Multiboot win98,win XP,and Kubuntu

[Knoobquest]

Hello,I have a newbie question,though I have a little experience with Linux.I want to install the three OS on one IDE hard drive with Grub as the bootloader.I read that Grub could be installed on a separate primary partition to control all the booting.The only unusual problem I have is the need to reinstall the win XP partition often,due to experimentation with various video cards,sound cards,other hard drives,etc.(equiptment).

I'd like the drive to look something like this.....C=win 98,D=win XP,E=data and F=Linux(Kubuntu).Can someone help me thru the Grub setup and how to hide/unhide any win98 from win XP partitions so they won't conflict.All win partitions would be in FAT 32.

Thanks for any help.

[saikee]

Knoobquest,

Welcome to Justlinux.


Most of the information on the procedure is here. (http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150551)

You can use a Linux Live CD to create all the partition first.

The partition will be known as hda1 to hda6 or sda1 to sda6 depending on the distro you select. You can put the OSes in any order as partition 1 to 4 are primaries.

Since you need a data partition and an extra swap partition is required for Linux so you need 6 partritions in total as you must give up one primary partition to convert it into an extended partition to hold 2 logical partitions hda5 and hda6, which can be the swap and data.

If you use Kubuntu, which can work as a Live CD, it has a partitioning programme called cfdisk ideal for the job.

Any partition you create in Linux is Type 83, suitable for Linux installation. You need to change a partition type to 82 for a swap, type c for fat32 and type 7 for NTFS (for xp). With cfdisk the extended partition willl be created as soon as you create a logical partition. Ideally you should use hda1 for Win9x, hda2 for XP, hda3 for Kubuntu and when you create hda5 the extended partition will be hda4 automatically.

The hiding and unhiding is done with Grub which you can run it from the Live CD.

To use Live CD terminal mode with root privilege you need to prefix every command with "sudo". For example to run Grub it will be
sudo grub
to see what Linux call your hard disk you run fdisk -l
sudo fdisk -l
to partition device hda you type
sudo cfdisk /dev/hda

[Knoobquest]

Hi,I think that my version of Kubuntu 7.04 uses QT parted for partitioning.For the US version of Linux the options are called ext. 2 and ext. 3 for /,home,swap,etc.I think that if I use Grub from the Live CD I can set up all the partitions ok.I just wondered about Grub keeping XP from seeing the Win98 partition and trying to upgrade it.:mad:

It sounds like I should make a small primary partition for Grub and flag it as active so it will handle the booting.Next create another primary partition for win 98 in Fat 32.After that, create one more primary partition for XP in Fat 32.Create a last primary partition, then use it for extended /logical partition.This would be for data.Then allow some 10 GB at the end of the drive unformatted for my Kubuntu, /=4 GB ext 3,
swap=512mb ext2,home=rest of disk ext 3.

Using my version of the disk setup I "think" the disk would look something like this

Grub (hda,0)
Win 98 (hda,1)
Win XP (hda,2)
data (hda,3)
Kubuntu / =ext3 (hda,4)
swap = ext 2 (hda,5)
home = ext 3 (hda,6)


Please correct any thing I have wrong.Thank you for your reply.

[saikee]

You don't need a separate partition for Grub or one for /home. Just one partition for / will do. /home is just a subdirectory for / and Grub is always stored in /boot.

You can use Grub any time from the Live CD! So if you want to hide hda1 and unhide hda2 just type these commands in terminal
sudo grub
hide (hd0,0)
unhide (hd0,1)
quit

Swap has no filing system.

The installer will format it in Ext3 for you.

I recommend using the terminal program because you can then know partition creation and formatting are two different operations.

Lastly Grub has its own device name. It always counts from zero. So the 1st partition of the 1st disk is (hd0,0) which is equivalent to hda1.

[Knoobquest]

I want to install Grub on it's own partition so that when I need to reinstall XP it won't overwrite the MBR wiping out the chainloader of Grub.I have this problem with another computer that has XP as the C drive and Kubuntu up around (hda,6).Whenever I reinstall XP,I have to use the Kubuntu Live CD to reset Grub in a terminal by Grub> root (hd0,6) Grub> setup (hd0) Grub> quit $ exit.I want to avoid having to do this with this different drive.

I don't really want to have to use the Live CD after I set up this drive unless it's an emergency.Also,from the Kubuntu forums,someone suggested that by breaking out /home to a different partition,any update of the root files that might "break" the distro wouldn't effect data in the /home partition.

Thanks for your replies.This new forum has more great information about Linux to help people like me.Keep up the good work.:D

[saikee]

You can't avoid restoring Grub because both XP and Win9x need to put their own MBR in whenever they are installed.

Every OS's MBR can be restored so you might as well learn to fix each one than to avoid it.

You can avoid restoring Grub only if you install the two MS systems first and Kubuntu last.

You can also place Grub in its own partition as you wish as it is more fun but you still need to use the Live CD to rescue it if something goes wrong. If you go down that route I recommend to put Grub in a primary partition and format it in fat32. The reason is because you can make XP's MBR to boot it, without haviing to use a Live CD. Also in fat32 you can use any of the Win9x XP and Kubuntu to edit the menu.lst. If this is what you want you should have the following partitioning scheme (for ease of control)

hda1 xp
hda2 win9x
hda3 grub
hda4 extended partition (formed autmatically if hda5 is created in cfdisk)
hda5 swap
hda6 Kubuntu
hda7 data

The order of the last three is immaterial.

The only hiding you need is when booting win9x and that is optional only if you want win9x to have its own boot loader by hiding xp only once before installing win9x. When you boot xp the win9x and Grub will become D and E drive and so there is no need to hide win9x.

You can choose to have a partition for /home too but I find it more practical to move the data from /home into the data-only partition and clean up /home from time to time.

To put Grub into hda3 suggested above all you need is to copy the /boot/grub entire directory into hda3 and restore Grub into the MBR by point root to hda3 or (hd0,2) in Grub's convention.

[Knoobquest]

Ok,thanks for clarifying that for me.I wondered,as per another thread,that if I flagged Grub as the active primary partition,that it would boot first and give me the choice of which OS I'd like to start.I assume that Grub would post a boot menu listing XP,win 98,or Kubuntu.

Thanks again for helping me to better understand what's going on.It's easy to get one idea twisted up with another when you're a newbie that is not completely familiar with Grub,Linux,and multi-booting.

[saikee]

Knoobquest,

You are right in thinking by placing Grub in an active primary partition you can make a MS system MBR to boot it up and have a Grub menu to choose the 3 systems to boot.

It is kind of cool too to go inside a XP and ask its "disk management" program to make the fat32 partition active. On a reboot the XP's MBR fires up Grub instead of xp. You can then use Grub to boot up the XP if you wish to later. Inside Grub you can also make any partition active too.

There is no book written on this sort of thing but since Linux is open source so understanding it can enable us to do all kind of amazing things.

Win9x and Linux are very easy to modify and move around. You only need to get the XP right as it doesn't like to be moved and requires a re-installation if you end up with a wrong arrangement.