Re: Multiboot

[George <GeorgeZweistein@gmail.com>]

Loeghmon T. Nejad wrote:
> I am learning Debian and I was wondering if it possible to install two
> instances of Debian on the same machine. One as the production
> workstation for the daily work, and the other for experimentation,
> testing software, add/remove apps, etc. I can then boot into the
> partition that I like based on the task at hand. Thanks.
I have two instances of Debian on each of 2 Thinkpads and Desktops.
On main Thikpad I have Deb-test and Deb-unstable along with a 
mini-RIP-Linux and somethimes Ubuntu/Suse...  On others PC's simply two 
copies of Debian-test.  I run one for several weeks, back it up, do 
synaptic/apt-get upgrade, run a few days then swithch over to alternate 
and do likewise.

In all cases my data is on a DATA partition with logical pointers to it.
I also have a BKUP partition which contains .tgz backup of each Linux 
environment and data as well as grub and bootable mini-RIP-Linux.

Warning, simply copying Debian from one partition to another will no 
longer work as of 2-3 years ago unules you rebuild, via yaird, a new 
initrd.img (changing fstab prior, then restoring after) for the aother 
partition.  (you also have to change fstab for that partition and add 
info to /boot/grub/menu.lst in the main boot partition.  I do not know 
if this is still true, something changed there recently.  This problem 
was never encountered with Suse or Ubuntu, but this quirk allowed me to 
install Debian on a USB-HD, booting and running from USB last year.

===========================
# X4: grub.conf:  grub  :  root (hd0,3)  :  setup (hd0) 
GRUB_PARTION=hda4/BKUP
#
timeout 4
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
default saved
fallback 1

  title WinXP            (HDA1)
  rootnoverify (hd0,0)
  chainloader +1

  title Debian-beta      (HDA6) final_test NO_RESUME
  kernel (hd0,5)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro vga=791 selinux=0 noresume
  initrd (hd0,5)/initrd.img

  title Debian-beta      (HDA6) final_test
  kernel (hd0,5)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
  initrd (hd0,5)/initrd.img
  savedefault

  title Debian-alpha     (HDA7) early_test
  kernel (hd0,6)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 ro vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
  initrd (hd0,6)/initrd.img
  savedefault

  title RIP-X on BKUP    (HDA4) RIP RecoveryIsPossible + GUI
  kernel (hd0,3)/RIP-kernel root=/dev/hda4 vga=1 nokeymap

  title RIP   on BKUP    (HDA4) RIP compressed into RAM no GUI
  kernel (hd0,3)/RIP-kernel root=dev/ram0 rw vga=1 nokeymap
  initrd (hd0,3)/RIP-rootfs.cgz

#