Re: multiboot different linux distributions?

• Previous message: philo: "Re: Problems with Fedora? Use Mandriva (Mandrake)"
• In reply to: Tom Horsley: "multiboot different linux distributions?"
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Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 21:15:58 -0400

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 21:11:50 +0000, Tom Horsley wrote:

> I can find 10,000 pointers on the web to multi booting Windows
> and linux with grub, yet I can't find any info about booting
> multiple linux distributions with grub. Any pointers? (Perhaps
> they are there, but obscured by the 10,000 hits for windows :-).
>
> I ask because I suspect I'd run into problems if I tried
> with things like fedora and opensuse. Fedora has a grub.conf
> file, suse calls it something like menu.conf. Who gets
> to be in charge?
>
> If I update the suse kernel in yast, and fedora is in charge, how
> does it find out about the new suse kernel (and vice-versa).

You can have as many different distros as you want. Treat the first one as
the master and place it's boot loader in then MBR, all of the others
should have their boot loader placed in their root partition. Here is an
example grub.conf ffrom on of my machines. You'll see that it chains to
CentOS, FC4 and Windows.

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd2,4)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdd5
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hdd5
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd2,4)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Fedora Core (2.6.12-1.1376_FC3)
        root (hd2,4)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-1.1376_FC3 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.12-1.1376_FC3.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.35_FC3)
        root (hd2,4)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.35_FC3 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.35_FC3.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.11.5)
        root (hd2,4)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.5 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11.5.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.12.1)
        root (hd2,4)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12.1 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.12.1.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)
        root (hd2,4)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
title Windows
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        chainloader +1
title CentOS
        rootnoverify (hd1,4)
        chainloader +1
title FC4
        rootnoverify (hd2,0)
        chainloader +1
title Other
        rootnoverify (hd0,4)
        chainloader +1

• Previous message: philo: "Re: Problems with Fedora? Use Mandriva (Mandrake)"
• In reply to: Tom Horsley: "multiboot different linux distributions?"
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