1

In my laptop I currently have Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 in dual-boot.

I tried the newest version of WattOS (based in Ubuntu) today from a live-USB, and decided to install it to my hard drive, to use whenever I am completely dependent on battery energy.

However I don't want to create any conflicts and boot problems, specially because my DVD drive is not working and thus I am unable to use Windows 7 DVD to repair MBR.

What is the safest way to install a second Linux distribution (in this case Watt OS) and update Grub Menu, without major trouble?

Neptunno
  • 2,214

2 Answers2

2

There's no difference between dual-booting and triple- (or quadruple- etc.) booting, at least when the OS being installed is Linux - you just prepare an empty partition and install your OS there.

Supposedly, the GRUB will be re-installed so its second stage will be on the partition of the last installed OS, but it should find all other OSes and add them to the menu just the same.

I'm not sure how repairing MBR with Windows DVD relates here though - you aren't using Windows bootloader as your primary bootloader, are you?

Sergey
  • 43,665
  • No, my primary bootloader is Grub. Once I had a problem with Grub Menu disappearing and all I could do was to restore Windows MBR to be able to boot Windows, so I didn't want the same thing happening. – Neptunno Aug 30 '12 at 01:16
  • But should I create the necessary partitions with GParted or can I just let the installer do the process by itself as it did with Ubuntu 12.04? – Neptunno Aug 30 '12 at 01:17
  • 1
    Partitioning manually will make sense - you'll be able to use the same swap partition or even, if you want, the same /home partition for several OSes. But I guess letting the installer to do the job should work too. – Sergey Aug 30 '12 at 02:53
0

I have already installed Windows 7,Ubuntu 12.04 and Fedora 17 (triple boot)

The easy way to do this:

  1. Make sure it will not go beyond the 4 primary partitions if it so then your PC will not boot up

  2. You can make extra partition by GParted tool but it will not more than 4 in case of primary partition while other extended partition is allowed

  3. After having the sufficient space for third Linux distribution, install it .

  4. Then, I re-install grub2 of Ubuntu

    Here is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lod8sRb_6I

  5. Now you are able to use all the three OS installed in your PC

If the other distribution is not shown in grub2 menu then you can update Ubuntu grub2. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJDcyAncmRY

Kevin Bowen
  • 19,615
  • 55
  • 79
  • 83
simplePerson43
  • 2,563