Thursday, 2 May 2019

linux - Share /boot partition between distros


I ran the default install of CEntOS 6.5 on my machine a couple months ago and have since added programs and files which I don't want to get rid of. I'd like to dual boot Ubuntu 14.x and am wondering what to do with the /boot partition. The hard drive is currently partitioned like so:


sda: 256 GB SSD



  • sda1: /boot 500 MB

  • sda2: /LVM physical volume ~237 GB

    • /root

    • /home

    • swap




My question is: Is it OK to share the /boot partition between distros? or do I need to have a separate /boot partition for Ubuntu? If so, is it necessary to put the /boot partition at the beginning of the drive?



Answer



You can, but it's not a great idea.


In GRUB, what you would do is specify different kernel and initrd files for each distribution installed on the system.


However, the boot configuration for one distro may conflict with the configuration for the other distro(s), depending on how each distro sets its boot configuration and names its files in /boot. This could lead to a messed-up configuration and potentially leave one or more distros unbootable. Special care should be taken when updating the kernel or changing boot settings in any of the distros. If there are no conflicts, however, you should be able to boot both operating systems without issues.


No comments:

Post a Comment

How can I VLOOKUP in multiple Excel documents?

I am trying to VLOOKUP reference data with around 400 seperate Excel files. Is it possible to do this in a quick way rather than doing it m...