Multiple distro setup

system · July 9, 2014, 3:39pm

Hey guys,

I have been Windows user for a long time and finally i had courage to step on the right side. I have been using Ubuntu for 4 months now and i want more.

I have got myself a second laptop Thinkpad X121e in order to mess things around on a proper playground instead of destroying my work setup.

I have browsed a lot and i think i will install 3 distros to deepen my knowledge.

Debian kde → http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/de...ybrid/?C=S;O=A
Korora (also kde)
I m not sure

please comment. Also i m not sure if the link i mentioned for debian installation is right or not.

Please reply.

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · July 9, 2014, 5:47pm

Hi rc_mandar, and welcome to the forum

Not 100% sure what you’re asking here, but…

a) AFAIK a standard install of Debian will offer you different desktop environment as part of the install process.
https://wiki.debian.org/KDE
or there are Debian/KDE Live images available
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/i386/iso-hybrid/
and for 64bit
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/

b) Never heard of it, but as it’s KDE I’ll never really have looked

c) Peppermint 5 … but then I’m biased

–

chemicalfan · July 10, 2014, 3:41pm

Are you familiar with virtual machines and using Virtualbox? You could save yourself a whole load of work if you’re still “distro hopping”

system · July 18, 2014, 2:13pm

Hello,

Since this post i was doing research to install debian fluxbox lightweight distro on my x121e Thinkpad. I did it and now i have just one problem. See the second snap shot i can’t access my two 60gb and 193 gb partitions.

Please reply

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · July 18, 2014, 2:32pm

You’re going to need to either -

a) automagically mount the partitions at bootup by adding the correct stanza(s) to /etc/fstab

or

b) run your file manager “as root” when you want to access them.

system · July 18, 2014, 3:41pm

Yes a) part seems right.

Please tell me how. ANy link that i can read?

Please elaborate.

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · July 18, 2014, 3:52pm

from the distro that can’t mount the partitions, post the output from:

sudo fdisk -l

and

mount

and the contents of

gedit /etc/fstab

if gedit isn’t your text editor, replace gedit with the name of your text editor in the last command.

BTW, on your desktop wallpaper, it looks like Batman is wearing a low cut dress and showing his bust/cleavage

system · July 20, 2014, 3:13pm

so you mean in the following file:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sdb3 during installation
UUID=83a1615f-2063-4b0b-86e8-bd7262e3516b /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
#UUID=01ff646f-7e68-4b6b-b9be-e6b26f496504 /boot           ext2    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
UUID=6a3d69b0-064a-4bdd-ad54-6ebfd916a68e none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sda1       /media/usb0     auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0
UUID=01ff646f-7e68-4b6b-b9be-e6b26f496504       /boot   ext2    defaults        0       2

i should just add
/dev/sda5 /media auto rw,user
/dev/sda6 /media auto rw,user

is it? I am confused about the later part after /media

please help

SeZo · July 20, 2014, 3:54pm

It would be advantageous if you could also post the results of the two commands Mark asked for:
(That is a lower case L)

sudo fdisk -l

and

mount

Could you also post the whole content of the file /etc/fstab

cat /etc/fstab

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · July 20, 2014, 4:42pm

First see SeZo’s response above.

i should just add /dev/sda5 /media auto rw,user /dev/sda6 /media auto rw,user
is it? I am confused about the later part after /media

Close but no cigar

Post the output from the earlier commands we assked fo and we’ll assist.

system · July 20, 2014, 8:57pm

output 1:

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000f32c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048     1026047      512000   83  Linux
/dev/sda2         1026048     9414655     4194304   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3   *     9414656    93300735    41943040   83  Linux
/dev/sda4        93302782   625141759   265919489    5  Extended
Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5        93302784   219131903    62914560   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       219133952   625141759   203003904    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

output 2: mount


mad@Xdeb:~$ mount
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=713123,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=571744k,mode=755)
/dev/disk/by-uuid/83a1615f-2063-4b0b-86e8-bd7262e3516b on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
tmpfs on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=1982340k)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext2 (rw,relatime,errors=continue,user_xattr,acl)
rpc_pipefs on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw,relatime)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)

output 3:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sdb3 during installation
UUID=83a1615f-2063-4b0b-86e8-bd7262e3516b /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
#UUID=01ff646f-7e68-4b6b-b9be-e6b26f496504 /boot           ext2    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
UUID=6a3d69b0-064a-4bdd-ad54-6ebfd916a68e none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sda1       /media/usb0     auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0
UUID=01ff646f-7e68-4b6b-b9be-e6b26f496504       /boot   ext2    defaults        0       2

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · July 20, 2014, 10:32pm

OK, we’re going to create 2 mountpoints in /mnt for sda5 and sda6 then mount them through fstab… what would you like to call the mountpoints ?

