Debian Wheezy dual boot with LMDE

[excollier]

When Debian Wheezy is finally released this weekend, will it be ok to install it alongside my LMDE install, replacing Ubuntu, or will it cause a conflict in Grub, being very similar?

[zerozero]

or will it cause a conflict in Grub, being very similar?

i don't see why it will cause any kind of conflict; i have a multiboot system, some of the distros have exactly the same grub version and i don't see any problem at all.
but:
i only allow 1 distro to install grub to the MBR, all the others are on the PBR (if this makes it easier or not i don't know because i never tried the other way)

[excollier]

Thanks, I just wondered that they may clash as they are essentially the same. I know when I used Kubuntu and set up a multiboot, Kubuntu was identified as Ubuntu 12.04.2 on which it was based.
I was concerned in case grub could not differentiate the two, but I'll give it a spin anyway.

[GeneBenson]

Hi excollier,

If you look in /boot/grub/grub.cfg you will see something like this:

Code: Select all

menuentry 'LinuxMint GNU/Linux, with Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64' --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	load_video
	insmod gzio
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root f04f7fa6-d4c7-4215-bd94-7a27b2acfee7
	echo	'Loading Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amd64 root=UUID=f04f7fa6-d4c7-4215-bd94-7a27b2acfee7 ro  quiet nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-amd64
}

and this:

Code: Select all

menuentry "LinuxMint GNU/Linux, with Linux 3.2.0-4-686-pae (on /dev/sdc9)" --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd2,msdos9)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 318a0641-f285-4615-b751-b19279f9d084
	linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-686-pae root=UUID=318a0641-f285-4615-b751-b19279f9d084 ro quiet
	initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-686-pae
}

Grub uses UUID to differentiate between different OS'es. What you see in the Grub menu is just text and has no effect on how Grub determines which OS'es are installed. As to whether you get confused, well that is another matter.

[excollier]

Fair enough. Looks like I'll have an all Debian machine by next week then.