Install a test environment for 17.10 on a separate disk/partition from my primary.

papajon · 07-19-2017, 09:28 AM

I have an SSD (sda) with Grub as the boot loader. Ubuntu 17.04 is also on the SSD.

I have Win10 on a 25% partition of a 1TB drive (sdb1).

I want to be able to install an occasional 17.10 daily build on the large remaining partition sdb3-formatted as ext4.

My grub on sda is customized and I don't want to lose it during installation of 17.10. The Ubuntu install wants to overwrite it making the 17.10 the primary boot target.
Can anyone give me advice for telling the 17.10 install process to disregard grub - I will set it up manually with Grub Customizer later. Or is there another solution?

wagscat123 · 07-19-2017, 04:55 PM

It would be fairly trivial to boot back up from within Ubuntu 17.04 and reinstall 17.04's customized GRUB 2 onto your target device via the command line if you customized GRUB 2 properly

TxLonghorn · 07-20-2017, 06:01 AM

I always do it the way wagscat123 said.
Install Grub to the MBR when you install 17.10
That Grub will list 17.04 - so you can then boot 17.04 and run

Code:

sudo update-grub

and

Code:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

Make a backup copy of 17.04's grub.cfg before you start, for reference.

You can install 17.10 without installing Grub if you start the installation program (ubiquity) from a terminal, with the command

Code:

ubiquity -b

. But you would still have to run

Code:

sudo update-grub

in 17.04 to put 17.10 on that Grub menu.