how to dual boot 2 linux for newbies

hello everyone

sorry my house was getting painted and every thing happen so fast i have to remove every thing didt get time to complete tutorial as expected time

my sincere apologies


what here i did is i make a common tutorial with screenshots which work with almost every distro so it worth reading

i had made a 3 page tutorial for partition with gpatred toll for considering newbies in mind
now the final 40% part installation is left and correction part

i am considering fedora and mint to make a complete tutorial

please if you guys have any other distro please make suggestions

best regards

mack

 

Is it possible to add suse 11.2 gnome as a 3 rd boot option?

Thank you so much for taking time to make such a useful document.

I am so exhausted of using computer in the last 2 weeks that I will go to a holiday next week and will not take my laptop with me.I hope I can stay without using a computer for 5 days.

When I come back from the holiday I will definitely try dual booting.

 

yes you can boot as many as you want dual....... triple boot....etc


but its best if you decide which to put as your

main distro with its bootloader

which others to put second ..................

wait for 4-5 days next week you see tricks to do it easy way

 

This is what I link for noobs trying to dual boot, thanks mack_guy911.

 

Here's a link to saikee's tutorial on how to boot 145 distros on one disk:

How to install and boot 145 operating systems in a PC.

Note: The 145 systems are:-

3 Dos
5 Windows
137 Linux

-- Tom

 

how to do dual boot with 2 linux distros


i am going to install 2 distros

fedora and mintlinux on virtual machine


now 1st step preparation
get a paper and pen and make a blue print how to do it


1st step most important select out of 2 distros which you want to be your default one

if x distro give you boot problem then best way is select the second y one as your default distro


make partitions using gparted tool

before that please know you can make only 4 partitions

best way is that make 3 primary and one extended (in extended you can create many logical partitions)

for reference what is primary extended and logical please check

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/structPartitions-c.html


now all you need is gparted tool which is default installed in many distros
ubuntu mint ...........etc even if you dont want to use ubuntu you can still run it from live medium

and use gparted tool for creating partition table before making any real install


now


i am using ubuntu cd for partition and for that i am going to install fedora 13 and mint linux 9

step 1 insert ubuntu cd in your disk drive and make sure your bios is set to boot from cd/dvd 1st

step 2 when you get into ubuntu live session click on try ubuntu 10.04 LTS

step 3 you get into live session from there
system>administration>gparted (3rd option is gparted)

step 4 click on gpatred and you see there your unallocated partition

now write down on paper what partition you want to make and how much size you want to give to them

example 1

partition size of hardisk let say 500 gb


50 / gb root partition (primary partition for mint root /)

300 /gb home partition (primary partition for mint /home )

then

2gb swap (primary /swap partition which will work with both)

extended

148

from there


50 gb root logical

98 gb home logical

or

just one partition

148 gb root logical for other distro


example 2 here in my case i am on virtual machine i have 26 gb whole partition

so am going to make

7 gb root primary partition
10 gb home primary partition
1 gb swap primary partition
and

rest extended



and from there all left one into

/ for second distro


now click on new to create partition and then ......

A) new size tab i wrote 7167 mb (approx 7gb)

B) in create as tab i scroll it to primary partition

C) in file system tab i wrote ext4 (which is new default file system for many new linux systems)

D) in label tab i label it as / (root)



now here what i got

partiton(1) 7gb / (root) ext4
partition(2) 9.77 gb /home ext4

partiton(3) 1gb linux swap

partition(4) 8.50 gb extended nothing

partition(5) 8.50 gb / (root) for another distro

in any case you have done wrong delete and recreate it or undo it

make it again and once you feel they are write for you then

click on apply

once you apply real partitions created


now if you are not going to install distro from disk from which you create partitions remove it and put a distro you want to install

now here is trick select the second distro 1st like for example you want to install

mint and fedora and you want to put mint as your main distro with bootloder in it then install fedora 1st and install its bootloader in its own root partition

(why because its easy when you install mint after is auto detect bootloader of second distro and add it in its default bootloader )

 

more screen shots

cont..........

 

now we install fedora 1st as we have choose it as our 2nd distro so we install its bootloader in its own drive ie sda5 [partition(5) 8.50 gb / (root) for another distro]


note:- if you have 1st hardisk it show sda for second hardisk it show sdb .....3rd sdc...........etc

a,b,c is hardisk number and 1,2,3,4..........partitions numbers so we are having here is one hardisk and its partition number 5 ........so sda 5.


now step 1 click on install fedora

step 2 click on language of keyboard usa by default

step3 click 3 click on basic storage devices

step 4 select your drive (harddisk if you have one check on it)

step 5 write your computer name {example: (localhostlocaldoman) default}

step 6 select your time zone

step 7 root password

step 8 there this is very important step where we tweak


step 8 select create the custom layout

step 9 now select the partition you want to install fedora on here its sda5

step 10 click on edit (why because we have already created partitions from gparted)

step 11 set mount point to / (we do not need to formate as we formate if before if you get trouble you can check the formate icon as well)

step 12 most important step

step 12 check install bootloader and click on change device

from master boot record change it to :- first sector of boot partition of second distro

in simple words root partition where you installed the distro

here

change masterboot record -dev/sda (which is 1st sector of your hardisk)

to

first sector of boot partition - /dev/sda5 (where we install fedora /)

if you done everything write then click next

install complete


now important notes:-

main things need to be notice

1st custom layout of partition where you give the path of your already created / partition for your second distro fedora

2nd change bootloader from default mbr to path of / of fedora you installed which is same as above

3rd when you done every thing you try to boot after that fedora wont boot why because boot loader not installed on mbr but root of fedora so dont need to be panicked when you install mint after words it will auto notice fedora boot loader and add it to its own and hence you can boot both fedora and mint


now we are going to install mint ............

 

more screen shots

some screen shots i skipped i put the main ones

http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2010/05/26/fedora-13/2/

 

now click on linux mint install

step 1 click forward

step 2 select time zone click forward (if time zone time show diffrent dont worry you can correct is manually later)

step 3 keyboard layout click forward

step 4 again important step

step 4 select specify partitions manually (advance) and click forward

step 5 select your partition here its sda1 and click on change

then in small window

select your filesystem ext4 and mount point / also if you want to formate check it

step 6 select your other partition sda2 click on change

select your filesystem ext4 and mount point /home also if you want to formate check it

(please note that i have created the home partition separately if you have only one partition (/) just like in fedora you can skip that step)

step 7 who you are? create your username and password


step 8 click next and install


note: there we dont need to change bootloader which is by default set to install in mbr so we skip advance step here and install

after install you get mint and fedora both if you done it correctly

 

more screenshots

i skipped screen shot of timezone select and keyboard layout and username

http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2010/05/18/linux-mint-9-isadora/2/

 

last screen shots

i also put a screen shot of advance here you dont need to do anything please skip that i just put it for refrance







summery:-

this way you can install any distro dual boot tripple boot or 100+ boot etc

main things

install the distro whose bootloader you want at the end (main distro) and install other distros 1st and their bootloader in their own / root partition path instead of mbr

and create partitions with gparted tool before and from distros you want to install give their path or /...... /home etc......from their create custom partition option


note :-
if you want septate /boot partition best way is make the 1st partition (ie sda) and only create one boot partition for your main distro which get linked too all rest other installed distros





THE END





regards mack