Best way to partition for dual boot Ubuntu's...[SOLVED]

[SaddleTramp]

Howdy ya'll,
Looked around but couldn't find anything close enough (in my mind) to what I want to do. So here goes...

System: HP Pavilion a1700n; AMD Athlon 3800+ 64 x2; 1gb DDR2 RAM; nVidia 6150 LE; nForce MCP51; HP SuperMulti CD/DVD Writer w/Lightscribe; Samsung SATA 250GB HDD; WD SATA 320GB HDD

I 'want' to run Ultimate 1.7 32bit (wish there would be 64 bit but ya can't have everything, right ) AND Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 64 bit. I just slicked Vista becuz HP recovery disks will not let you vary from partitioning and formating ENTIRE HDD...tried 5 ways to resize and nada...so when you got a problem you solve it totally by cutting it off at the roots!! Now I have 2 HDD's free for Linux !! (which I'm newer than new at BTW).

Ultimate and Hardy to dual boot (of course) and run on Samsung 250 (Drive 0) if possible (figuring there may be a problem between 32 & 64 bit versions).

So any advice and what I need to do would be greatly appreciated. I was impressed enough when I came across Hardy Heron as my first intro to how Linux outperforms (IMHO) MS. Then I came across Ultimate and WOW!!!!!!!!!! (best 1 word declaration I could think of and be able to speak in mixed company ) Outstanding job on Ultimate!! Hard to find one-stop get-what-u-want/need pkg's like this one..

Appreciate ya'lls time in reading this..
S'Tramp

[DaddyX3]

Hello and Welcome.
I have read your post and felt compelled to give you some info for future reference. I do believe that there is a setting in bios that you have to activate in order to do anything to the MBR, this is prob. why you were having a hard time with moving VISTA around. As for the partitioning of your drives you could check out the HOW TO for partitioning. You have to understand something with partitioning your hard-drives....Its really all your preference to size of partitions. But as a step by step I could recommend the following:
1) Delete all existing partitions with GParted off the Live Session Disk of Ultimate Edition 1.7
2) Create Two major partitions to start (one for 1.7 and one for 8.04)
3) Format one of them to your preference (xfs riserfs ext3/2) and leave the other "unalocated"
4) create the smaller partitions from the HOW TO during install of Ultimate Edition 1.7
5) After Ultimate Edition 1.7 is installed continue to install 8.04 again following the steps above except don't wipe out your existing partitions!!!

Like I was saying earlier - size and amount of space you choose to make your partitions are truly a matter of space and preference.

If you have any more questions or need some more help don't be afraid to post

[SaddleTramp]

Thanks for taking time out to help me Daddy...

Hello and Welcome.
I have read your post and felt compelled to give you some info for future reference. I do believe that there is a setting in bios that you have to activate in order to do anything to the MBR, this is prob. why you were having a hard time with moving VISTA around.

Not electing to write programs (tried but kept getting headaches), I did become a hardware tech. As familiar as I am with BIOS, I haven't seen anything that would stand out as controlling anything like that. That's not to say they (HP) may have it hidden/embedded in the chipset somewhere...wouldn't put it passed'em anyways..

As for the partitioning of your drives you could check out the HOW TO for partitioning. You have to understand something with partitioning your hard-drives....Its really all your preference to size of partitions. But as a step by step I could recommend the following:
1) Delete all existing partitions with GParted off the Live Session Disk of Ultimate Edition 1.7
2) Create Two major partitions to start (one for 1.7 and one for 8.04)
3) Format one of them to your preference (xfs riserfs ext3/2) and leave the other "unalocated"
4) create the smaller partitions from the HOW TO during install of Ultimate Edition 1.7
5) After Ultimate Edition 1.7 is installed continue to install 8.04 again following the steps above except don't wipe out your existing partitions!!!

Like I was saying earlier - size and amount of space you choose to make your partitions are truly a matter of space and preference.

If you have any more questions or need some more help don't be afraid to post

Ok, so here's what I'm thinking it comes down to...this is what i'll do if this will work...

