[Techtalk] two ubuntu distros on one computer

[Akkana Peck]

Roberta Gallini writes:
> Thank you for your advice, but I'm afraid that I don't understand your
> explanation.
> 
> They are too advanced for my experience with Linux/Ubuntu.
> 
> I don't understand why should I copy the kernel to the boot partition.

When you install ubuntu, it will install a new grub to whatever
the installer is using as the /boot partition (unless you bend over
backwards to prevent it from doing that).

So your new ubuntu will have its kernel and all its grub files on
the new /boot, and then will set up your computer so that it looks
at the new /boot partition when it's booting, and uses the new grub
installed on that partition.

But your old distro isn't on that /boot partition: it's on the root
partition for that distro. So if you want to have grub see the
kernel, etc. for your currently installed distro as well as the
new one, you have to have a /boot (including /boot/grub/menu.lst,
which is the list of all your booting options) which includes both
the new distro (already there) and the old one (which isn't there
yet, so you have to put it there).

> I thought that it would have been enough creating a new boot partition
> with the installation and then "point" the old grub there.

Actually, I think that's possible (you could edit the new menu.lst
and point it to the kernels that live on the root partition for the
old install). But that's harder, because you have lines like
root            (hd0,0)
and you have to figure out what numbers to put there (I think it's
disk_number, partition_number? But I've never fiddled with that
myself.)

-- 
    ...Akkana
    "Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional": http://gimpbook.com