How to host Windows plus a productive plus a trial Linux version on one PC

[jolexin]

I have been running a dual boot system with Windows XP plus SUSE Linux 11.2 since january 2010. Now (2011-03-06) I downloaded Ubuntu 10,4 LTS, produced an installation CD, booted Windows XP and invoked the Wubi to instal Ubuntu under Windows. The good news is that it works! However, I would prefer a different setup.

Currently, when my PC boots, I can choose from the GRUB menu either SUSE Linux or Windows. When I select Windows, I see another menu where I can choose between Windows and my new Ubuntu Linux.

I would like to install Ubuntu Linux such that my initial GRUB menu offers the choice between the three systems. From a few articles in the Ubuntu forums I conclude that it should be possible to do so.

Is there an instruction on how to do it?

I chose a headline that expresses my question in more general terms, which hopefully describes the need of many users.

[oldfred]

Welcome to the forums.

Is this all one one hard drive or do you have multiple drives?

Grub2 is very good at automatically finding other systems and setting up a boot stanza to boot that system. Not 100% sure about Suse, but many systems have been found. If not, and a alternative is to install Suse's grub bootloader to a Suse boot partition and chainload. I used chainloading with old grub as that gave me a menu with the updated kernel to boot. Ubuntu's grub2 would require a sudo update-grub to find the new kernel with each update of Suse.

[jolexin]

My PC has got only one hard drive with the following partitions:

# parted --list
Model: ATA HITACHI HTS54502 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags My Annotation
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1049kB 92,7GB 92,7 GB primary ntfs type=07 my Windows XP partition /windows/C

3 242GB 250GB 7702 MB primary fat32 type=12 Lenovo Diagnosis partition

2 92,7GB 242GB 150 GB extended boot, lba, type=0f The rest of my disk


5 92,7GB 126GB 33,6 GB logical fat32 type=0b my ALLDAT partition /windows/D

6 126GB 160GB 33,6 GB logical fat32 type=0b my BIFI partition /windows/E

7 160GB 193GB 33,6 GB logical fat32 type=0b my DATSI partition /windows/F


8 193GB 195GB 2155 MB logical linux-swap(v1) type=82 SUSE Linux swap partition

9 195GB 214GB 18,9 GB logical ext4 type=83 SUSE Linux root partition

10 214GB 242GB 28,0 GB logical ext3 type=83 SUSE Linux home partition
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am thinking of using sda7 - my DATSI partition - as the root partition for Ubuntu Linux.
I hope to use the swap partiton sda8 both for SUSE and Ubuntu Linux. Is that possible?
I wonder if I can reuse the home partition sda10 for Ubuntu Linux, provided that I create the same 2 users there?

Currently my Ubuntu Linux trial version resides inside my windows partition.
Do I conclude correctly from your answer that I might proceed as follows:
(A) deinstall Ubuntu
(B) Boot from the Ubuntu CD, which will give me the choice to install Ubuntu
(B1) as part of the installation specify sda8 as swap partition, sda7 as root partition and (?) sda10 as home partition.

The result of the above process should then be the desired choice of 3 systems under the (Ubuntu?) GRUB bootloader?

[snowpine]

Your plan sounds (mostly) good. The reason you currently don't see all 3 options at once is because you're using Wubi. If you go with a "full" install of Ubuntu, GRUB2 should detect all 3 operating systems and give you the proper options at boot.

Yes, you can share the same swap partition between Ubuntu and SUSE.

Yes, you can share the same home partition too, BUT make sure you use different usernames for each distro! Personally my approach to this situation is to NOT use a separate /home partition for any of the distros in a multi-boot, but rather a separate partition that holds data and documents to share between the different OS's. If you use a Windows filesystem then you can share with Windows, too. :)

[jolexin]

Thank you! Your answer sounds encouraging. I will follow your advice with the separate data partition that I can share among different OS's.