Scenario 1:

Hardy Drive: 250GB
dev/sda
dev/sda1 / 10 gig
dev/sda2 /home 'big gig'
dev/sda3 /swap 2.5 gig

Ultimate Drive: 320GB
dev/sdb
dev/sdb1 / 15 gig
dev/sdb2 /home 'big gig'
dev/sdb3 /swap 2.5 gig

Would it be advisable to have a '/boot' ?? If so, I would take it to go under dev/sda1 '/' as dev/sda2 '/boot' ??

Scenario 2:

Hardy Drive: 250GB
dev/sda
dev/sda1 / 25 gig (10 gig Hardy/15 gig Ultimate)
dev/sda2 /home 'big gig' (various editing work)
dev/sda3 /swap 2.5 gig

Ultimate Drive: 320GB
dev/sdb
dev/sdb1 /games 'big gig"
dev/sdb2 /movies 'big gig'
dev/sdb3 /swap 2.5 gig

Appreciate all your time on this...once I get it installed the right way I intend to immediately make a full backup.

Thanks again,
S'Tramp

[DaddyX3]

As far as what I posted about the BIOS option, I have personally seen it on a couple different boards now. Only on pre-configured systems, but it is there none the less. I happen to have the identical computer that you do at my office. I will check it out tomorrow when I go to work and see what I can see. I have seen an option on ACER laptops and Dell computers so far. I'm sure there are more, but this is all I have encountered. It actually makes sense for the average home user (saves them from themselves )

As far as your scenarios - I like #2 but just have to realize that there is no magic #'s that will fit your needs to a "T". But looks as though I would create something similar none the less. Good Luck with the installs

/boot? I wouldn't bother.

[SaddleTramp]

As far as what I posted about the BIOS option, I have personally seen it on a couple different boards now. Only on pre-configured systems, but it is there none the less. I happen to have the identical computer that you do at my office. I will check it out tomorrow when I go to work and see what I can see. I have seen an option on ACER laptops and Dell computers so far. I'm sure there are more, but this is all I have encountered. It actually makes sense for the average home user (saves them from themselves )

As far as your scenarios - I like #2 but just have to realize that there is no magic #'s that will fit your needs to a "T". But looks as though I would create something similar none the less. Good Luck with the installs

/boot? I wouldn't bother.

Do let me know what u see...i couldn't see anything in mine that did this... but let me know.

Ok then, Scenario 2 it is.

Daddy I sure appreciate the help man. With the Vista/HP thing going on and trying to wrap my mind around to many things at one time with Dual boot deal and thinkin' what else I need to do man I was gettin' a lil looney there . As well as being impressed with the lightweightedness of Linux Ubuntu versions and the "fullness" they have for a complete OS, sure wish I had gotten into Linux years ago.

Thanks again and if I see anything on here that I am able to help someone with I'll sure do it.
Ya'll take care now and will let ya know how things end up with this install.

S'Tramp

[DaddyX3]

Well, I looked this morning on the office computer and you are right .... nothing there. Thats nice. I like the idea that HP hasn't stepped into the world of hardware MBR protection yet. So as far as I can tell, you must just be fighting software install from the factory. I know that VISTA will not "let" you shrink a volume sometimes if the install is old. If there is anything in that other partition it won't let you shrink it enough for a dual boot system. I went through this with VISTA and Ultimate Edition quite a while ago. Well, no matter - Good Luck with your install!

[SaddleTramp]

Ok, appreciate you gettin' bak on that...

Well, I finally got everything up and running...

For now everything works with Hardy 64bit on 1 drive and Ultimate 32bit on the other, dual boots up just fine, all updated, and everything. This structure may not be a bad idea after I thought about it. If a drive crashes I'm already set up on the other for a backup system and can recover a lot easier from there. To use something I was already familiar with from having Hardy installed before, I used QuickStart to backup both systems putting the Hardy backup files on the Ultimate drive and vice versa. Even used QuickStart to clean everything up before I bak'd it up.

Appreciate your time and advice/instruction on this and believe me, over the past few days I've learned a lot about Linux (although micro-small compared to what I have left to learn). But with this installation the light came on about the protocol of the installation routine and how Grub goes thru it's routine.

