Setting up a bootloader for triple/quad boot

Blackened Justice · 07-14-2011, 04:28 PM

Hey,

I want to have LinuxMint, Fedora and OpenSUSE installed alongside Windows 7, and have the option to choose which one to boot from some sort of bootloader. How can I set up a bootloader (let's say, grub, or the windows bootloader) to be able to correctly boot all 4 OSs? And imagine I add Slackware to another partition, will I be able to easily add Slackware to the bootloader?

Cheers

syg00 · 07-14-2011, 06:00 PM

Yes - to all the above.
I find it easiest to install all (Linux) systems except one with the bootloader in the root/boot partition so they can be chainloaded, and not have to worry about changes in kernel versions. Win7 can also be chainloaded.
If you choose to use the Win7 loader, install all Linux systems as above, and use EasyBCD (free) to add them to the boot menu.

lamouche · 07-15-2011, 01:59 AM

Yes, it's possibly. I suggest using Grub as your main bootloader. Install Windows first and leave room for the rest of the operating systems and then install the rest. During your installations, configure grub to be able to boot to the different partitions you have your linux installations on. You can also add an entry for Windows.

Larry Webb · 07-15-2011, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Yes - to all the above.
I find it easiest to install all (Linux) systems except one with the bootloader in the root/boot partition so they can be chainloaded, and not have to worry about changes in kernel versions. Win7 can also be chainloaded.
If you choose to use the Win7 loader, install all Linux systems as above, and use EasyBCD (free) to add them to the boot menu.

I agree with syg00 except I like to put grub in its own partition (20) meg and chainload all the distros. Then you never have to worry about updates or changeing distros except which partition you put them in.