Step-by-step guide to partition for triple boot system

[EamonM]

Please note: this was intended as a reply to this topic http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=45471 and was intended to recover a system with windows on approx 50% of the drive and several scrambled linux partitons on the remainder.

If someone would like a similar guide starting from a windows only computer, let me know.

Slán,
Eamon
=================================

Pyro,

Step by step guide as requested. Before you start please make sure all your critical data is backed up. In the event that something goes seriously wrong you don't want to be the one to loose the lot!

In Windows

Step 1: Remove your old Ubuntu.
While I've never used Wubi this link looks like what you need regarding uninstallation: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide#Uninstallation

Step 2: Delete all linux partitions.
Use the windows tool as it won't lock any of the linux partitions!

Start=> Settings=> Control Panel=> Administrative Tools=> Computer Management
Select Disk Management (under Storage)
Right click on each of the linux partitions and select "Delete partition" from the list.

When you finish you should have an NTFS C:\ drive and unallocated space.

In Puppy

Step 3: Boot Puppy from LiveCD and create some partitions.

Right click on the unallocated space and select New.
Free space preceeding 0 MiB, new size 384 MiB, free space following can fill automatically. Set as a primary partition, with Linux-swap filesystem.

Right click on the unallocated space and select New.
Free space preceeding 0 MiB, new size 28 GiB, free space following can fill automatically and should be the same. Set as a primary partition, with Ext2 filesystem.

Click on Apply and let GParted do its thing.

Shut down your computer but do NOT save your session to disk at this point.

In Ubuntu

Step 4: Install Ubuntu to the unallocated disk space.

Instructions at http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_wind ... htm?page=1 look OK, however on page 3 instead of using "Guided - resize..." use "Guided - use the largest continuous free space". Check that it has found your linux-swap partition rather than creating a second one.

In Puppy

Step 5: Install Puppy to partition created at Step 3.

Identify which partition is the one created for puppy (probably sda3) and write it down.

Start the Puppy universal installer (menu=> Setup=> Puppy universal installer)
Choose Internal (IDE or SATA) hard drive.
Select the partition.
Select Frugal
Note the folder name where Puppy is to be installed (mine is puppy420) and write it down.
Allow the installer to finish.

In Ubuntu

Step 6: Add Puppy to the grub menu list
Open a terminal and enter the following commands:

Code: Select all

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.old

Code: Select all

sudo geany /boot/grub/menu.lst

Insert an entry for puppy, I am not 100% sure the root will be at hd0,3 if it does not work you can get back into Ubuntu to try a different value.

# Puppy Frugal config begins
title Puppy 420 (on /dev/sda3)
root (hd0,3)
kernel /puppy420/vmlinuz pmedia=idehd psubdir=puppy420
initrd /puppy420/initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Save and exit.

At this point you should have a triple boot computer with Windows, Ubuntu and Puppy. If you have any problems post them up and I'll do my best to help.

Slán,

Eamon

[davids45]

G'day Eamon,

Thanks for putting together this guide. I hope pyro finds it fixes his situation. I expect it will also help others with existing Windows XP & Ubuntu installs. I don't know how it will fare with Vista and the latest Ubuntu (with its Grub2 option) but for me with XP and 8.10/9.04, it looks very good. Let's hope for positive feedback.


Some minor comments or later options that I hope wont detract from the essential purpose of your guide.

Your guide involves formatting the hard drive into 4 primary partitions, the most basic system.

When I have installed Ubuntu, I have used its Manual option when it came to where Ubuntu asked where to install itself (Step4 of the guide). This was possible because before installing Ubuntu, I had used a Puppy Live CD (in your guide's Step3) and its GParted to format all the unallocated space into the partitions and sizes I wanted. So this would mean the hard drive had sda1 (the existing XP), sda2 (empty, ext3), sda3 (also empty) and sda4 (the small Linux swap) and I'd tell Ubuntu to install itself into sda2. As I only want one Ubuntu on my computers, I use the Manual install option to replace an old Ubuntu with the next one.

With a bit more confidence in partitioning with GParted, one can try creating an extended partition which allows creation of a greater number of extra partitions and I think gives greater flexibility in using a computer with multiple operating systems. Why stop at 3? And how can data be shared easily between the 3?

I usually give Ubuntu a partition of no more than 10GB, and a full Puppy 4GB. Puppy Frugals I fit onto a 20GB partition since they work so nicely from sub-directories. More than twenty different Frugals can be put into such a partition.
I also like to have a Data partition which every OS can access without interfering with the partition of one of the other OSs.
When I've started with a clean hard drive (Step -1 of Eamon's guide ), I also give XP only 10GB for its C drive. Windows programs - where they will let me - I install to D drive (another ntfs partition).

So, once a triple boot set-up is running well (as per this guide), the next evolutionary step where there is a reasonably large hard-drive could be re-sizing the existing four primary partitions to increase one and turning that big one into an extended partition into which more OS partitions can be made, as well as common (sharing) data and program partitions. I think the limit is 15 partitions per drive (4 primary and 10 in the extended).

But this is only for "later" and another guide.

David S.

[EamonM]

David,

Thanks for the feedback. I wrote the guide with the specific intent of getting Pyro up and running, so I stuck to the basics, and the setup that had been recommended in a previous post.

Unless someone can point me to where a step by step guide covering more advanced points already exists, I'll have a go at preparing one. It will take a while and need checking though, because I'll be pushing the limit of my knowledge!

Slan,

Eamon