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Old 03-05-2004, 01:29 AM   #1
LinuxWannaBE916
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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Sacramento, CA
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Cool can i boot multiple distro's alongside XP?


i'm BRAND new to linux and currently running XP and RH9 with no problems, but i wanna be able to sample a lot more distro's without going through the hassel of having to repartition and load each one...

i tried loading Mandrake with my XP and RH9, but I could only boot to one or the other (i had to use a bootdisk for the one that didn't show up in GRUB). i tried editing grub.conf but that was difficult since i'm so new to linux...

i would like to have maybe 3 or 4 distro's to run alongside XP, so is there a way for me to load up all the OS's and have ONE boot loader recognize all the distro's? i've searched around, and it seems people have only had success dual booting, so any help would be GREATLY appreciated. thanks!
 
Old 03-05-2004, 02:40 AM   #2
dushkinup
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Registered: Feb 2004
Location: Alpha Quadrant, sol system, earth, asia, Israel.
Distribution: Computer I : Slackware 9.1 ; Computer II : Windows XP
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Multiple distros.. That's an interesting idea - and may be possible.

I have done a little google research for you and I found something really nice for you (though it seems too complicated for new people)

http://thestarport.org/people/steve/...e-distros.html

Someone told me once Linux is not so friendly to other operating systems who come after him.
Just be careful not to screw up your current XP partition.
 
Old 03-05-2004, 03:11 AM   #3
nerofiend
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If you have enough HD space you should be able to install as many as you want. One thing to note is that when you install Grub there is an option to add any other partitions you have as Grub doesnt always pick up every one of them. I had that problem with it and it wouldnt find my Windows partition. But I found if you simply click the Add button then you can manually pick what partitions you want Grub to display at bootup.

Hope this helps and i hope its right. Im pretty new to this myself.
 
Old 03-05-2004, 03:17 AM   #4
dushkinup
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Location: Alpha Quadrant, sol system, earth, asia, Israel.
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It's wierd to see how newbies become experts in three days.
 
Old 03-05-2004, 03:20 AM   #5
nerofiend
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lol, nah not anywhere close to an expert :P At least not with Linux, just in the ways of the PC lol. If its a partition on the drive it shouldnt make any difference how many there are.......Well up to a point. I dunno what the limit is on ext2/3 partitions but Windows NTFS has a limit of like 5 or so I think.
 
Old 03-06-2004, 12:19 AM   #6
LinuxWannaBE916
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Location: Sacramento, CA
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thanks for all of your help... i've been playing with grub.conf and lilo.conf, but each distro i installed loaded its own boot partition, so i guess that's where my problem lies...

i've also installed partition magic and boot magic to load multiple distro's, but i've only bee able to install one alongside XP. this is going to take a lot of tinkering and TIME, but hey! its all in good fun...

thanks again!
 
Old 03-29-2004, 04:49 AM   #7
LinuxWannaBE916
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I just discovered System Commander, and now I have 6 OS's running alongside XP!!

Mandrake 9.2, Fedora, SuSE 9.0, Lycoris, Slackware 9.1, and Knoppix 3.3!
 
Old 03-30-2004, 01:22 PM   #8
sjia
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Yes, you can. I have SuSE 9.0, Fedora Core 1 and Mandrake 9.2 installed on 3 partitions. Its tricky though.

You need 5 partitions to accomplish the above three plus Windows plus one partition for your swap file. I included an extra partition for sharing files.

all your distros can share the same swap file.

the key is finding out boot information for each distros cause you need that info. (ie kernel type and partition locations and options)

I believe there is a bug in Fedora and Mandrake Grub and Lilo but not sure. I had problems using there Grub files installing multi-distros O/S.

I use SuSE as my Grub bootloader cause it is solid.

What you can do is install SuSE last and allow it to right over the other grub files. Then edit the SuSE's Grub file to add the other bootloader info.

Make sure you do not reformat (notice I said reformat) the other partitions cause you will erase your other distros. The formating of all your partitions should be done on your first distros install.

Install 1 distros get the bootloader info
Install the second distros and get its bootloader info. (again do not format the other partitions)
Install SuSE last and allow it to take over Grub. (again do not format the other partitions).
Edit your Grub file to add the other bootloader info.
Your set but be careful cause many things can go wrong as did with me but I eventually accomplished it.

Last edited by sjia; 03-30-2004 at 01:29 PM.
 
  


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