Simple Ubuntu 10.04x LTS installation that allows multiboot

Posted 08-25-2010 at 12:35 PM by sfxpt
Updated 10-12-2010 at 10:46 PM by sfxpt

Hi,

Have you ever heard of multibooting many distros from the same partition (eg, MultiBoot USB with Grub2)?

Do you need to find a way to install the new Ubuntu 10.04x LTS into an existing partition as another option to multiboot?

Simple, you don't need to download or install any scripts or executables. But you should be familiar with command line.

Preparation:

Code:

# Prepare source
sudo mount -o loop iso/ubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso /mnt/iso1/
# Prepare destination, HD/USB
mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt/usbpen/

Method 1, boot Ubuntu without expanding CD as files:

Copy /casper/vmlinuz, /casper/initrd.lz and /preseed from CD into HD/USB

Code:

cd /mnt/iso1/
rsync -vuaR casper/vmlinuz casper/initrd.lz preseed /mnt/usbpen

Then add the following boot entry to your grub:

Code:

title Ubuntu 10.04x LTS ISO
  kernel /casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/iso/ubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso file=/preseed/ubuntu.seed quiet splash --
  initrd /casper/initrd.lz

Note, if you use grub2, then you don't need to extract any file from CD. Just add the following boot entry to your grub2 cfg:

Code:

menuentry "Ubuntu 10.04x LTS" {
       loopback loop (hd0,3)/path/to/ISOs/ubuntu/lucid-desktop-i386.iso
       linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/path/to/ISOs/ubuntu/lucid-desktop-i386.iso file=(loop)/preseed/ubuntu.seed quiet splash bootkbd=sg --
       initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

Method 2, boot without CD:

To allow better multiboot, this time we put everything into a sub-folder,

Code:

mkdir /mnt/usbpen/ubuntu
cd /mnt/iso1/
rsync -vuaR casper preseed /mnt/usbpen/ubuntu

Then add the following boot entry to your grub:

Code:

title Ubuntu 10.04x LTS Live
  kernel /ubuntu/casper/vmlinuz file=/ubuntu/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/ubuntu/casper/initrd.lz ignore_uuid live-media-path=/ubuntu/casper quiet splash --
  initrd /ubuntu/casper/initrd.lz

Choose one method, not both. That's it. To recap:

You don't need to get your existing multiboot partition wipe out by official USB installation.
You don't need to download or install any scripts or executables to install yourself.
Just a few commands from command line allow you to install Ubuntu 10.04x LTS into your existing multiboot partition as another entry.

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