,8)
chainloader +1
title MEMTEST
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
The part that says
title MEPIS at hda7, kernel 2.6.15-1-586tsc
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1-586tsc root=/dev/hda7 nomce quiet vga=791
is that part that was put there by the grub in SimplyMEPIS 3.4.3 I boot to that version when I feel like it.
The other entries were all added by me 'cept the windows one, grub put that one there. I added ALL of these extra titles before I ever installed the operating systems that I can boot to. And they work.
If I made a new partition out of the left over space I have at the end of the drive it would be hda11.
This next step you do before you install an operating system.Edit grub before you install.
The reason to do this is so you can boot as soon as the distro is installed. And change to another one without changing grub at all, just be sure to install grub to root.
The entry is already in your main grub saying that there is a linux at hda7 so as long as grub is installed to root on hda7 you can install anything that you want. Again, as long as grub is installed to root and nowhere else.
If I felt like installing another linux there I would go to boot/grub/menu.lst right click menu.lst and choose, under actions, edit as root. Then I would add a line like this
title "any name ,made up or real' at hda11
rootnoverify (hd0,10)
chainloader +1
Then if I wanted another linux installed I would make another partition, it would be hda12 and then I would make an addition in the menu.lst like this
title Some linux at hda12
rootnoverify (hd0,11)
chainloader +1
The way to make this work is to have grub installed to root for each extra install of linux that you put in. Install grub to root and it wouldn't matter if I had sidux on hda11 or MEPIS installed on hda11. As long as the linux that is on hda11 has grub installed to root it will work. I routinely install any linux that will install grub to root over top of others and you don't need to make any changes to grub either.
In my setup I have SimplyMEPIS 6.0, 3.4.3, 3.3.1-1 and 6.5 beta 7. All have grub installed to root except 3.4.3 because 3.4.3 has grub installed to the Mbr of hda and is the ONLY grub that you want to edit by adding new entries.
All of the other grubs are left alone and installed to root.
The following is one of my posts at mepislovers.org where I post a lot. It was when I had sidux chaos on hda7. Put 3.4.3 over that one in not too long.
Here is a copy of my grub.This grub is loaded to the Mbr of hda with windows.
timeout 15
color cyan/blue white/blue
foreground ffffff
background 0639a1
gfxmenu /boot/grub/message
title MEPIS at hda5, newest kernel
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 nomce quiet vga=791
boot
title MEPIS at hda5, older kernel
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz.old root=/dev/hda5 nomce quiet vga=791
boot
title MEPIS at hda5, kernel 2.6.15-27-desktop
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-27-desktop root=/dev/hda5 nomce quiet vga=791
boot
title chaos at hda7
rootnoverify (hd0,6)
chainloader +1
title Windows at hda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title MEMTEST
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
The one above the windows title(chaos) was the new sidux til this evening now it is 3.4.3.
I had to add it manually.
Here's how to do it.
When I set up this 250 Gb drive I put windows xp on it as I will pass this box on to my 5 1/2 year old son when I get another,better computer. He needs windows to play all of his cdrom games. I don't need windows.
After I put windows on I installed the new beta 7(actually it was beta 5 but it only took 17 package upgrades to make it into beta 7.So easy)
When I installed MEPIS (remember you can use almost any MEPIS for the install.3.4.3,6.0,6.5 take your pick)
Just be SURE that you load grub to the Mbr of hda
If you have sata drives and not ata then you would load grub to the Mbr of sda. Same thing only different.
That's the hard part. So you see there are no hard parts.
So when you have installed MEPIS your grub will look like mine except you won't have this part.
title chaos at hda7
rootnoverify (hd0,6)
chainloader +1
That is the part that I added after I installed sidux (it was buggy for me)
When I installed 3.4.3 in the same partition that sidux was on I didn't even have to change or edit grub at all.
As a matter of fact I could install almost any linux on that drive and it would boot.If and only if grub is installed to root.
If I wanted to install another extra linux on hda8 all I have to do is edit (add to)the menu.lst from the first MEPIS install to read like this
title booga booga booga at hda8
rootnoverify (hd0,7)
chainloader +1
That's it.
The title doesn't matter. Call it anything that you want. I just put booga booga booga in to show that grub doesn't care what the name is and it doesn't even have to match the installed op system name.
That's why when I installed 3.4.3 on the same partition that sidux used to be on I didn't need to edit the grub file. I had already told grub that there was a system on hda7.
The reason that it works is that every additional linux that gets installed MUST have grub installed to root. Then add the new system to grub by adding to grub something like this
title 'name of operating system(or made up name)' at hda9
rootnoverify (hd0,8)
chainloader +1
title another linux at hda10
rootnoverify (hd0,9)
chainloader +1
By adding the above you are just directing grub to that partition where you have already installed grub to root when you installed the other system.
It could be almost any species of linux at all.
The grub that you are using from the first install of MEPIS when you chose to install grub to the Mbr of hda is the only one that you EVER edit to add op systems to. Never play with any of the other grubs or it will get messy.
Let's go over it again. Load grub from the first MEPIS that you install to the Mbr of hda(or sda depending)
All of the other linux op systems must have grub loaded to root. Then add to your original grub and no other grub. OK?
Hope this clears the smoke a bit for you.
Pen 4 2000Mhz CPU 1.16 Gigs of ram With SimplyMEPIS 6.0 and 3.4.3 and 3.3.1-1 AND 6.5.beta 7 all installed and booting from a 250 gig Hda.
80 gig hdb with stored files.
http://www.mepis.org/docs/index.php/Main_Page (The wiki)
Link to MEPIS Install guides(These guides are recommended reading)
http://www.mepisguides.com/
Link to a great post on triple booting
http://www.mepislovers.org/index.php....html#msg35253 look for post #6
