FOUR factory DEFAULT Partions PREVENTs DUAL BOOT LINUX install

[hpng]

You wrote: >>>  "

Well, 10GB might be fine. I don't know how much it takes in Ubuntu but I always have about 15GB for the root. Keep the root but shrink the /home as much as you can. Then resize it as you want to 10-15GB for another root and the rest for home. Use Gparted for that.

http://www.howtogeek.com/114503/how-to-resize-your-ubuntu-partitions/"

Now that i have used Ubuntu 14.04, it consumes a lot of power as I notice the fan runs at high speed,

unlike my WIndows 7.

So I am looking at lightweight distros, like Lubuntu or CurnchBang.

Both use Debian as base distro.

This observation is also confirmed by this article:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/ubuntu-14-04-review-missing-the-boat-on-big-ch...

"This setup, which is pretty minimalist in terms of battery draining apps, would still manage to drain the battery in under four hours in Ubuntu 12.04, sometimes not lasting much more than three hours. I switched to running Ubuntu in VMware (using OS X as the base system), and battery life improved somewhat, consistently lasting about four hours, but that's still not very good."

I felt like I wasted a lot of time with Ubuntu!

Below would be my new multi-boot scenario ( not sure it would work, see following questions next ...) :

Two roots:  One used by existing Ubuntu 14.04, and the other would be for Lubuntu or CrunchBang.

/home         : shared by above root Debian-based distros.

Q1: So if I create another root partition, do I use "/" as the new root name for the 2nd partition?

The "/" is the root name based on instructions for creating a dual boot with root, /, and /home partition 

from online help.s

Using "/" as root name would be in conflict with same root name, / , assigned for existing partion,  i.e. Ubuntu 14.04.

I am worried if I use some other root name, e.g. /lubuntu or /crunchbang,  it could cause unforseen problem b'cos

"/" is the default name for "The ROOT" of Linux file system.

Q2:  Can the two distros share the same /home partition, where there is already data in /home when I installed ubuntu 14.04 earlier?

Thanks.

[pepe999]

---

@hpng wrote:

You wrote: >>>  "

Well, 10GB might be fine. I don't know how much it takes in Ubuntu but I always have about 15GB for the root. Keep the root but shrink the /home as much as you can. Then resize it as you want to 10-15GB for another root and the rest for home. Use Gparted for that.

http://www.howtogeek.com/114503/how-to-resize-your-ubuntu-partitions/"

Now that i have used Ubuntu 14.04, it consumes a lot of power as I notice the fan runs at high speed,

unlike my WIndows 7.

So I am looking at lightweight distros, like Lubuntu or CurnchBang.

Both use Debian as base distro.

This observation is also confirmed by this article:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/ubuntu-14-04-review-missing-the-boat-on-big-ch...

"This setup, which is pretty minimalist in terms of battery draining apps, would still manage to drain the battery in under four hours in Ubuntu 12.04, sometimes not lasting much more than three hours. I switched to running Ubuntu in VMware (using OS X as the base system), and battery life improved somewhat, consistently lasting about four hours, but that's still not very good."

I felt like I wasted a lot of time with Ubuntu!

Below would be my new multi-boot scenario ( not sure it would work, see following questions next ...) :

Two roots:  One used by existing Ubuntu 14.04, and the other would be for Lubuntu or CrunchBang.

/home         : shared by above root Debian-based distros.

Q1: So if I create another root partition, do I use "/" as the new root name for the 2nd partition?

The "/" is the root name based on instructions for creating a dual boot with root, /, and /home partition 

from online help.s

Using "/" as root name would be in conflict with same root name, / , assigned for existing partion,  i.e. Ubuntu 14.04.

I am worried if I use some other root name, e.g. /lubuntu or /crunchbang,  it could cause unforseen problem b'cos

"/" is the default name for "The ROOT" of Linux file system.

Q2:  Can the two distros share the same /home partition, where there is already data in /home when I installed ubuntu 14.04 earlier?

Thanks.

---

Q1: Yes, you have to pick / for the other root partition but don't worry. The bootloader (Grub) will find all linux distributions on any other root/boot partition (like Ubuntu on sda3 and whatever else on sda5) and then list both linux distributions (perhaps even with all kernels) in the menu plus Windows as usual.

Q2: Well, I'm not sure but it's definitely NOT recommended. There are stored some system settings on the /home partition and I suggest to create a separate /home partition for the other linux too. 

BTW: Linux Mint is not a bad linux. http://distrowatch.com/

I have seen that Mint even has a better hardware support. Ubuntu however, has a better PR through Canonical..

[hpng]

Q1: Yes, you have to pick / for the other root partition but don't worry. The bootloader (Grub) will find all linux distributions on any other root/boot partition (like Ubuntu on sda3 and whatever else on sda5) and then list both linux distributions (perhaps even with all kernels) in the menu plus Windows as usual.

Q2: Well, I'm not sure but it's definitely NOT recommended. There are stored some system settings on the /home partition and I suggest to create a separate /home partition for the other linux too. 

BTW: Linux Mint is not a bad linux. http://distrowatch.com/

I have seen that Mint even has a better hardware support. Ubuntu however, has a better PR through Canonical..

THANKS.

In summary, for each new distro, create 2 new ext4 partitions,  / and /home, despite existing partitions of same name in hard drive.

About Linux Mint:

From theri webpage:

"....  A distribution based on and compatible with Ubuntu, which is shipped with integrated proprietary or patented media codecs. ...."

Since they are based on Ubuntu and thus Debian, their hardware support would come from same pool of drivers tested by Linux Foundation, right?

[pepe999]

As I remember linux Mint was founded by some former Ubuntu developers (the better ones) that had different ideas about Ubuntu. Perhaps that's why is Mint more popular. Mint and Ubuntu are all Debian based (.deb packages) but because Mint uses Ubuntu repos it based Ubuntu. Both distributions can't also install a native package for Debian. 

Yes, this is what I do. Two ext4 partitions for / and /home for each distro. It can be on a single partition but if something happens to the partition on root, you won't get data from /home.

Yes the drivers come from the same source but I have seen Mint working fine on computers where Ubuntu couldn't even start. I think that kernels on Mint are less buggy than on Ubuntu..

[LinnyMint]

I realize this has been marked as solved but here's something else that works.  I have an HP Mini 110 with Windows 7 Starter with the 4 primary partitions already occupied.  I too wanted to dual boot Linux.  After a lot of googling I found a solution which I found in a Windows SevenForums post.  Shrink the Windows partition (C drive) and use Partition Wizard (free version), preferably from a bootable CD/DVD or USB device, to change that partition from a Primary partition to  an Extended partition.  Here is a link to the tutorial in Windows SevenForums:

Windows 7: Partition / Extended : Logical Drives

I used method two,  but after reading a post where someone else had done this, I installed and ran Partition Wizard in Windows on the hard drive instead of from a CD/DVD or USB device.  Running Partition Wizard from the C: drive won't complete the change until you reboot the computer.  This is the dangerous way to do it, but I encountered no problem at all.