How to Multi-boot (Maintain more then 2 OS)

[rlgoddard]

Ok, having read through this thread, what I am wanting to accomplish is the following:

1) A unified menu.lst for booting to any Linux OS.
2) No submenus

I have Kubuntu on sda5, and I just installed openSUSE 11.0 on sda6. The problem is that openSUSE took over the menu.lst and added Kubuntu as a submenu. How do I create a unified menu.lst for all OS's (I plan to add up to two more later on sda7 and sda8) and where do I edit this?

Thanks for any advice you may have and take care,
Russ

[unutbu]

Let's say you want the menu.lst on sda5 (Kubuntu) to be your unified menu.lst

(1) Boot into Kubuntu. Edit sda5's menu.lst:

gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Add this to your boot stanzas (about 2/3 of the way down the file)

title openSUSE
root (hd0,5)
chainloader +1
boot

(2) Boot into openSUSE. Edit sda6's menu.lst

gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Make sure you have these settings near the top:

default		0
timeout		1       
hiddenmenu

"default 0" makes your first boot stanza the default
"timeout 1" makes GRUB wait 1 second before booting the default boot stanza. During that 1 second you can press ESC to get to the GRUB menu -- a useful feature when things go wrong. I suppose you could change it to 0 if everything is working properly however.
"hiddenmenu" will achieve the "no submenu" effect.

(3) Reinstall GRUB on the MBR so that it will load sda5's menu.lst:

Boot from a LiveCD

sudo grub
grub> root (hd0,4)
grub> setup (hd0)          # Writes to the MBR

With the above two commands, your boot sequence will read sda5's menu.lst.

grub> root (hd0,5)         
grub> setup (hd0,5)        # Writes GRUB to the sda6 partition
grub> quit

"setup (hd0,5)" allows the chainloader command to work. When you select openSUSE from sda5's menu.lst, it will hand off to the GRUB you installed on (hd0,5).

(hd0,4) is GRUB-talk for /dev/sda5
(hd0,5) is GRUB-talk for /dev/sda6
(hd0) is GRUB-talk for the sda hard drive

Reboot.

[bodhi.zazen]

Ok, having read through this thread, what I am wanting to accomplish is the following:

1) A unified menu.lst for booting to any Linux OS.
2) No submenus

I have Kubuntu on sda5, and I just installed openSUSE 11.0 on sda6. The problem is that openSUSE took over the menu.lst and added Kubuntu as a submenu. How do I create a unified menu.lst for all OS's (I plan to add up to two more later on sda7 and sda8) and where do I edit this?

Thanks for any advice you may have and take care,
Russ

If you would like a "single" menu.lst you need to follow the "manual" method in my first post.

One distro will be the "master" or root, usually the last one installed. Usually the installers of most distros will recognize and add others, but if not you will need to manually edit menu.lst.

The stanzas read :

title Distro
root (hdx,y)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-xyz root=abc ro splash quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-xyz
boot

The "problem" with this method is you will need to manually update the kernel and initrd lines with each kernel update ...

The "solution" to that problem is to either chainload or use the configfile option. Both solutions are essentially the same in that they pass off the booting process to a new root partition.

Once it is all working, see unutbu's post re: configuring the second menu to be as seamless as possible.

Other then that, do you have a specific question ?

[rlgoddard]

If you would like a "single" menu.lst you need to follow the "manual" method in my first post.

One distro will be the "master" or root, usually the last one installed. Usually the installers of most distros will recognize and add others, but if not you will need to manually edit menu.lst.

The stanzas read :

title Distro
root (hdx,y)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-xyz root=abc ro splash quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-xyz
boot

I want Kubuntu to be the "master" distro. With the above example, do I add:

title Kubuntu
root (hd 0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-xyz root=abc ro splash quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-xyz
boot

to Kubuntu's menu.lst?

The "solution" to that problem is to either chainload or use the configfile option. Both solutions are essentially the same in that they pass off the booting process to a new root partition.

So, do I add:

title openSUSE
root (hd0,5)
chainloader +1
boot

to Kubuntu's menu.lst to pass it on to openSUSE if I select that option?

Thanks and take care,
Russ

[bodhi.zazen]

I want Kubuntu to be the "master" distro. With the above example, do I add:

title Kubuntu
root (hd 0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-xyz root=abc ro splash quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-xyz
boot

to Kubuntu's menu.lst?

First, there is no need to add an entry for Kubuntu in kubuntu's /boot/grub/menu.lst

Second, but you must manually fill in the kernel and initrd numbers (you can not use "xyz" or "abc", you must specify the kernel, initrd, and root partition). Then you must update the kernel and initrd with each kernel update

So, do I add:

title openSUSE
root (hd0,5)
chainloader +1
boot

to Kubuntu's menu.lst to pass it on to openSUSE if I select that option?

Thanks and take care,
Russ

That works so long as grub has been installed / setup in the opensuse partition.

You can also :

title OpenSUSE
configfile (hd0,5)/boot/grub/menu.lst

[rlgoddard]

First, there is no need to add an entry for Kubuntu in kubuntu's /boot/grub/menu.lst

Second, but you must manually fill in the kernel and initrd numbers (you can not use "xyz" or "abc", you must specify the kernel, initrd, and root partition). Then you must update the kernel and initrd with each kernel update

So, all I need to do is add openSUSE's entry into Kubuntu's menu.lst and then follow unutbu's earlier post? Because the kernel and everything is already defined in Kubuntu's menu.lst.

Also, which distro needs their entry manually edited to reflect the update in the kernel? Kubuntu or openSUSE?

Take care,
Russ

[bodhi.zazen]

Sounds like it is working then ?

With your current set up, you will need to update OpenSUSE with any and all kernel updates.

[rlgoddard]

grub> root (hd0,5)         
grub> setup (hd0,5)        # Writes GRUB to the sda6 partition
grub> quit

setup (hd0,5) fails with an error message. Can't remember the exact wording, but it complained about not finding stage 1 on (hd0,5). Consequently, chainload or configfile fails.

Take care,
Russ

EDIT: Never mind... I re-ran setup (hd0,5) and it works. Curiously, chainloader works, but not configfile.

[unutbu]

Just out of curiosity, when you boot into openSUSE,
what is the path to menu.lst?
Is it /boot/grub/menu.lst, or something else?

[rlgoddard]

Just out of curiosity, when you boot into openSUSE,
what is the path to menu.lst?
Is it /boot/grub/menu.lst, or something else?

Yup, you got the path correct.