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    Triple-booting - theoretical question

    Hi
    I have just switched from Hardy to Karmic (KDE 4.3) and absolutely love it!! It has been sitting on my laptop for a long time, mostly unused, just tested from time to time. But now with the last 100 or so updates, everything (or almost) runs without a glitch, including compiz. It's an absolute gem! (and by the way, Snowhog - wifi is tremendous without WICD!)

    However, I am not throwing away trusted Hardy just yet. And I have to keep Windows for a couple of apps that Wine can't handle. So I have triple boot systems on both my laptops. I may have been lucky not to nuke them both because I now find this in the Karmic Kubuntuguide (http://kubuntuguide.org/Karmic):

    DO NOT USE the Karmic Koala Desktop edition if you use a boot partition, use : multiple OS (more than 2), or chainload bootloaders. The Kubuntu installer will overwrite your Master Boot Record and you will later be forced to recreate it.

    What exactly does that mean in plain English? I downloaded the "Live CD", checked hash sums and installed the same way I always do, by choosing the manual option, deleting one of the two existing Kubuntu partitions and accepting default for GRUB - thereby accepting Grub 2, which on the surface does not behave very differently from legacy Grub, except that I have to edit a different file afterwards. Was I lucky to get away from this operation alive?

    I guess there are many people who will be tempted to try the Lynx before it is stable, who also need the much-loathed Win for some tasks, and who absolutely need a stable (K)ubuntu. So just what are we grandmas supposed to do?

    But wow, Karmic is really superb!

    I see Snowhog had a post in January about tripple booting, and I gather the operation for him was far more complicated, if crowned with jubilant success. However, he does not explain all his moves. And most of us cannot deal with heavy Grub editing, not to mention "recreation" of "Master Boot Record".



    #2
    Re: Triple-booting - theoretical question

    I guess they're referring to the fact that Karmic is the first Ubuntu release that uses GRUB2 instead of GRUB_Legacy.

    I use GRUB2 on a dedicated partition without issues - It's a matter of do you want to learn how to configure GRUB2 right now or not. BTW: GRUB2 will likely find and setup your other installs without your intervention...

    Please Read Me

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      #3
      Re: Triple-booting - theoretical question

      Fwiw, kle, I had the same good, clear-sailing experience (luck) as you did and am not sure what the cautionary warnings are about, and I think oshunluvr may have nailed it pretty well.

      You may already have found some of the leading sources on GRUB 2, but let's drop them here again:

      GRUB 2 A Guide for Users
      http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3106368.0

      And by drs305, this:
      http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275
      (btw, very good for tweaking the boot menu configuration grub.cfg)

      Ubuntu WIKI (largely written by drs305):
      https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

      And by Herman:
      http://members.iinet.net/%7Eherman546/p20.html
      (he's developing some scripys for editing the boot menu)


      GRUB Legacy (the version preceding GRUB 2):
      How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
      http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0

      An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski

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        #4
        Re: Triple-booting - theoretical question

        Originally posted by kle
        I see Snowhog had a post in January about tripple booting, and I gather the operation for him was far more complicated, if crowned with jubilant success. However, he does not explain all his moves. And most of us cannot deal with heavy Grub editing, not to mention "recreation" of "Master Boot Record".
        No, it wasn't complicated. But because Grub 2 is different, and I had a working multi-boot system, all using Grub Legacy which I was very comfortable with, I wanted understanding on how Grub 2 was going to interact with the other Grub Legacy installs. I did not want to end up with a messed up system. I ask questions, evaluate the answers I get to see if they make sense and/or I understand. I'd rather take the time to get it right the first time, than end up spending more time fixing what might otherwise go awry.
        Windows no longer obstructs my view.
        Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
        "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes

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          #5
          Re: Triple-booting - theoretical question

          Thanks!

          Yes, the grub2 guides, not least your own, Qqmike, are invaluable. I have already tried to glean what I most needed from it. I am also glad to see that Herman is still around - thought he was gone, but he has apparently just "moved" (It was on his site that I learnt to double boot in the first place.)

          I also had a good appreciative laugh to see that not everybody uses their Linux boxes as mere toys that can be broken and thrown away carelessly. For some of us, a computer is a very precious tool, not so much in terms of what it initially cost, but in terms of the hours we put into finding out just exactly how it can serve us optimally.

          My point is just that those of us who use tools as tools, say for work or stamp collection or whatever, and who are Kubuntu fans only because the tools are so very much better than other tools, not because we are primarily engaged in Linuxing as such, will always be tempted to take shortcuts, you know. And then, when we have been too impetuous and goofed something, we will come running back to you people who (among others) actually make it all possible.

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