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| How to install and boot 145 operating systems in a PC --- Updated 4 Jun 10 - The gpt partitioning scheme can have 128 partitions inside. No good for the 32-bit MS Windows but alright for Linux with Grub2. More details available here. --- Updated 8 Apr 09, Good news! kernel 2.6.28 and newer have finally decided to support large partitions. A report is here. I have managed to run a Ubuntu from sda130! Currently I am trying a 1.5 TB hard disk with 60 partitions and will report the progress later. The new kernel 2.6.28 is not universally available in every Linux and many teething troubles will have to overcome before a user can install a large number of operating systems into a hard disk but it is coming this way. --- Updated 17 Sep 07, A warning added in Post #21 on 63 partitions in a Pata hard disk is no longer supported by Linux kernel newer than 2.6.20------------------- --- Updated 20 Sep 07, a new nested Grub menu system + added Solaris and BSD systems showned in Post #32, #33 and #34 ---------------- Author's notes - This thread has picked up some interest from the Internet by readers who commented the title without reading its content. For this reason I summarize the information briefly as follow:- (1) A simple howto procedure, which is applicable from 1 to 300+ systems, is described. (Let me know if there is anything simpler or easier) (2) One standard Linux boot loader controls all the systems. (indirectly becasue every system has its own original boot loader preserved) (3) The controlling boot loader is not attached to any operating system (This is my own choice. Grub can be attached to any OS, even in ntfs partition as work around available). (4) 3 Dos, 5 Windows, 137 Linux (more Linux since added plus one Solaris and 2 BSD) using 3 Pata and 2 Sata hard disks) (The number is limited by the availability of partitions/hard disks) (5) Every system is booted identically and universally by the same 3 lines of commands. No need to worry what OS it is. (using the exactly the method every Linux boots a Windows but on all other systems) (6) The 145-system booting menu can be created ahead of the installation of the systems. (I believe this has not been tried before) (7) A nested Grub menu system is showed (Showned in Post #32 to #34. This probably has not been tried before) Although not indicated by the thread these points should be obvious to experienced PC users (a) The described procedure is applicable to any boot loader. (Grub happens to be the easiest while the others may have various limitations or take too long or too much work to achieve the similar goal). (b) Everything is standard, no new thing invented, no hacking involved and the technology has been there all the time (Anyone can do it. I am just the one who is willing to write about it) (c) The arrangement makes every system suitable for booting manually, say by a Grub floppy or booted by any other boot loader(Every system is self sufficient with its own boot loader inside the boot sector of the residing partition) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to install and boot 145 operating systems in a PC This is the "howto" I promised to write after this thread. The 145 systems are:- 3 Dos 5 Windows 137 Linux I have also installed most of the PC-based BSD and Solaris together with a Darwin x86 too but these systems dislike to co-exist with a large number of other systems so I have to keep them off in another PC until I find a way to tackle the technical issues. (edited : latest arrangement in Post #32, #33 and #34) There are only 3 steps in this howto. Step 1 – A simple hardware scheme An operating system needs to reside in a home. That is a partition to me. I used 2x300Gb Pata disk and 2x200 Sata Disk to set up 152 partitions. I always put one operating system in one partition. As an extended partition of each hard disk has no storage of its own, one data-only partition is needed for my personal data, another data-only partition to house the common boot loader and one Swap partition is needed for all the Linux I ended up losing 7 partitions leaving 145 partitions to house the 145 operating systems. Step 2 – A simple boot scheme I put Grub in a data-only partition, created a boot menu to boot all the partitions before any of the operating systems was installed. When a partition is filled the system inside becomes bootable instantly. This scheme is dead simple, technically sound, perfectly applicable is every situation but can be viewed unconventional to some PC users. For those who know nothing about Grub it is just one of the two boot loaders commonly used in Linux. The other one is called Lilo possibly used by less than 40% of the Linux distros at the begining of 2007. In a nutshell I use this Grub to boot up the boot loader of any of the 145 systems that I choose to use. Afterward it is the duty of the second boot loader that brings up its master. Step 3 – A simple installation scheme It is really simple. I just installed each system inside a single partition. For MS systems there is more work as I had to install each as a stand alone system so that it always boot to a “C” drive. I then moved the disks with the MS systems to the final position and edit Grub's menu file to boot it back to a “C” drive status. My scheme depends every system having a boot loader inside its root partition. This is inherent in every MS systems and other operating systems that rely on booting from a bootable primary partition. For Linux it is an optional choice. Hardware used The PC is a self-assembled unit using the cheap components available. Nothing to write home about. Just average for an ordinary PC user say 5 years behind the latest technology as this is all I can afford. Motherboard : Asrock 939NF4G-SATA2 CPU : AMD 939 64 +3200 Ram :1025Mb Video : Onboard integrated NV44 graphics DX9.0 VGA Hard disk 2x300Gb Maxtor 133/Mb/s Pata Diamond Max 10 2x200Gb 150Mb/s Sata-I Maxtor Diamond Maxline III Sound card : SoundBlaster 5.1 Network card : Generic Realtek 8139 10/100 Entrnet Keyboard : Generic PS/2 keyboard Mouse : Generic PS/2 mouse Essential tools (1) A bootable Grub floppy or a bootable Grub CD. (2) A Linux Live CD. Ideally one that has Grub inside. (3) A Dos 6 or above bootable floppy with fdisk.exe inside (4) A Win2k or XP installation CD For the production of the Item (1) above and how to use the rest see the last link of my signature. Partition tables Here is the details of the partitioning scheme as output by “fdisk-l” Linux command. Code: Warning: omitting partitions after #60. They will be deleted if you save this partition table. Disk /dev/hda: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 122 979933+ 16 Hidden FAT16 /dev/hda2 123 244 979965 16 Hidden FAT16 /dev/hda3 245 366 979965 16 Hidden FAT16 /dev/hda4 367 36483 290109802+ 5 Extended /dev/hda5 367 609 1951866 82 Linux swap /dev/hda6 610 1217 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda7 1218 1825 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda8 1826 2433 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda9 2434 3041 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda10 3042 3649 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda11 3650 4257 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda12 4258 4865 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda13 4866 5473 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda14 5474 6081 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda15 6082 6689 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda16 6690 7297 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda17 7298 7905 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda18 7906 8513 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda19 8514 9121 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda20 9122 9729 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda21 9730 10337 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda22 10338 10945 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda23 10946 11553 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda24 11554 12161 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda25 12162 12769 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda26 12770 13377 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda27 13378 13985 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda28 