[solved] multiple boot windows XP with more than one Linux OS

[Lisa]

Hi,

This is probably something I shouldn't be doing, as I am a newbie, but I'd like to give it a try.  I'd like to know how to install another Linux distro alongside Pardus (Parud 2008.1 being my main distro) and XP. 

I'm waiting on the other distro from my husband, so I won't be able to try this right away. 

My set up is two hard drives, sata drives. 

sda is the smaller of the two and has XP at the front with grub installed on the MBR, in the middle a NTFS storage partition, and at the end, Pardus system files and at the very end, a Linux swap space. 

I'd like to install the other distro (kde mint) on the second unpartitioned / empty hard drive. 

I've read some how to's, but they are for other distros, like Redhat.
 I'm curious if when the distro asks to where to put grub, should I just tell it not to install any grub, or put it on that particular distros root partition?  I know  not to have grub installed on MBR as grub is already installed there via Pardus. 

And then some say one needs to edit the grub conf file to add some text to show the chain loaded distros so they all show up in grub, but they never go into details for newbies like me to understand the directions.   Will it effect any kernel updates by doing this? 

I'm still getting used to Pardus users and root set up.  I'm used to doing sudo from the days of ubuntu.  I have two users, one which has administrative rights and of course the root password. 

I have lots of time to play with this, and any and all info is much appreciated ahead of time so I can study it. 

Lisa Marie

[atolboo]

 I know  not to have grub installed on MBR as grub is already installed there via Pardus. 

To restore the Pardus bootloader look in http://en.pardus-wiki.org/HOWTO:Restore_Grub

My set up is two hard drives, sata drives. 

As I don't have any experience with sata drives (only with IDE-drives), you could check if the above manual also works with sata drives before doing any installation.

I would install the other distro and have it NOT overwrite grub in MBR.
And then add:

title "the other distro" [ hda11 ]
root (hd0,10)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

to /boot/grub/menu.lst in Pardus.

Counting of hard drives/partitions start at 0.
The 12th partition on the first hard drive is hd0,11
I don't know if sata drives are called with hd.

BUT DON'T BLAME ME if things go wrong.

[Lisa]

Thanks, atolboo! 

I used that how to restore grub wiki last week, so I am familiar with it/comfortable with it. 

sata drives are labeled sd, and my second drive is listed as sdb. 

Don't worry, I wouldn't blame if something goes amiss.  That is why I said I'd like to give it a try.  I'll have to learn how to do it sooner or later.   

I appreciate it!

Lisa Marie

[atolboo]

sata drives are labeled sd, and my second drive is listed as sdb. 

sdb? Where did you get this information?
When sata drives are called by sdx in grub I expect that your second sata drive is called sd1.
Have a look in your existing /boot/grub/menu.lst file in Pardus how your first sata drive is called.

I must warn that this is different than  in Gparted.
There my first IDE-drive is called /dev/sda while the second IDE-drive is called /dev/sdb.

[Lisa]

Thanks and understood.  Yes, I was using gparted as the drive info, but I see in the grub menu list the SATA drives are hd0, and so forth and not sd.  I have a lot to learn!

Regards,
Lisa Marie

[Lisa]

I worked on this yesterday after receiving the other distro my husband sent to me.  I have xp, the second distro, and Pardus 2008.1.  XP and first distro are on the first  hard drive, with a NTFS storage partition between XP and ext3 distro partition, and a swap partition at the end.  On second hard drive I installed Pardus and chose not to install bootloader.  Then, went into first distro and from there I tried to find the menu.lst in mounted Pardus, but of course it wasn't there as I didn't install bootloader to it.  So, hard way, as I'm not using a live disk, I did a second install  of Pardsu on second hd just after the Pardus partition, this time installing bootloader to the second Pardus partition, so I could look at the menu.lst.  There's probably an easier way to find this out, and I could have also asked one of you to list what is in your Pardus 2008.1 menu.lst, but I was able to mount the second Pardus install and look at the menu.lst which I copied as an entry in the second distro's menu.lst, making sure I used (hd1,0) and not (hd1,1) as was listed in the second Pardus install.

Sorry about the long output in code.  I was trying to get it in its own scrollable window. 

Code:

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-legacy-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

gfxmenu=/etc/grub/message.elyssa

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 10

# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/sda6 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,5)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
##      lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(single-user) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Linux Mint 5 KDE CE, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=/dev/sda6 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Linux Mint 5 KDE CE, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=/dev/sda6 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Linux Mint 5 KDE CE, kernel memtest86+
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root

# This I configured to add Pardus to menu items
# on /dev/sdb1
title Pardus 2008.1 Hyaena hyaena
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.25.16-108 root=LABEL=PARDUS_ROOT vga=791 splash=silent quiet
initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.25.16-108


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

My first attempt I left off the root=LABEL, etc and when I clicked on Pardus at boot splash, it showed only console output and ended with "could not find boot device /bin/sh; can't access tty; job control turned off".  So, I added that bit and it works fine.  After I made sure all os's booted properly, I deleted the second Pardus install.   I made a backup of the menu.lst just in case if things didn't work out, or if a kernel update messes up the whole thing.  Ubuntu based distros are bad about having many, many updates when the system is still new, and many of these will be kernel updates.  I'll add to this if I have any problems with my particular lay-out.  I may have to rearrange it so that Pardus is second, and I edit Pardus' menu.lst to add the other distro.  Or, just blow away Mint if I fully embrace Pardus, as I don't need it, but wanted to see if I could do this type of set-up.

So far, I have to say I like Pardus best, and then Mint KDE, as Pardus's layout is excellent, the install is top quality, and I find I have all that I need with the packages that are default installed.  I also like the way Pardus's PiSi package manager only installs the parts of the packages it needs to do an update, which saves me much time and I think is a neat idea when it comes to updates and package installs.  Makes sense.

Lisa Marie