March 28, 2024, 09:26:57 PM

News : LinuxSolved.com Linux Help Community Forum..


Author Topic: GRUB: Multiple Linux Distributions on the same Hard Drive  (Read 6683 times)

Offline billyboykin

  • New Member
  • Posts: 1
GRUB: Multiple Linux Distributions on the same Hard Drive
« on: July 24, 2004, 07:08:56 PM »
If I want to install a second distro onto a system that currently has RH, are there special steps needed to have GRUB present the OS choices?  Are there special steps during the 2nd Linux install?  I currently have XP and RH dual booting using GRUB in the MBR.

Offline Ricky

  • LST CareTaker
  • Specially Skilled
  • *****
  • Posts: 2381
GRUB: Multiple Linux Distributions on the same Hard Drive
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2004, 07:04:14 AM »
Simply install on a separate partition and the new distro will automatically get the older distro and will list in boot menu! so choose to install new distro's bootloader on MBR

Offline MhykGyver

  • Linux Noob !
  • *
  • Posts: 13
GRUB: Multiple Linux Distributions on the same Hard Drive
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2004, 05:17:37 AM »
i am a newbie in the field of linux and i have a little problem with my two distro's...i currently have win98se, winxp and win2k3 with two more distro's red hat linux 9 and LormaLinux 5(from Lorma Colleges, San Fernando, La Union, Philippines)...now the problem is this...Grub (from LormaLinux, version 0.95) can't seem to load my red hat distro...my boot partition for my red hat distro is (hd0,8) and my / is (hd0,10) and my swap (hd0,9)...i manually added entries in LormaLinux's GRUB(menu.lst) pointing to my red hat distro (i can boot my red hat distro from my boot diskette, btw) but GRUB just says that it can't find the files needed to boot red hat...i even tried copying files from my red hat boot diskette into (hd0,11) and made a new folder /boot/grub_red_hat hoping that it would boot red hat but it didn't...instead it went into a kernel panic or something like that...help me please...

Offline Ricky

  • LST CareTaker
  • Specially Skilled
  • *****
  • Posts: 2381
GRUB: Multiple Linux Distributions on the same Hard Drive
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2004, 06:00:46 AM »
well. first try to boot to redhat and do grup-install /dev/hda

Then tell us what is your condition !

Offline MhykGyver

  • Linux Noob !
  • *
  • Posts: 13
GRUB: Multiple Linux Distributions on the same Hard Drive
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2004, 08:40:46 AM »
SUCCESS!!! i finally managed to run my two distro's...i did what you said...grub-install /dev/hda (u misspelled it)...then added the path for my LormaLinux Distro in my /boot/grub/menu.lst...here are the lines that i added:

title LormaLinux (2.6.7-1.437)
      root(hd0,11)
      kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.7-1.437 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
      initd /initrd-2.6.7-1.437.img

i was doing this before but it didn't run, i guess since i changed the
LABEL=/1 with /dev/hda13...

now, for my next challenge...i'll be installing freebsd 5.2 in my pc...just downloaded a manual in pdf format(forgot the link but i searched it through google)...the title of the manual is: Win+BSD+Linux-Install...i also downloaded the freebsd manual...

i'll be posting the results, the problems and the frustrations in doing it(did i mention that i tried doing it b4 and i failed miserably ;) )

can i get any help b4 i start? :)

Thank you! again guys...