wa4chq Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 Greetin's all. This past January I replaced my lappy HD. I partitioned it for only two distros. Then last week I resized the second partition to make room for a third distro. Here is how it was partitioned: /dev/sda1 (227gb) root /dev/sda2 (214gb) /dev/sda3 (23gb) swap ---- this is probably way too large for swap...... Here it is now, after resizing sda2: /dev/sda1 (227gb) root /dev/sda2 (95gb) /dev/sda4 (119gb) /dev/sda3 (23gb) swap Here is my question. I'd like to put Slack 14.2 on sda4. Slack uses LILO but at the moment I boot with Grub. Should I install Slack and forget about it's boot loader and then just update GRUB (if that will detect a new distro at sda4)? Or should I just go with LILO and let it sort out the other two distros? I'm scared Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 The easiest way is to just install Slack w/o LILO and then set up GRUB to boot the Slack. I did it that way for many years, but the last few years I've been booting with LILO. Of course, I only have Slack and Windows on this machine these days, so it's easy to configure LILO to boot the Windows. Unfortunately, I don't remember off the top of my head what the configuration for GRUB needs to be to boot Slack on a secondary drive. It's not that complicated, I don't think. You're probably using GRUB2. I'm not that familiar with it because I never used it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 9, 2019 Author Share Posted May 9, 2019 The easiest way is to just install Slack w/o LILO and then set up GRUB to boot the Slack. I did it that way for many years, but the last few years I've been booting with LILO. Of course, I only have Slack and Windows on this machine these days, so it's easy to configure LILO to boot the Windows. Unfortunately, I don't remember off the top of my head what the configuration for GRUB needs to be to boot Slack on a secondary drive. It's not that complicated, I don't think. You're probably using GRUB2. I'm not that familiar with it because I never used it. I think there is something like "update-grub" or "grub-mkconfig"..... and I think you are right about just installing Slack w/o LILO.... tnx 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 I thought that in those cases, you simply installed the bootloader to the partition instead of the MBR/EFI boot partition. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 I think you can do it that way, too, but I never used to do that. I would not install any boot-loader and then I would modify either GRUB1 or LILO manually. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 I think you can do it that way, too, but I never used to do that. I would not install any boot-loader and then I would modify either GRUB1 or LILO manually. Well I never go around to dual booting distros so I never had a chance to do it. I learned a long ago that linux distros are not really that different from one another. Most are just a different set of default apps and some themes. One can mostly make any distro look and act like another one. The package manager and the default set of apps are the only real differences besides some other minor things. You can even interchange package managers on some distros. Like I could run apt-get on archlinux if I chose to but its mainly used to build debian packages on Arch (for AUR packages that only have a debian sources). Sorry, I am ranting.... what were we talking about again? Oh yeah.... you can daisy chain boot loaders or use only the one if you choose. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 That's one of the neatest things about Linux... you can do things many different ways. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 I think you can do it that way, too, but I never used to do that. I would not install any boot-loader and then I would modify either GRUB1 or LILO manually. Well I never go around to dual booting distros so I never had a chance to do it. I learned a long ago that linux distros are not really that different from one another. Most are just a different set of default apps and some themes. One can mostly make any distro look and act like another one. The package manager and the default set of apps are the only real differences besides some other minor things. You can even interchange package managers on some distros. Like I could run apt-get on archlinux if I chose to but its mainly used to build debian packages on Arch (for AUR packages that only have a debian sources). Sorry, I am ranting.... what were we talking about again? Oh yeah.... you can daisy chain boot loaders or use only the one if you choose. I still will set up for dual boot but you are right. I tend to really never use the "other" installed distro......maybe on a whim. It can really cause problems switching back and forth....at least for me it does. I forget that I have Vbox so I could get my fix that way. Or live distros....... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 I still will set up for dual boot but you are right. I tend to really never use the "other" installed distro......maybe on a whim. It can really cause problems switching back and forth....at least for me it does. I forget that I have Vbox so I could get my fix that way. Or live distros....... If your pc is a UEFI type then rEFind may be the solution to your multi boot niggles. As already noted, rEFInd is a boot manager for EFI and UEFI computers. (I use "EFI" to refer to either version unless the distinction is important.) You're likely to benefit from it on computers that boot multiple OSes, such as two or more of Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. You will not find rEFInd useful on older BIOS-based computers or on systems with other types of firmware, such as older PowerPC-based Macs. Prior to mid-2011, few computers outside of Intel-based Macs used EFI; but starting in 2011, computer manufacturers began adopting UEFI in droves, so most computers bought since then use EFI. Even so, many modern PCs support both EFI-style booting and BIOS-style booting, the latter via a BIOS compatibility mode that's known as the Compatibility Support Module (CSM). Thus, you may be using BIOS-style booting on an EFI-based computer. If you're unsure which boot method your computer uses, check the first of the subsections, What's Your Boot Mode. Subsequent sections of this document are on separate pages. Be aware that you probably don't need to read them all; just skip to the sections that interest you: https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ I have been using it for some time now and think it is the biz. