[SOLVED] Dual-boot with Manjaro

canadensis · 01-24-2016, 01:55 AM

Hello All,

I am trying to dual-boot Slackware (32-bit, current) with Manjaro (Fluxbox, openrc). I have installed Slack, then Manjaro (format /dev/sda2 for /, use /dev/sda3 for /home, use /dev/sda4 for swap and with no boot loader). I then boot back into Slackware and

1. Make directory /mnt/manjaro
2. Add this to /etc/fstab (below)
3. Edit /etc/lilo.conf (below)
4. Run lilo -v

Slackware still boots fine, I am using it to write this. But when I boot Manjaro, I get to the graphical login manager which looks normal, but on entering my password it just returns me to the login screen. I am able to login on another tty.

Also, and I do not know whether this is related, early in the boot process I get a warning "The root device is not configured to be mounted read-write! It may be fsck'd later on."

Code:

$ cat /etc/fstab 
/dev/sda4        swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/sda1        /                ext4        defaults         1   1
/dev/sda3        /home            ext4        defaults         1   2

/dev/sda2        /mnt/manjaro     ext4        defaults         1   2

#/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro,comment=x-gvfs-show 0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
tmpfs            /dev/shm         tmpfs       defaults         0   0

Code:

$ cat /etc/lilo.conf

...

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda1
  label = Slackware
  read-only  # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /mnt/manjaro/boot/vmlinuz-4.1-x86_64
  root = /dev/sda2
  append = "root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/33f34772-1f23-4644-8138-7b6500f574ba"
  initrd = /mnt/manjaro/boot/initramfs-4.1-x86_64.img
  label = Manjaro
  read-only  # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Any help would be appreciated!

Cheers, Bill

ButterflyMelissa · 01-24-2016, 02:07 AM

hi

What's in the /home/[user]/.xinitrc ?
If things are not set right there, chances are you cannot start the DE and you get sent back to the login screen...
Melissa

canadensis · 01-24-2016, 03:00 AM

Thanks Melissa, I did not think of that!

Code:

$ cat .xinitrc
#!/bin/sh
#  xinitrc.xfce - modified to work around xfce4session bug
#                 https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8841


########################################################################
##  Merge in defaults and keymaps                                     ##
########################################################################

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
    /usr/bin/xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
    /usr/bin/xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f $userresources ]; then
    /usr/bin/xrdb -merge $userresources
fi

if [ -f $usermodmap ]; then
    /usr/bin/xmodmap $usermodmap
fi

########################################################################
##  Start xfce Desktop Environment                                    ##
########################################################################

if [ -z "$DESKTOP_SESSION" -a -x /usr/bin/ck-launch-session ]; then
  exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/startxfce4
else
  exec dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/startxfce4
fi

Can you suggest how I fix this? Can I test for the partition somehow?

Thanks, Bill

ButterflyMelissa · 01-24-2016, 03:03 AM

Hi Bill,
try to add this line at the end

Code:

exec startxfce4

and see where it ends
Melissa

canadensis · 01-24-2016, 02:12 PM

Hi Melissa,

Arrgh - now I realise what has happened! Your suggestion to edit .xinitrc worked, actually what I did was login to Slackware and used xwmconfig to change the default to Fluxbox, then I booted Manjaro and logged in OK ... to the default Fluxbox with no Manjaro settings but with the Manjaro applications such as lxterminal available.

Of course by sharing /home on /dev/sda4 the Manjaro installer did not write anything to /home. The /mnt/manjaro/home directory is empty, so whether I login to Slackware or Manjaro I get the Slackware /home contents.

So, this could work nicely ... if I copy the Manjaro Fluxbox config files etc. from another Manjaro installation into /home, both Slack and Manjaro will use them and I will have the (very nice) Manjaro Fluxbox setup in Slackware!

The more tricky bit will be modifying .xinitrc to use XFCE in Slackware and Fluxbox in Manjaro, I need to test whether I am booting from sda1 or sda2 in the script perhaps. It might be easier, in the installation, to mount sda4 on /home/documents so that the two distros can have separate /home directories. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help,
Cheers, Bill

ButterflyMelissa · 01-25-2016, 05:10 AM

Hi,
Glad it worked out

So, for some, a common /home shared by different installed distros can be seen as a pro...to you...it's not...
Some guys at Ubuntu's site struggled with that too...I donbt know if that can help...
I has kept quite some people awake... Guillermo Garron being one...he seems to have had a common user installed, pehaps this is the key to having or not having a commong /home...
Watching on...

Melissa

chexmix · 01-28-2016, 08:35 AM

Hi Bill ... this is a good instructive thread. Could you set it to SOLVED?

canadensis · 01-29-2016, 06:35 PM

Thanks Melissa and chexmix,

Two very useful links there Melissa!

So the problem was that I was attempting to share /home between two distributions - not a good idea because this leads to problems with shared configuration files. Could also have problems if the two distributions use different default UIDs and GIDs.

I have the following setup:

Code:

sda1 / for Slackware not including /home
sda2 / for Manjaro including /home
sda3 /home for Slackware
sda4 swap (used by both)

and I intend to simply copy files from one /home to the other when needed.

What are the other options for sharing files between two distros?

1. Share /home - this leads to problems with shared configuration files. Could also have problems if the two distributions use different default UIDs and GIDs.

2. Give each distribution its own /home and share common documents on a third partition in subdirectories of /home: you could set this up in /etc/fstab using the bind file system type,

3. Use symlinks from one distro to the other.

4. Mount sda3 from Manjaro when needed.

5. Copy files from one partition to the other as needed.

6. There are other options, of course, covered in Melissa's two links above. Options 1-3 (4?) above may create problems with GIDs and UIDs if different.

My /etc/fstab

Code:

/dev/sda4        swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/sda1        /                ext4        defaults         1   1
/dev/sda3        /home            ext4        defaults         1   2

/dev/sda2        /mnt/manjaro     ext4        defaults         1   2

#/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro,comment=x-gvfs-show 0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
tmpfs            /dev/shm         tmpfs       defaults         0   0

My /etc/lilo.conf

Code:

# LILO configuration file
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/sda

...


# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda1
  label = Slackware
  read-only  # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /mnt/manjaro/boot/vmlinuz-4.1-x86_64
  root = /dev/sda2
  initrd = /mnt/manjaro/boot/initramfs-4.1-x86_64.img
  label = Manjaro
  read-only  # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends

I hope this helps!
Cheers, Bill