ubuntu-users Digest, Vol 74, Issue 251

[seattlchaz]

You know, you COULD avoid ALL the headaches your asking for by setting
up Virtual Box and installing distro's to your heart's delight.  Just
saying.

I multiboot ubuntu/OSX/Windows.  
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1428246
Partition count is as follows:

EFI (via OSX)
(OSX
Windows
Ubuntu (grub is installed here)
/swap (via ubuntu)
/home (via ubuntu)

As you may know, OSX doesn't like the MBR partition table scheme, so I
had to trick it with a hybrid gpt/mbr.  Of course, mbr doesn't like more
than 4 primary partitions.  Thus the gpt/mbr via the gptsync.

OR you could try 3 primary partitions and use the 4th partition as an
extended spot for your multi distros.

I 
On Wed, 2010-10-27 at 05:39 +0100, ubuntu-users-request at lists.ubuntu.com
wrote:
> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:37:47 +0100
> From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com>
> Subject: Multibooting with Grub2
> To: "Ubuntu user technical support,     not for general discussions"
>         <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Message-ID:
>         <AANLkTik=4Y6xLoPWs6KmsoZb7WrPUNXGt1Pes6DF5iCH at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
> 
> I am setting up a multiboot PC for testing. It has FreeBSD 8.1, Ubuntu
> 9.04, 10.10 and Debian 5, so far. I plan to add more.
> 
> The snag is the 'buntus and Debian all want to run Grub2, & Grub2 only
> wants to go in the MBR. I don't want it in the MBR - it means that if
> I am in 1 distro & get a kernel update, the Grub from the other distro
> doesn't see it. Only 1 copy of Grub2 can be active at a time.
> 
> I want a bootloader in each OS's root partition and a separate 3rd
> party one in the MBR. Currently I'm using XOSL in a tiny 32MB FreeDOS
> partition, but it can't boot the Linuxes 'cos their Grub2s have gone.
> 
> Grub2 issues terrifying warnings if I try to install it to the
> partition instead of the disk. Is this in fact safe?
> 
> Grub1 seems to be deprecated and missing in 10.10 and Debian "Lenny" -
> the choices are Grub2 or LILO.
> 
> What's the best way to proceed?
> 
> -- 
> Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
> Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419
> AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508
> 
> 
> 
>