Beartooth Testbedder wrote: > > So now I want to install CentOS 5.1 again, Ubuntu 7.10, and Fedora 8. > > The VDQ comes in three parts. > > First, the sequence : I'd prefer to put the new Ubuntu onto one of the 13 > GB partitions, and make it end up second in boot sequence. > > I *think* I'll be safer to install it first in time, and with the GUI > .iso, *not* with the text-install, which I lack the savvy to use. > > Can I do that? Or does installing it first in time force me to use the > first free partition? (If it does, but lets me keep the rest of the setup, > I'd rather live with it than tackle the text-install again, let alone > re-partition.) > > Second, also about the sequence : given that all I've ever really run has > been RedHat or Fedora (but I've been doing that since RH7), will I be any > better off installing one of them before the other? > > Third, does anyone know of an example somewhere of a grub.conf, for a > machine running three linuces, which I can manage to clone once I do get > all three installed? > > I'm assuming that each OS will have a way of booting itself once I get to > it, and that the first and hardest job will be instructing grub how to get > to each, in a way that enables it to update for itself whenever any of > the three gets a fresh kernel on some update. Is that right? > > My experience in the past has been that grub is everywhere dense, as the > mathematicians say. Not in this life will I get my head far enough > around it to have a real grasp of how to configure it -- not and get it > right. Man grub and its ilk wear out my fingernails as I try to climb the > walls. > > But I can copy and vary, or follow a recipe if it's explicit enough. > There are a couple of ways to do this. The way I would probably do it is to install the OS I am going to use most first. Install Grub to the MBR. Install the other distributions, installing Grub to the root or boot partition. Now boot the first installed distribution, and edit the Grub menu to add entries for the other distributions. What you will be doing is chain loading to the other Grub installs. title Ubuntu root (0,1) chainload +1 What this does is when you pick Ubuntu from the menu, it loads the Grub install that is on the second partition. This version then gives you the menu entries for Ubuntu. The advantage of this is that each distribution manages its own Grub menu. The disadvantage is that you end up with 2 menus when booting the less used distributions. Another thing to keep in mind is that /boot on the other distributions must be readable by the BIOS (Not a problem with most newer BIOS), and can not be on a LVM volume. Another way to do it is to have a Grub installation that just offers you the choice of distributions, and then chain loads to the Grub install from that distribution. (Or another boot loader besides Grub that does the same thing.) This is a bit harder to set up, but may look nicer. It is also possible to have all 3 distributions share the same /boot partition, and have one Grub menu that manages them all, but you have to be careful about kernel names, and to make sure that the Grub menu does not get messed up. Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