13986 14593 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda29 14594 15201 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda30 15202 15809 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda31 15810 16417 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda32 16418 17025 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda33 17026 17633 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda34 17634 18241 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda35 18242 18849 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda36 18850 19457 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda37 19458 20065 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda38 20066 20673 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda39 20674 21281 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda40 21282 21889 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda41 21890 22497 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda42 22498 23105 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda43 23106 23713 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda44 23714 24321 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda45 24322 24929 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda46 24930 25537 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda47 25538 26145 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda48 26146 26753 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda49 26754 27361 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda50 27362 27969 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda51 27970 28577 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda52 28578 29185 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda53 29186 29793 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda54 29794 30401 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda55 30402 31009 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda56 31010 31617 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda57 31618 32833 9767488+ 83 Linux /dev/hda58 32834 34049 9767488+ 83 Linux /dev/hda59 34050 34657 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda60 34658 35265 4883728+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/hdc: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdc1 1 122 979933+ 16 Hidden FAT16 /dev/hdc2 123 730 4883760 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/hdc3 731 3162 19535040 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS /dev/hdc4 3163 36483 267650932+ 5 Extended /dev/hdc5 3163 3770 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc6 3771 4378 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc7 4379 4986 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc8 4987 5594 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc9 5595 6202 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc10 6203 6810 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc11 6811 7418 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc12 7419 8026 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc13 8027 8634 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc14 8635 9242 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc15 9243 9850 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc16 9851 10458 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc17 10459 11066 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc18 11067 11674 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc19 11675 12282 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc20 12283 12890 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc21 12891 13498 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc22 13499 14106 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc23 14107 14714 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc24 14715 15322 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc25 15323 15930 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc26 15931 16538 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc27 16539 17146 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc28 17147 17754 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc29 17755 18362 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc30 18363 18970 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc31 18971 19578 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc32 19579 20186 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc33 20187 20794 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc34 20795 21402 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc35 21403 22010 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc36 22011 22618 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc37 22619 23226 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc38 23227 23834 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc39 23835 24442 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc40 24443 25050 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc41 25051 25658 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc42 25659 26266 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc43 26267 26874 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc44 26875 27482 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc45 27483 28090 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc46 28091 28698 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc47 28699 29306 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc48 29307 29914 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc49 29915 30522 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc50 30523 31130 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc51 31131 31738 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc52 31739 32346 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc53 32347 32954 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc54 32955 33562 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc55 33563 34170 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc56 34171 34778 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc57 34779 35386 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc58 * 35387 35994 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/hdc59 35995 36483 3927861 83 Linux Disk /dev/sda: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 5099 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda2 5100 6315 9767520 83 Linux /dev/sda3 6316 6923 4883760 83 Linux /dev/sda4 6924 24792 143532742+ 5 Extended /dev/sda5 6924 7531 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/sda6 7532 8139 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/sda7 8140 8747 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/sda8 8748 9355 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/sda9 9356 9963 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/sda10 9964 10571 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/sda11 10572 11179 4883728+ a9 NetBSD /dev/sda12 11180 11787 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/sda13 * 11788 12395 4883728+ 83 Linux /dev/sda14 12396 23916 92542401 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda15 23917 24792 7036438+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdb: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 1216 9767488+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sdb2 1217 1338 979965 1b Hidden W95 FAT32 /dev/sdb3 1339 1460 979965 83 Linux /dev/sdb4 1461 24792 187414290 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sdb5 1461 2676 9767488+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb6 2677 3892 9767488+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb7 3893 6324 19535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb8 6325 8756 19535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb9 8757 11188 19535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb10 11189 13620 19535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb11 13621 16052 19535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb12 16053 18484 19535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb13 18485 20916 19535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb14 20917 23348 19535008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb15 23349 24792 11598898+ 83 Linux Continued with next post |
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