SDB:Booting a Second Linux System with the Boot Loader GRUB

Version: 8.1 -

İçindekiler

1 Concern
2 Supposition
3 Procedure
4 Alternative Procedure

Concern

You have two Linux systems installed on your machine and want to boot both with the boot loader GRUB.

Supposition

Suppose the hard disk is partitioned as follows:

/dev/hda5      Swap
/dev/hda6      Linux 1
/dev/hda7      Linux 2

The first logical partition (/dev/hda5) is the swap partition, /dev/hda6 contains the first Linux system. This system is booted with the boot loader GRUB. Another Linux version is to be installed in the partition /dev/hda7. This version, too, is to be booted with GRUB.

Procedure

When installing the second Linux system, do not install the boot loader in the MBR but in the root partition (/dev/hda7). Subsequently, add the following section for the second system to the boot loader configuration file of the first installation (/boot/grub/menu.lst):

title Linux Two
   root (hd0,6)
   chainloader +1

The entry root (hd0,6) must be adapted to your situation. In this example, (hd0,6) refers to the third logical partition on the first hard disk. Further information on the designations used in the entries in the GRUB configuration file is available in the following article: SDB:The Boot Manager Grub

Save the file. The next time you power up the machine, the boot manager will show the additional entry. Select this entry to start the chain loader mechanism of the boot loader of the second Linux system. In this way, two boot loaders are used consecutively. The advantage of this procedure is that the boot loader of the second system can be configured quite easily.

Alternative Procedure

Alternatively, the kernel, initrd, and kernel parameters can be entered directly in the boot loader of the first system. For example, the following entry boots a SUSE LINUX 9.1 installation:

title Linux Two
    kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 vga=794 resume=/dev/hda5 splash=verbose showopts
    initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd

The disadvantage of this procedure is that the boot loader cannot be reconfigured from the second system without mounting the partition containing the first system. The advantage is that only one boot loader is needed for booting both systems.

Important note: This configuration is not covered by the free installation support. However, you can make use of our advanced support service. See http://www.suse.de/en/private/support/inst_support/advanced.html for details.

de:SDB:Der Bootmanager GRUB

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