MINT 12 is "Multi-Boot Unfriendly"

[firmwarewiz]

Hello:
I have lately installed Mint 12 x64 using the release DVD.
I like many things (still thumbs up on Nvidia and Broadcom drivers install !) , and will here focus on multi-boot issues.
I can here say that on my multi-boot system, Mint-12 is "Multi-Boot un-friendly."

To be precise I do have:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags Mount
sda1 1049kB 105GB 105GB primary ntfs
sda2 105GB 105GB 524MB primary ext4 boot /boot
sda3 105GB 184GB 78.6GB primary ext4 /mint10
sda4 184GB 320GB 136GB extended
sda5 184GB 238GB 53.8GB logical btrfs
sda9 238GB 263GB 24.9GB logical ext4 /
sda6 263GB 284GB 21.0GB logical xfs /home
sda7 284GB 292GB 8389MB logical linux-swap(v1)
sda8 292GB 320GB 28.0GB logical ext4

Mint 12 (like Mint 11, by the way) is "multi-boot unfriendly" because:

1) Because the installer does not give the option to install (or not) the boot loader, or it is rather fairly limited.

2) Because unlike say Fedora, or CentOS, the files (mostly vmlinuz, intrd/ramfs written in /boot for Mint have a generic name.

for example, this (You can guess!) aming scheme is good:
vmlinuz-3.1.1-1.fc16.x86_64 because at first glance you know distro, version, kernel version, architecture.
When this one (Mint11) is not as good: because you miss lots of the info stated above.
vmlinuz-3.0.0-13-generic

3) Because after installing Mint12 on my /dev/sda9 partition:
I could use Mint 12: works fine.
I could not boot anymore Mint 10. (I had various errors messages, trying several things).
The GRUB2 boot menu stanzas are not good : they do not state that sda3 has Mint10 (It says Mint 12).

Notes:

I do realize that may be a GRUB2 issue, but this may be solvable, so by installing Mint 12, the linux systems (distros) partitions should still boot !
I have used Linux for over 12 years: The good old LILO time) and multiboot has never been easy, but GRUB-1 was a lot easier to manage (manually) than GRUB-2...

FWZ

[oobetimer]

Grub2 is good but Legacy grub is still the number one ..

If I have a multi boot system, I remove grub2 and install grub, so everything works fine ..

[wayne128]

I can here say that on my multi-boot system, Mint-12 is "Multi-Boot un-friendly."

Interesting statement

In my opinion, the choice of Master Boot Loader, the boot loader controlling MBR, is more important in multiboot system.

1) Because the installer does not give the option to install (or not) the boot loader, or it is rather fairly limited.

This is strange, I installed twice, each time I can always install its default grub2 boot loader.
The only issue I found was, Device for boot loader drop down list does not have root partition or target partition.
Anyway I can select almost every partition (except root/target) , including MBR , to install grub2.
Sometime I let it install onto a dummy partition so that my MBR is not touched
Oh yes, you cannot choose NOT to install grub...Some distros allow a choice NOT to install boot loader.

3) Because after installing Mint12 on my /dev/sda9 partition:
I could use Mint 12: works fine.
I could not boot anymore Mint 10. (I had various errors messages, trying several things).

You may do this, boot and run from Mint 12, then, get to root terminal and do a update-grub. reboot , Mint10 on sda3 should appear in grub startup menu.

The GRUB2 boot menu stanzas are not good :
but GRUB-1 was a lot easier to manage (manually) than GRUB-2...

I used grub legacy to control MBR.
so my stanza is very easy to create and it always stay exactly what was created, not affected by kernel upgrade or grub upgrade.

they do not state that sda3 has Mint10 (It says Mint 12).

mine does: it displays Linux Mint 12 32-bit, 3.0.0-12-generic-pae (/dev/sda11)

Code: Select all

menuentry 'Linux Mint 12 32-bit, 3.0.0-12-generic-pae (/dev/sda11)' --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
	insmod gzio
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos11)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4a557833-3475-42b1-bac5-aa7e0606adc2
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic-pae root=UUID=4a557833-3475-42b1-bac5-aa7e0606adc2 ro   quiet splash vt.handoff=7
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic-pae
}