From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 1FF57158041 for ; Fri, 23 Feb 2024 18:58:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 53381E29FF; Fri, 23 Feb 2024 18:58:41 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ciao.gmane.io (ciao.gmane.io [116.202.254.214]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange ECDHE (prime256v1) server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id DC0EBE29F5 for ; Fri, 23 Feb 2024 18:58:40 +0000 (UTC) Received: from list by ciao.gmane.io with local (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1rdakp-0005GQ-GP for gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org; Fri, 23 Feb 2024 19:58:39 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org From: Grant Edwards Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: How to set up drive with many Linux distros? Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2024 18:58:30 -0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: User-Agent: slrn/1.0.3 (Linux) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org X-Auto-Response-Suppress: DR, RN, NRN, OOF, AutoReply X-Archives-Salt: 34e2b3f0-262e-4a09-827b-28ef2d03ee5b X-Archives-Hash: 492cf2fb8c1e551550cdd2eb22f6d0f1 On 2024-02-23, Wols Lists wrote: > On 23/02/2024 00:28, Grant Edwards wrote: >> In my experience, 's bootloader does not boot other >> installations by calling other bootloaders. It does so by rummaging >> through all of the other partitions looking for kernel images, >> intird files, grub.cfg files, etc. It then adds menu entries to >> the config file for 's bootloader which, when selected, >> directly load the kernel image and initrd from those other >> partitions. Sometimes, it works -- at least until those other >> installations get updated without the knowlege of the distro that >> currently "owns" the MBR's bootloader config. Then it stops working >> until you tell that bootloader to re-do it's rummaging about >> routine. > > IME distros that try that (SUSE, anyone!) generally get confused as > to which kernel belongs to which root partition. > > Hence needing to boot with a live distro to edit the resulting mess > and get the system to actually come up without crashing ... IIRC, all of the big distros used to do that. It didn't work very well, but at least it took a really long time. However, I read recently that Ubuntu had disabled the os-prober by default in 22.04. Disabling it was always one of the first things I did after installing a new distro. The simple solution is to give up on multi-booting a dozen different distros on a single disk and buy a pocketful of USB 3 thumb drives. -- Grant