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Thread: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

  1. #1
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    Apr 2017
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    Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    Hi,
    X. is installed as sda1-4. "Unallocated Space" 120 GB. Now I want to install Mint. I watched a few vids, but I am not sure, how to install the second OS.
    Thanx a lot for your advice.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
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    I think I'm here! Maybe?
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    Xubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish

    Re: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    We need to know more about your hardware to be able to help.

    Does it use MBR/BIOS or UEFI?
    How old is it; what make and model?
    What current partitions do you have for Xubuntu, and which version is it?

    Please show us the output of
    Code:
    sudo fdisk -l
    in terminal.
    Please use Code-Tags for terminal output. See my signature below for a How-to

  3. #3
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    Kubuntu

    Re: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    Moved to MINT sub-forum.
    BIOS/MBR or UEFI/gpt?

    If MBR, you may have used all 4 primary partitions.
    But default installs often put swap into an extended partition which you would have to extend.

    Post these:
    sudo parted -l
    sudo blkid -c /dev/null -o list

    Nijia'ed by ajgreeny
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  4. #4
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    Re: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    Lenovo T400, ~10 years
    MBR/BIOS
    Xubuntu 16.04.3 LTS




    Code:
     Model: ATA SamsungSSD 850 (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
    Sector size(logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table:msdos
    Disk Flags: 
    
    
    Number  Start   End    Size    Type     File system     Flags
     1      1049kB 1000MB  999MB   primary  ext2            boot
     2      1000MB 31,0GB  30,0GB  primary  ext4
     3      31,0GB 37,0GB  6000MB  primary  linux-swap(v1)
     4      37,0GB 117GB   80,0GB  primary  ext4
    
    
    
    
    ~$ sudoblkid -c/dev/null -o list
    device     fs_typelabel    mount point    UUID
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    /dev/loop0 squashfs        /snap/core/3604 
    /dev/loop1 squashfs        /snap/core/3748 
    /dev/sda1  ext2            /boot          bd3146dc-7e3e-4f35-9697-f89135c1e76b
    /dev/sda2  ext4            /              9053101e-536e-473a-8abd-e702ad248531
    /dev/sda3  swap            [SWAP]         bffe9dad-a643-446f-95f7-55453931d4fc
    /dev/sda4  ext4            /home          9ed459da-0cec-42ac-bcae-a0cfd6e758b5
    xux@x-Acer:~$ sudofdisk -l
    Disk /dev/loop0:83,8 MiB, 87896064 bytes, 171672 sectors
    Units: sectors of 1* 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size(logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size(minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    
    
    
    
    Disk /dev/loop1:83,8 MiB, 87863296 bytes, 171608 sectors
    Units: sectors of 1* 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size(logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size(minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    
    
    
    
    Disk /dev/sda: 232,9GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
    Units: sectors of 1* 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size(logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size(minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    Disklabel type: dos
    Disk identifier:0x77e2ec7d
    
    
    Device     Boot   Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
    /dev/sda1  *       2048   1953791   1951744  953M 83 Linux
    /dev/sda2       1953792  60547071  58593280   28G 83 Linux
    /dev/sda3      60547072  72265727  11718656  5,6G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
    /dev/sda4      72265728 228515839 156250112 74,5G 83 Linux

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    Arizona U.S.A.
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    Re: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    You have a problem, because your disk is partitioned ms-dos, which allows only 4 primary partitions and you have used them all up.

    There is no easy answer. Consider either abandoning the whole idea of dual booting with Mint, or if you are willing to start over, partition the disk with GPT partition table, which allows by default 128 partitions. Then install Xubuntu and Mint. Since your machine is BIOS, you will also need a bios_grub partition to install in BIOS mode on a GPT disk.

    Also realize that you don't need a separate home partition, and unless you are encrypting, you don't need a separate boot partition.

  6. #6
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    Re: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    You could delete swap, but then when done have to manually update fstab with new UUID from a new swap. Comment out current swap in fstab so you do not have issues booting. Then you can uncomment it and change to new UUID.
    Moving /home into swap space will take a long time if it has a lot of data. Do not interrupt or you lose all data. And you then must have good backups before you start, just in case.

    Then you can create a new extended partition, for a new ext4 for Mint's / (root) and a new swap partition.
    You cannot share /boot nor /home.
    If you may want data in both installs better to have /home inside / and separate /mnt/data partition that you can mount in all installs.

    But there are advantages to gpt.
    You would have to reinstall grub in current install.

    Do not know if Mint has a way to not install its grub into MBR, but you can go back into Ubuntu and reinstall its grub to MBR.

    GPT Advantages (older 2010 but still valid) see post#2 by srs5694:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1457901
    https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...antages_of_GPT
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

    Converting to or from GPT
    http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html
    gdisk to convert from gpt to MBR
    http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html#gpt2mbr


    Last edited by oldfred; January 9th, 2018 at 07:58 PM.
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
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    Re: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    Ouch, seems to be something for experts? What about deleting the OS and installing both? It is true, Gparted complained those 4 primary partitions...

  8. #8
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    Re: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    There is an easier solution that should work and would not require any reinstall of Ubuntu or moving the existing home partition.

    Basic Outline - working from live media you could:

    1. Delete the swap partition with gparted, leaving a small unallocated space which will not be used. This will allow you to create an extended partition in what must be a relatively large unallocated space after sda4.
    2. With gparted, create the new extended partition in the space after sda4.
    3. Create 2 new logical partitions (which will be located inside the new extended partition) with gparted: ext4 for install of Linux Mint and a swap partition that both can share. (The number of logical partitions are not restricted.)
    4. Install Mint to the new ext4 partition by chosing the "something else" option of the installer. After this install, computer will startup to grub menu on Mint; Ubuntu will boot from Mint's grub menu.
    5. For Ubuntu to use this same swap partition, you would need to change UUID of its swap in its /etc/fstab file to the that of the new swap partition.

    Looks like a reasonable plan. Think it over.

  9. #9
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    Apr 2017
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    Re: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    @Dennis N: I am not quite sure, if I understood completely. Therefore a screenshot:
    Screenshot_2018-01-24_15-23-18.jpg
    For partitioning I would boot a Gparted CD, because a running OS would not allow partitioning?
    Last edited by xipho2; January 24th, 2018 at 03:41 PM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Kubuntu

    Re: Dual boot of Xubuntu and Mint?

    You do not show much data in /home, is it a new install?
    If so then a new install may make sense as you can then change partitions around.

    If re-installing do not use /boot keep that inside / (root).
    Some very old systems only like to boot from files that are inside the first 137GB of a hard drive. So I might make 2 / (root) partitions at beginning of drive. And all other partitions as logical. Make extended the entire rest of drive, and place swap at end (or far right in gparted view), so out of way.

    You also cannot share /home. I often suggest separate /home as then it is a bit easier to backup and reinstall into a new / . But if using two operating systems and you want to share data, create another ext4 partition for that data. Disadvantage of data partition is you have to manually mount with fstab and set ownership & permissions which with /home is automatically done.
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

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