WinterTroubles wrote:I discovered this, in these forums yesterday, regarding using Grub2 to boot ISOs.. thought it may be of interest.
Yes,
WinterTroubles, very much of interest.
WinterTroubles wrote:I have tested this method of booting and can confirm that it works
Thank you for finding this (and thank you,
austin.texas) information. And for testing it.
So... If I understand correctly - which is by no means assured, lol - I can download/verify the 64-bit Mint Xfce 17.1 .iso, place it on the Mint Xfce 17 partition (which I am currently using), follow the instructions you posted above... And, if I don't manage to screw something up in the process, I will then be able to reboot my computer, select that .iso from the Grub boot menu as if it were a standard Mint installation, and then - after I reach the live desktop - choose to install it to my (not currently in use) Mint 14 partition? And, if all goes well, I will then have both Mint 17 and 17.1 installed?
I'll probably keep the .iso around just in case I need it again in the future, but I may (probably will) choose to move it to a USB device. Will it be possible, assuming I succeed with the installation, to remove the entry for the .iso from my boot menu?
I just checked the old Mint 14 partition. I had to shrink it down when I installed Mint 17, because I had originally set up this laptop to only have a swap partition and a Mint 14 one (which took up the rest of the drive). I was thinking that I shrank it down to nothing, but it turns out that it is a little over 140 gigs... So there is plenty of room for Mint 17.1 (yay!). I'll have to move about 40 gigs of data from it that I wish to keep, but then I can try this.
- - - - -
According to Disks (gnome-disk-utility 3.10.0 UDisks 2.1.3 (built against 2.1.3)), this is how my hard drive is currently set up:
750GB Hard Disk /dev/sda Partitioning: Master Boot Record
Volumes:
Filesystem
Partition 1
157 GB Ext4
Size: 157 GB - 52 GB Free (67.1% full)
Device: /dev/sda1
Partition Type: Linux (bootable)
Contents: Ext4 (version 1.0) - Mounted at: /media/{username}/{great big hexadecimal number with a few dashes in it}
[EDIT: It only shows "Mounted at:..." because I opened it in Thunar to look around just before running Disks. Normally it would show "Not Mounted."
]
Extended Partition
Partition 2
593 GB
Size: 593 GB
Partition Type: Extended
Contents: Extended Partition
Filesystem
Partition 6
577 GB Ext4
Size: 577 GB - 224 GB Free (61.2% Full)
Device: /dev/sda6
Partition Type: Linux
Contents: Ext4 (version 1.0) - Mounted at
Filesystem Root
Swap
Partition 5
16 GB Swap
Size: 16 GB
Device: /dev/sda5
Partition Type: Linux swap
Contents: Swap (version 2) - Active
- - - - -
Comments/questions:
My swap partition is so large because I believe I once read that it should be at least 1½ times the size of physical RAM if one wishes to have the ability to use the "hibernate" feature; as this is a laptop, I felt that I might need it one day - and, although it currently has "only" 6 gigs of RAM, I wanted to have the ability to still do so even if I ever manage to afford to increase the size of my RAM.
I'm just guessing (please forgive my woeful ignorance), but it looks to me that, even though I don't use Mint 14, the partition itself is still technically in use because
I think that is the location of my Grub boot menu(?). IF I am correct, will that cause any issues at all? That first partition is where I'm wishing to place Mint 17.1.
The partition is (quite a bit) larger than I had been thinking it was. Would it be possible for me to install TWO new linuxes(?) instead of one? Either Mint 17.1 plus "some random linux distro that I might wish to download/install/play with/remove" or - more likely - both a "standard" Linux Mint 17.1 Xfce AND an additional Linux Mint 17.1 Xfce to which I could add the Xfce 4.12 PPA in order to upgrade from the included Xfce 4.10 to Xfce 4.12? If so... How would you suggest I set it up (and go about it)? I suppose that I could simply install Mint 17.1 to the first partition - use it for a while and (hopefully) see that it is as stable
and bug-free as my current Mint 17 - and then just choose the "in-place upgrade" to 17.1 that is offered via mintUpdate (aka "Update Manager"), and then add the Xfce 4.12 PPA to that one. Regardless, I have one worry that I might have an issue either way...
I have quite a bit of data on the Mint 17 partition that I am currently using. I'd REALLY like to keep it. I guess that I'd like it to be on whichever partition I end up considering to be my "active/current" one, which (I assume/hope) will eventually be that first partition if/when 17.1 shows itself to be stable (to/for me). That'd mean that I'd need to expand it greatly - but the rest of my drive is taken up with the big "Extended Partition" which contains the Mint 17 one AND my swap one. I... I'm not at all sure that I understand how this works, but I'm guessing that I can shrink my Mint 17 partition
from the front, but only at the risk - if not certainity? - of destroying data. And, even if I do that, It'll just open a "hole" at the beginning of the extended partition, which I would not then be able to expand the first partition into(???IDK???). So... Err... "Help!!!" ("
ARGH!!!).
And, no, I have no idea why my partitions are numbered (variously) 1, 2, 5, and 6. <SCRATCHES HEAD> Or where in the world 3 and 4 got to.
I guess that all this is pretty complicated. I HOPE that it is not nearly as complicated as it seems (to me) to be. But I am worried....
Regards,
MDM