DarkSerge Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 (edited) HiI want to get my Linux system to dual boot. I have 2 hard drives, the primary has Xubuntu installed and I want to keep it that way. The second hard drive right now has PC Linux OS. However, whenever I start up, it doesn't give me any options, it just boots into Xubuntu. I want it to give me an option which system to boot in. Plus, I want it to give me options if I decide to install something else on the second hard drive, but I always want Xubuntu to be the primary OS. No matter what I install, I always want it to give me the option and keep Xubuntu on the list.How do I make that happen?The second hard drive's OS might change as I get bored and play around with it, in which I might decide the throw on an old Windows system just for fun. Edited April 2, 2011 by DarkSerge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 There are several ways to do this. The easiest is to run sudo update-grub from Xubuntu.However, with Mandriva/PCLos it creates an erroneous entry in the GRUB config which is discussed in detail at http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showtopic=41628. It's easily fixed by removing the partittion reference on the initrd line, that's the bit between brackets, from the GRUB entry.You can also chainload. To do this you need to install GRUB in the root partition of your distro during install, not in the MBR. Make an entry in /etc/grub.d/40_custom substituting the name of your distro and the correct partition. title Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koalaroot (hd0,5)chainloader (hd0,5)+1 See Dedoimedo's GRUB 2 bootloader - Full tutorial for more details.Another option is to use the Rescatux CD, but I haven't tried this personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSerge Posted April 3, 2011 Author Share Posted April 3, 2011 Actually, I happen to have a copy of Rescatux. I'll have to try that. And actually since the time I made my first post, I deleted PC Linux OS and am trying out Lubuntu on that second hard drive.How about this. Is it possible to install Windows to the second hard drive from within Xubuntu? Just for kicks, I found an old Windows 98 disc, and just for fun I thought maybe I could run that on the second hard drive, at least for a little bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Actually, I happen to have a copy of Rescatux. I'll have to try that. And actually since the time I made my first post, I deleted PC Linux OS and am trying out Lubuntu on that second hard drive.To add Lubuntu to the Xubuntu GRUB, update-grub should work fine.How about this. Is it possible to install Windows to the second hard drive from within Xubuntu? Just for kicks, I found an old Windows 98 disc, and just for fun I thought maybe I could run that on the second hard drive, at least for a little bit.No, you can't install it from within Xubuntu, unless you do it in VirtualBox or similar VM program. To install it on a second hard drive, it would be easiest to swap drives, and remove the other one when you install. Then install from disc. To get it to boot after you swap the drives back, you'd need to do some manual tweaking of GRUB. And then it will probably not have some of the drivers you need to make hardware work.I highly recommend you try it in VirtualBox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSerge Posted April 3, 2011 Author Share Posted April 3, 2011 So apparently Lubuntu and Xubuntu are going to battle over Grub. I ran updates on Lubuntu and on the next restart, Xubuntu wasn't on the grub list. I ran an update-grub but it didn't do anything. I fixed it with Rescatux, but am I going to have to run that every time one of them installs updates?Eventually the second hard drive might be put into my parent's computer with Linux as the second system while Windows will remain the main OS on their computer. I was thinking of setting them up with a second hard drive with linux in case Windows won't boot and I'm not home to fix it so they can at least get online; but that'll be another topic whenever I get around to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Well one problem you may run into is that PCLinuxOS uses GRUB Legacy and Ubuntu uses GRUB 2. I got fed up fighting all this so I went back to a 3rd party boot manager. Two of them that I have used are BootItNG and Acronis OS selector; the latter being much more user friendly.You can install almost anything and Acronis will find it; I had WinXP and Mint 10 on one drive and PCLLinuxOS on the second drive and it found all of them; no problem. However, you really need to install Linux OS's with GRUB on the Linux partition; not into the MBR when you are doing this.Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 So apparently Lubuntu and Xubuntu are going to battle over Grub. I ran updates on Lubuntu and on the next restart, Xubuntu wasn't on the grub list. I ran an update-grub but it didn't do anything. I fixed it with Rescatux, but am I going to have to run that every time one of them installs updates?Need more info. When you installed Lubuntu, did you allow it's GRUB to write to the MBR, or did you put in in the distro partition? So which distro's GRUB is now active?If Xubuntu's GRUB is active, running update-grub on Lubuntu will do nothing, and vice-versa. Also you need to run it as root or sudo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSerge Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 Right now Xubuntu has control of Grub. I'm thinking of erasing Lubuntu and attempting old-school Windows 98 on the second hard drive just for kicks. I threw in the second hard drive just to experiment really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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