As for the BIOS thing, when I get my 3rd drive I may even install Vista back again just to work on finding what it is in it that won't let you shrink it's partition. But that's later on down the road. At least we know now it's not in the BIOS of this model anyway.

Ya'll take care and, again, I appreciate all your time and patience...
SaddleTramp

[DaddyX3]

Glad to hear your all up and runn'n Have a good one and don't be afraid to stop back by and help others out on things you've learned. This is how the *nix world works

[TheeMahn]

I currently quad boot 1 disk is invisible to linux promise raid is supported by only through the newest kernel... or vista.

The breakdown (sudo fdisk -l)...

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00088bf2

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        9726    78124063+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2   *        9727       19452    78124095   83  Linux
/dev/sda3           19453       29786    83006464    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4           29787       30401     4939987+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfed7339e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       60801   488384001   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000e0ad6

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1       38913   312568641   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00088183

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1   *           1       60801   488384001   83  Linux

Disk /dev/md0: 1000.2 GB, 1000210300928 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 244191968 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/md0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sde: 2013 MB, 2013265920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 244 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sde1   *           1          92      738958+   6  FAT16
/dev/sde2              93         244     1220940   83  Linux

My first drive is a 250 as you have split 4 times note sda2 is my boot drive & not sda1

First partition 80 GB Windows XP
Second 80GB Ultimate 1.7
third ~80 GB Vista Ultimate
Forth shared swap partition

the 2 500's are raid and only for storage.
The 320 while I could split it into 4 more partitions I use solely for the Upcoming Ultimate Edition 1.7 X64, when I boot I am presented with 3 "options" Vista / XP, Ultimate Edition 1.7 and AMD 64 (work in progress). If I select Vista / XP I am brought to a new menu where I can select Vista or "Older version of windows", If I really wanted to and was no so lazy could put it right into the grub menu & skip the sub menu. This is my current /boot/grub/menu.lst (not to be used this is for reference only):

Code: Select all

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default      0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout      10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title      Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root      (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader   +1
#
# title      Linux
# root      (hd0,1)
# kernel   /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=96da6ed7-3ab1-4c3f-9631-6559b1b984c0 ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
groot=(hd0,1)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
##      lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title      Ultimate 1.7
root      (hd0,1)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=96da6ed7-3ab1-4c3f-9631-6559b1b984c0 ro quiet splash
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title      Ultimate 1.7 (recovery mode)
root      (hd0,1)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=96da6ed7-3ab1-4c3f-9631-6559b1b984c0 ro single
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title      AMD 64
root      (hd3,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic ro quiet splash
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title      AMD 64 (recovery mode)
root      (hd3,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic ro single
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title      memtest86+
root      (hd0,1)
kernel      /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title      Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title      Windows Vista & XP (loader)
root      (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader   +1


sde1 & 2 is a pen drive currently loaded with work in progress amd64 persistant installable. How dod I accomplish this feat?

1. Boot from Ultimate Edition 1.7 partition drives in my case (adjust as you see fit)

a. create fat32 patition of 80 gb (XP will eventually go here, don't worry about fat it will be ntfs)
b. create ext3 partition of 80 gb and tell it mount point of /
c. create ~80gb fat 32 partition this will be where vista lives.
d. create the remaining ~5 GB as a swap partition (this will be shared with other *nix OS's)

Install... You will probably be mad because you are going to have to do part of this again as XP will take over later.

All we were really looking for was the partitioning, yes I know this can be done elsewise, but is easier if you continue.

2. Windows XP Installation
Toss the disk in any key to boot, when the installation comes up select the first parttion created in step 1, when it asks if you wish to keep fat32 or NTFS (quick) select it and install.

3. Windows Vista
This is a bit different, you will have to delete and format the third partition on the drive & install.

4. Re-install Ultimate Edition 1.7
Selecting second partition it will automatically set up your windows and Ultimate Edition.


Enjoy,

TheeMahn

[DaddyX3]

OK stop the talk of all this "AMD 64" stuff, your making me drool!