Ubuntu+1 inside a sandboxed partition

[Dražen]

Hi all,

is there a way to run the development Ubuntu version dual boot, but by
using the OS installer (and other related stuff) from the stable version so
that there is little or no chance of it damaging other partitions with the
stable production installation?

I'd like to run an Ubuntu+1 version for development and testing purposes.
Now, I prefer having a dual boot installation to VMs, because of the
ability to test on actual drivers (which are often the cause of why I want
to hack something in the first place). After reading the description of
this method on the wiki page (
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UsingDevelopmentReleases/OtherWays) it seems it has
a major drawback because a bug inside the installer (or, I guess, parts of
the OS related to mounting other partitions etc.) could cause the loss of
data on the production installation, which is quite unacceptable even with
backups, as it takes a lot of time to recover and get the system back to a
usable state (especially if you have other OSs alongside Ubuntu).

What I'm wondering is if there is a way to run a development version, but
with certain crucial parts that could tamper with other partitions taken
from a stable release, where there is a higher level of confidence that it
won't cause data loss on other partitions. This would in an essence be a
sort of Ubuntu+1 installation sandboxed inside a single partition.

If something like this doesn't exist, would it be very complicated to
create as, for example, an automatically generated remix? I think it would
encourage many people to try out the development version on their own
machines, detecting driver-related errors (which get masked by using VMs)
much sooner. Also, it would allow developers to run a development version
straight on their bare metal production machine, which would be a
performance boost during their work.

Dražen Lučanin
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