Co-existing with ubuntu. Multiple boot[SOLVED]

[Aging Technogeek]

The only problem I can see with your idea is the fact that you are only allowed 1 extended partition and 3 primary partitions or 4 primary partitions and 0 extended per hard disk.

A better option would be to install Mint in new logical partitions in the existing extended partition. With your present scheme you can create up to 9 logical partitions within the extended partition (a grand total of 15 partitions are allowed)

You also don't need a second swap partition. All Linux distros on one drive can use the same swap space.

[emorrp1]

EDIT: Aging Technogeek beat me to it again.

Hi tim, and welcome to linuxmint. If you're only asking about the boot menu, you don't need to worry, Mint will (by default) load it's own (very nice) bootloader into the MBR, and will automatically add entries for any existing oses. One thing concerns me with your suggested setup:

My intention is to install mint on partition 2, with logical partitions for / , /home and swap.

Firstly, I don't know of any real reason to have two swap partitions on the same drive, so just let mint use the existing one.
Second, I may be wrong as it's a while since I tried it, but I don't think you can have two extended partitions on the same drive, so you wouldn't be able to have those logical partitions you want.
I would suggest a complete re-start with the partitioning, keeping only the (XP?) partition 1 as it is. Let the extended partition fill the rest of the drive, then you can add or remove logical partitions at will. Btw, there may be a way to extend the extended partition leftwards into empty space after deleting partitions 2 or 3, but if there is I don't know of it.
Also, which partition is ubuntu in, because you really don't need more than 10GB for / if you keep your data separate, and both your ext3 partitions are huge.
I always recommend a separate data partition, rather than a separate /home partition. This allows you to get away with only a single 10GB partition per distro, swap, and a large data partition that you can use with all distros, and you can even make it usable transparently. The downside of this method is if you need to re-install for whatever reason, you lose all your custom configuration, which can be substantial, but I solved this problem by backing up my important /home config files.

Fred seems to be the expert on all things boot/partitioning around here, so read some of his posts for thorough guides.

[DataMan]

Another option is to shrink your NTFS partition a bit, extend the extended (excuse the pun ) into the new space, move things around within the extended partition to allow room for new ext3(s). A bit much, but it can be done. If you choose this path, do the defrag thinger on the NTFS and do 1 operation at a time within GParted. You may also have to re-identify existing fstab entries.

As a side note, for the GRUB issue, you can always set up a dedicated GRUB partition which would resolve the shifting GRUBs at installation of new Lx ops.

-DataMan

[emorrp1]

extend the extended (excuse the pun )

Hey! I said it first

tim, my previous suggestion would indeed have completely wiped out your ubuntu partition (though there have been reports that if you recreated the partitions in exactly the same place, it would work, it's far too risky to bother). Ok, so now we know much more about your setup, there's a couple of solutions. The absolute safest and practically guaranteed to work is:

1) shrink partition 6 (ubuntu root) to 10GB
2) install mint using whatever logicals you like into the remaining 30GB space

The other one, which I would have thought should work, but have never tried:

1) delete partitions 1&2 (so backup anything you need)
2) extend the extended to fill the space (this is what would fail if anything was to, but it would just raise an error, it wouldn't be damaging)
3) install mint using whatever logicals you like into the new 177GB space (you might also want to restore the contents of 2 you backed up earlier, so allow for that)

[MALsPa]

How about copying your Ubuntu partitions (and any others you might want to keep) over to a spare drive, then re-partitioning the original drive like you want it, then copying Ubuntu back over? I've done something like that a few times when I wanted to go to a new partition scheme. Used GParted to make the copies. Currently, I've got two drives, with Debian Lenny on sda1 and sda3, Mepis 8 on sdb1 and sdb3, Mint Elyssa on sdb7 and sdb8, Ubuntu Hardy on sdb9 and sdb10. The rest are data or swap partitions. Note the relatively small hard drives I'm using:

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      419MB   7756MB  7337MB  primary   ext3         boot 
 2      7756MB  8291MB  535MB   primary   linux-swap        
 3      8291MB  13.5GB  5240MB  primary   ext3              
 4      13.5GB  38.7GB  25.2GB  extended                    
 5      13.5GB  24.0GB  10.5GB  logical   ext3              
 6      24.0GB  38.7GB  14.7GB  logical   ext3              


Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      32.3kB  7337MB  7337MB  primary   ext3              
 2      7337MB  8382MB  1045MB  primary   linux-swap        
 3      8382MB  13.6GB  5240MB  primary   ext3              
 4      13.6GB  70.8GB  57.1GB  extended                    
 5      13.6GB  18.9GB  5239MB  logical   ext3              
 6      18.9GB  34.6GB  15.7GB  logical   ext3              
 7      34.6GB  41.9GB  7337MB  logical   ext3              
 8      41.9GB  47.2GB  5248MB  logical   ext3              
 9      47.2GB  53.5GB  6292MB  logical   ext3         boot 
10      53.5GB  56.6GB  3142MB  logical   ext3              
11      56.6GB  70.8GB  14.2GB  logical   ext3              

[emorrp1]

tim: earlier you said that partition 6 was ubuntu root, no worries, just follow the same instructions with 5 instead, as you suggest.

[Aging Technogeek]

Looks like you've found a good solution to your problem. The scheme you outline should work just fine. If you are interested in learning more about installation and partitioning, you can read this thread: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=11872. It has some very good information in it.