How can I triple boot Xubuntu, Ubuntu and Windows?
Triple Booting Xubuntu, