adding a 2nd linux OS

[mrwaistcoat]

I'd like to install an additional distro to my PC....the PC is currently 100% pclinuxos

Is there a simple way to do this that does not involve using Gparted or similar?

Do some distros live dvd's do this work for us as part of the installation options? and if so, how safe an option is it?

I've seen on other threads people recommending using a livecd of gparted rather than the installed programme - why is this?

I'm under strict instructions from the rest of the family not to do anything that messes pclinuxos up!

Whats the safest, easiest way to achieve what I want?
Thanks

[Bald Brick]

I'd like to install an additional distro to my PC....the PC is currently 100% pclinuxos

Is there a simple way to do this that does not involve using Gparted or similar?

Do some distros live dvd's do this work for us as part of the installation options? and if so, how safe an option is it?

I've seen on other threads people recommending using a livecd of gparted rather than the installed programme - why is this?

Your other questions are too complex for a short answer but this is an easy one: you can't resize or move a mounted partition, and if you are running an installed version of GParted at least the root directory (/) must be mounted. Or in other words: the system will not let you saw off the branch you are sitting on.

I'm under strict instructions from the rest of the family not to do anything that messes pclinuxos up!

Whats the safest, easiest way to achieve what I want?
Thanks

[Ramchu]

Add a 2nd Hard drive to your computer and install the desired distro on it.

Now, does this other distro use Grub or Grug 2 Boot Loader ?

[Bald Brick]

I'd like to install an additional distro to my PC....the PC is currently 100% pclinuxos

Is there a simple way to do this that does not involve using Gparted or similar?

Ramchu's solution is probably the easiest one.

If you don't want to add a second hard drive (either an external one or a removable one) your new distro will need at least one partition of its own on your drive. If you already have an extra partition that you could install to, you can use that partition without repartitioning the drive, and if you have enough unallocated space outside of your PCLinuxOS partitions you may be able to create a new partition in that space -- it depends on the number of primary partitions you already have.

But if you must start by freeing up space for the new installation by shrinking and moving your existing partitions, then you must use something like GParted (or you can do it from the CLI). If you can free up the space without touching your root directory you can use Diskdrake or an installed version of GParted. Moving partitions with GParted is relatively safe, but back up everything important anyway before you do it.

If you have to move or resize the root directory, then booting into a live CD with a decent partitioner is a good idea. You can't run GParted from the very partition you are moving or resizing.

You'd get better help if you first post the output of

Code: [Select]

fdisk -l
The "l" in "-l" is a lower case "L". (You may or may not have to run fdisk as root to get any output -- it depends on when you first installed PCLinuxOS -- so su to root first.)

Do some distros live dvd's do this work for us as part of the installation options? and if so, how safe an option is it?

I've seen on other threads people recommending using a livecd of gparted rather than the installed programme - why is this?

I'm under strict instructions from the rest of the family not to do anything that messes pclinuxos up!

Whats the safest, easiest way to achieve what I want?
Thanks

[David_J_D]

I'm having problems doing just this. Briefly:

1st HDD has Win7 & PCLOS living happily together, using the whole disk, but doesn't see Mint.

2nd Hard Drive has Linux Mint Debian, when this is 1st boot device, Mint is fine, sees Windows OK but doesn't see PCLOS.

I've been editing PCLOS's grub menu.lst (I backed it up first), by adding the following lines:

title Linux Mint Debian
kernel (hd0,4)/media/disk/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-1-686-pae BOOT_IMAGE=Linux_Mint_Debian root=UUID=d7374e6d-93c4-4d31-bd4f-7256e351a690
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

I have installed Mint's pae kernel and it boots it correctly when it's the first boot device.

and changed the (hd0,4) to (hd1,4), (hd1,0), (hd1,1) in both lines where it occurs.

What's the magic incantation to get Mint booting from the PCLOS Grub menu?

Or would I be better off editing Mint's grub menu and booting from the other HDD?

[Ramchu]

I'm having problems doing just this. Briefly:

1st HDD has Win7 & PCLOS living happily together, using the whole disk, but doesn't see Mint.

2nd Hard Drive has Linux Mint Debian, when this is 1st boot device, Mint is fine, sees Windows OK but doesn't see PCLOS.

I've been editing PCLOS's grub menu.lst (I backed it up first), by adding the following lines:

title Linux Mint Debian
kernel (hd0,4)/media/disk/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-1-686-pae BOOT_IMAGE=Linux_Mint_Debian root=UUID=d7374e6d-93c4-4d31-bd4f-7256e351a690
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

I have installed Mint's pae kernel and it boots it correctly when it's the first boot device.

and changed the (hd0,4) to (hd1,4), (hd1,0), (hd1,1) in both lines where it occurs.

What's the magic incantation to get Mint booting from the PCLOS Grub menu?

Or would I be better off editing Mint's grub menu and booting from the other HDD?

I suggest that you start your own thread because it can get very confusing having
two problems in one thread ( No Thread Hijacking )

[David_J_D]

Sorry, I didn't want to start a second thread about basically the same subject, it's not an attempt to Hijack your thread. Rather, I may be further on in the process and have encountered problems which you may yet have to face.

I'll gladly start a new thread if that's what you'd prefer.