Something like
sda5 =
sda6 = windows

Can you also post the output from:

sudo blkid

system · July 21, 2014, 2:53pm

mad@Xdeb:~$ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for mad: 
/dev/sda1: LABEL="btldr" UUID="01ff646f-7e68-4b6b-b9be-e6b26f496504" TYPE="ext2" 
/dev/sda2: UUID="6a3d69b0-064a-4bdd-ad54-6ebfd916a68e" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sda3: UUID="83a1615f-2063-4b0b-86e8-bd7262e3516b" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda5: LABEL="linux2" UUID="760b8214-cee3-4f7e-a7bb-0743ff806da9" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda6: LABEL="data" UUID="1C4167532131C952" TYPE="ntfs"

thank you so much Mark. I must say your help ( you had replied to my threads before as well) brought me closer to linux as an OS user. It gave me courage to stop using Windows.

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · July 21, 2014, 6:47pm

OK, first make sure ntfs-3g is installed

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

then create the mountpoints … run:

sudo mkdir -v /mnt/linux2

then

sudo mkdir -v /mnt/data

then let’s backup fstab before editing

sudo cp -v /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak

now open fstab for editing:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

and add these 4 lines at the end

## Auto-mounts added by mad ##
UUID=760b8214-cee3-4f7e-a7bb-0743ff806da9 /mnt/linux2    ext4    defaults    0    0
UUID=1C4167532131C952 /mnt/data    ntfs-3g    defaults,windows_name    0    0
## End auto-mounts added by mad ##

SAVE the file and exit gedit.

Back in the terminal,see if there are any errors if you run:

sudo mount -a

then see if your files are visible if you go to
/mnt/linux2
and
/mnt/data

If everything went well … reboot to test the partitions are auto mounted

Obviously if gedit isn’t your text editor, you’ll have to adjust the commands to relace “gedit” with your text editor.

system · July 22, 2014, 6:23am

Well done! THanks for your support! I am happy tht i can now access my other partitions in deb.

However, in THunar the icons on left pane that were there previously 60gb and 193.6gb are disappeared.
May be now i have to take a closer look to THunar. ???

Anyway, Mark please please can you tell me how can i modify grub to show my second linux distro in grub menu when my ATA HDD boots up?
any link? Tutorial? :

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · July 22, 2014, 8:55am

I’ll answer the GRUB thing when I have a little more time … but in thunar, just bookmark the two mountpoints.

system · July 22, 2014, 10:04pm

But please please please do answer my question regarding grub…

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · July 22, 2014, 11:23pm

Oops forgot…

OK, are you saying the GRUB menu never displays when you boot ? … and it just boots directly into the FIRST distro (the one on sda1) ?

If that’s the case, how are you currently booting the second distro ?

system · July 23, 2014, 6:53am

@Mark:

I haven’t yet installed my second distro. This brings me to next question: yesterday i wanted to install finally my second distro of my x121e thinkpad. however i ran into this (see snap) i aborted just because i have invested many searches and apt-gets in flux debian install i didn’t want to mess it up!

for further discussion:

mad@Xdeb:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000f32c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048     1026047      512000   83  Linux
/dev/sda2         1026048     9414655     4194304   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3   *     9414656    93300735    41943040   83  Linux
/dev/sda4        93302782   625141759   265919489    5  Extended
Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5        93304832   177190911    41943040   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       177192960   261079039    41943040   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       261081088   625141759   182030336    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

i want to install Ubuntu 12.04 on /dev/sda5

please please reply!

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · July 23, 2014, 2:19pm

The GRUB menu is skipped automagically unless there are 2 (or more) OS’s installed … then iit will be displayed.

OK, now I’m confused … did you use a separate /boot partition for your first distro ?

And tell the second one to use it as well ?