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 I still will set up for dual boot but you are right. I tend to really never use the "other" installed distro......maybe on a whim. It can really cause problems switching back and forth....at least for me it does. I forget that I have Vbox so I could get my fix that way. Or live distros....... If your pc is a UEFI type then rEFind may be the solution to your multi boot niggles. As already noted, rEFInd is a boot manager for EFI and UEFI computers. (I use "EFI" to refer to either version unless the distinction is important.) You're likely to benefit from it on computers that boot multiple OSes, such as two or more of Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. You will not find rEFInd useful on older BIOS-based computers or on systems with other types of firmware, such as older PowerPC-based Macs. Prior to mid-2011, few computers outside of Intel-based Macs used EFI; but starting in 2011, computer manufacturers began adopting UEFI in droves, so most computers bought since then use EFI. Even so, many modern PCs support both EFI-style booting and BIOS-style booting, the latter via a BIOS compatibility mode that's known as the Compatibility Support Module (CSM). Thus, you may be using BIOS-style booting on an EFI-based computer. If you're unsure which boot method your computer uses, check the first of the subsections, What's Your Boot Mode. Subsequent sections of this document are on separate pages. Be aware that you probably don't need to read them all; just skip to the sections that interest you: https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ I have been using it for some time now and think it is the biz. Thank you for the info.... I will check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 I still will set up for dual boot but you are right. I tend to really never use the "other" installed distro......maybe on a whim. It can really cause problems switching back and forth....at least for me it does. I forget that I have Vbox so I could get my fix that way. Or live distros....... If your pc is a UEFI type then rEFind may be the solution to your multi boot niggles. As already noted, rEFInd is a boot manager for EFI and UEFI computers. (I use "EFI" to refer to either version unless the distinction is important.) You're likely to benefit from it on computers that boot multiple OSes, such as two or more of Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. You will not find rEFInd useful on older BIOS-based computers or on systems with other types of firmware, such as older PowerPC-based Macs. Prior to mid-2011, few computers outside of Intel-based Macs used EFI; but starting in 2011, computer manufacturers began adopting UEFI in droves, so most computers bought since then use EFI. Even so, many modern PCs support both EFI-style booting and BIOS-style booting, the latter via a BIOS compatibility mode that's known as the Compatibility Support Module (CSM). Thus, you may be using BIOS-style booting on an EFI-based computer. If you're unsure which boot method your computer uses, check the first of the subsections, What's Your Boot Mode. Subsequent sections of this document are on separate pages. Be aware that you probably don't need to read them all; just skip to the sections that interest you: https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ I have been using it for some time now and think it is the biz. Thank you for the info.... I will check it out. The MX folk are fans of rEFind. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted May 11, 2019 Share Posted May 11, 2019 I thought that in those cases, you simply installed the bootloader to the partition instead of the MBR/EFI boot partition. I don't think you need to install a bootloader at all if you're booting from another distro's GRUB. When you run update-grub, it picks up other installed kernels rather than other bootloaders. Some distros make it difficult to not install a bootloader though, although there is sometimes a convoluted non-documented way. And sometimes they just don't do what you tell them to. I recently installed Neon and couldn't work out how not to install GRUB so told it to put it in the partition. It ended up installing to the ESP anyway and taking over boot duties so I had to boot siduction and run update-grub to get back how I wanted it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 11, 2019 Share Posted May 11, 2019 I thought that in those cases, you simply installed the bootloader to the partition instead of the MBR/EFI boot partition. I don't think you need to install a bootloader at all if you're booting from another distro's GRUB. When you run update-grub, it picks up other installed kernels rather than other bootloaders. Some distros make it difficult to not install a bootloader though, although there is sometimes a convoluted non-documented way. And sometimes they just don't do what you tell them to. I recently installed Neon and couldn't work out how not to install GRUB so told it to put it in the partition. It ended up installing to the ESP anyway and taking over boot duties so I had to boot siduction and run update-grub to get back how I wanted it. Well my experiences with dual booting has been over a decade ago so things have probably changed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted May 11, 2019 Share Posted May 11, 2019 Back in my distro farming days I had a special test PC (an old Dell Optiplex) and chainloaded it ad nauseam. Now I don't dual boot at all, although I'd probably use rEFind if I wanted to. VM works for me in the rare case I need to have a second O/S on a machine. I mainly choose a suitable distro for the hardware I have and install it. I have a bunch of junkers so finding a machine isn't a problem. I guess I still distro farm as I currently have Linux Mint, MX-Linux, Arch and Debian on the go. I could possibly slim down to LM for mainstream and Arch for lower spec systems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 11, 2019 Share Posted May 11, 2019 Well I have like a bunch of distros running in VMs (via virt-manager/qemu) but I have seen a reason to dual boot Linux distros. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 11, 2019 Author Share Posted May 11, 2019 (edited) OK. Well I went ahead and removed sda4 and enlarged sda2. Installed Slackware 14.2 w/out LILO. Did a full install minus emacs and xfce. Installed spectwm and configured it like I had when using 14.1 and before replacing the hard drive. I need to work on the firefox fonts......messing with my eyes. Saving that for another day. BTW, I like i3 better. Edited May 11, 2019 by wa4chq 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 11, 2019 Share Posted May 11, 2019 \BTW, I like i3 better. I am in the same boat.. I have tried others over the years but nothing compares to i3wm. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 11, 2019 Author Share Posted May 11, 2019 Both are nice and easy to config but I like knowing what I have opened and running in other windows. Spectrwm does not list that in the bar like i3 does. I went with spectrwm on this install because it was faster...When I have the time, I'll install all the packages needed for i3. There's a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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