[mrwaistcoat]

Thanks all

I couldn't figure out what was meant by fdisk -l     assuming it's a terminal command I didn't get any output

My hard-drive is virtually entirely taken with pclinuxos, not enough room to install anything else, but stacks of spare space in my main pclinuxos partition

I thought perhaps a distro like linux mint may do this for me during install, but I don't want to take any risks with this!  Installing a hard drive sounds like money and hassle, but I'm now tempted to get a USB hardrive. Hadn't realised how cheap they now are.

If I installed a distro to the external hardrive, would this be recognised when I boot up or is it quite difficult to tweak it into working properly?

[mrwaistcoat]

Add a 2nd Hard drive to your computer and install the desired distro on it.

Now, does this other distro use Grub or Grug 2 Boot Loader ?

Boot loaders -I've got absolutely no idea!!! Was thinking of linux mint but not certain.

Ideally like to create space for two extra distros, one as permanent, another for testing out new ones

[Bald Brick]

Thanks all

I couldn't figure out what was meant by fdisk -l     assuming it's a terminal command I didn't get any output

It is a terminal command and if you didn't get any output you obviously have to run it as root on your system. So:

1) start Konsole or any other terminal;
2) type "su" (without the quotes) and hit Enter;
3) type root's password and hit Enter;
4) then type "fdisk -l" and hit Enter.

My hard-drive is virtually entirely taken with pclinuxos, not enough room to install anything else, but stacks of spare space in my main pclinuxos partition

That means that you'd have to resize your PCLinuxOS partition before you can install another distro on the same drive. This is not so hard as it sounds, but I wouldn't let the installer of another distro do it.

I thought perhaps a distro like linux mint may do this for me during install, but I don't want to take any risks with this!  Installing a hard drive sounds like money and hassle, but I'm now tempted to get a USB hardrive. Hadn't realised how cheap they now are.

If I installed a distro to the external hardrive, would this be recognised when I boot up or is it quite difficult to tweak it into working properly?

On many modern systems it would be very easy. On some older computers it might really need tweaking.

[Old-Polack]

I'm having problems doing just this. Briefly:

1st HDD has Win7 & PCLOS living happily together, using the whole disk, but doesn't see Mint.

2nd Hard Drive has Linux Mint Debian, when this is 1st boot device, Mint is fine, sees Windows OK but doesn't see PCLOS.

I've been editing PCLOS's grub menu.lst (I backed it up first), by adding the following lines:

title Linux Mint Debian
kernel (hd0,4)/media/disk/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-1-686-pae BOOT_IMAGE=Linux_Mint_Debian root=UUID=d7374e6d-93c4-4d31-bd4f-7256e351a690
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

I have installed Mint's pae kernel and it boots it correctly when it's the first boot device.

and changed the (hd0,4) to (hd1,4), (hd1,0), (hd1,1) in both lines where it occurs.

What's the magic incantation to get Mint booting from the PCLOS Grub menu?

Or would I be better off editing Mint's grub menu and booting from the other HDD?

Remove the part highlighted in blue from your Mint stanza. Does Mint actually use the initrd.img link? If not, you need to specify the exact initrd image it does use with that kernel.

Mint will be on (hd1) as seen by the PCLinuxOS menu.lst, but the correct partition has to be established for the stanza to work. Legacy grub counts partitions from 0 so if Mint has its / partition on the fifth partition (numerically, as in sdb5) the stanza entries would be (hd1,4)

[David_J_D]

I was almost there, just very tired. Many thanks for the help old-polack, It's now booting Mint.

The stanza finally read:

title Linux Mint Debian
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-1-686-pae BOOT_IMAGE=Linux_Mint_Debian root=UUID=d7374e6d-93c4-4d31-bd4f-7256e351a690
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img


Many thanks again.

[mrwaistcoat]

I am really tempted to add a USB hard drive and install a further linux OS onto it...

....I'm also toying with installing windows xp onto a second drive - will this be reasonably straight forward, or am I right in guessing that xp is always best installed first rather than the other way around ?

[Old-Polack]

I am really tempted to add a USB hard drive and install a further linux OS onto it...

....I'm also toying with installing windows xp onto a second drive - will this be reasonably straight forward, or am I right in guessing that xp is always best installed first rather than the other way around ?

WinXP can be installed on a separate drive, temporarily set as the boot drive, in BIOS, without danger to the other OS present. It will install its own boot loader software to the MBR of that drive. Once installed, that drive can be moved down the drive chain order, and an appropriate chainloader stanza added to the master grub menu.lst.

If you decide to install Linux to an external drive, its grub should be installed to the MBR of the external drive, as well as to the / partition of the installation. That way the external drive can be set as the boot drive on computers with a BIOS that allows booting from the external, as well as being chain loadable from the internal drive containing the present grub boot loader.

If more than one Linux installation is planned for the external drive, I would recommend a separate boot partition be made available as the first partition on the drive. Depending on the number of installations planned, the size could be as little as 100 MB to as large as 1 GB. All my installations are on external drives on this machine. There are currently 8 installations on my 1 TB drive, and the boot partition on it is ~300 MB.

I follow the boot partition with the swap partition on all of my drives. Should I need more space for the boot partition, it's easier to delete a swap partition, enlarge the boot partition, then create a new swap partition with the remaining space of the original swap partition, than trying to grab space from a / partition of an active installation. This can actually be done from the active installation, rather than having to do it from a liveCD.