I’m currently using 5 OS in my Laptop, HP 4421s : FreeDOS/Windows, openSUSE, LinuxMint, Fedora & Ubuntu. The main goals are for testing purpose only but I would prefer to install all of those OS in physical instead of virtual because I’m trying to use different OS for work and daily usage. Our client has various Linux system and I must support them for managing their system. Using multiple Linux OS keep me open minds (:-D ) with the features and native command of each OS.
Free DOS bundled and installed automatically with laptop while the others installed manually. openSUSE 11.4 “Celadon” is my first choice, then LinuxMint 10 “Julia”, follows by Fedora 14 “Laughlin” and last (but my be not least 
) is Ubuntu LTS 10.04.2 Lucid Lynx. Among the installed OS, LinuxMint and Ubuntu is the winner for setting up grub bootloader. LinuxMint and Ubuntu detected all of OS and added the OS choice into bootloader successfully. openSUSE was only successful for FreeDOS/Windows and Fedora but it fails to detect LinuxMint and Ubuntu, similar thing with Fedora bootloader.
If you have similar problem : multiple boot between openSUSE and Ubuntu varians but openSUSE could not verify the Ubuntu Varians OS choice in bootloader, below is a guide to added them manually :
- Check partition with fdisk -l
server:/home/vavai # fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 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 identifier: 0x1a18fb65 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 2048 1845247 921600 b W95 FAT32 /dev/sda2 1847294 215769087 106960897 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda3 * 215769088 415768575 99999744 83 Linux /dev/sda4 415768576 518168575 51200000 83 Linux /dev/sda5 1847296 6055935 2104320 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda6 6057984 171094479 82518248 83 Linux /dev/sda7 171096064 213821439 21362688 83 Linux
As described on the above command, I have multiple partition, e.g : sda1 for FreeDOS/Windows, sda3 for openSUSE, sda4 for LinuxMint and so on.
- Check harddisk mapping on /boot/grub/device.map
server:/home/vavai # cat /boot/grub/device.map (hd0) /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200BEKT-60V5T1_WD-WXM1A50N1137 (fd0) /dev/fd0
I have 1 harddisk only, 320 GB, known as hd0 by openSUSE
- Based on the above info, we may add OS choice into grub/bootloader choice by make a small changes to file /boot/grub/menu.lst. Save a backup copy of your /boot/grub/menu.lst and Look at my menu.lst, contains an entry for LinuxMint and Ubuntu :
server:/home/vavai # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst # Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon Jan 31 11:21:08 WIT 2011 # THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader # Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader default 4 timeout 8 ##YaST - generic_mbr gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/message ##YaST - activate ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux### title openSUSE 11.4 root (hd0,2) kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200BEKT-60V5T1_WD-WXM1A50N1137-part3 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200BEKT-60V5T1_WD-WXM1A50N1137-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x317 initrd /boot/initrd #Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: none# title Linux Mint 10 root (hd0,5) kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 ro quiet splash initrd /initrd.img ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Fedora (2.6.35.6-45.fc14.x86_64) (/dev/sda4)### title Fedora (2.6.35.6-45.fc14.x86_64) (/dev/sda4) root (hd0,3) configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows### title Windows rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1 ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy### ##title Floppy # rootnoverify (fd0) 3 chainloader +1 ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe### title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.4 root (hd0,2) kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200BEKT-60V5T1_WD-WXM1A50N1137-part3 showopts apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x317 initrd /boot/initrd ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux### title Kernel-xen root (hd0,2) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-xen root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200BEKT-60V5T1_WD-WXM1A50N1137-part3 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200BEKT-60V5T1_WD-WXM1A50N1137-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x317 initrd /boot/initrd-xen #Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: none# title Ubuntu 10.04 root (hd0,6) kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 ro quiet splash initrd /initrd.img
- Modify your /boot/grub/menu.lst to include Ubuntu varians OS choice into bootloader by using the above menu.lst as an example. Restart your computer to see whether your modification works or not
Note : /boot/grub/menu.lst will be changes each kernel upgrade, so make a backup copy for your working bootloader so you can restore it after kernel upgrade.
