[Techtalk] two ubuntu distros on one computer

Wim De Smet kromagg at gmail.com
Wed Jan 31 14:21:14 UTC 2007


On 1/31/07, Roberta Gallini <regina.amazzone at gmail.com> wrote:
> Let me know if I got it right:
>
> 1) I put my live-installation CD into the drive.
> 2) when I repartition I put the /boot directory in a primary partition
> on its own
> 3) now I start the installation and GRUB will be in a "reserved partition".
>
> In order to have the former installation working I think that I have
> to copy its content into the new boot partition, but when do I do so?

In between step 2 and step 3. First you need to format your new boot
(put ext2 or ext3 on it, can possibly do this from parted too), then
mount both /boot partitions somewhere in your temporary filesystem
(for instance make two directories /mnt/bootold and /mnt/bootnew) and
copy over the contents (cp with the relevant switches, see the backup
thread on here a while back). You'll need to edit your old
installation's /etc/fstab to mount the new /boot. Make sure you edit
your installations /etc/fstab, not the livecd's one.

After that your old system will not boot for the moment but you can
likely just start the installation of the new ubuntu and it will set
grub up correctly (I hope).

>
> And another question: after the two installations, I would like to
> read some of the files in my current /home.
>
> I tried to share it, but when it asked me the name of the host to
> trust, I didn't know what to write.
>
> Is that so because I hadn't a host (not having installed the new OS)?
>
> When I have one, what shall I write?
>

Are we talking about filesharing with windows hosts over the network?
I'm not familiar with gnome's samba stuff so I'm not sure.

mvg,
Wim


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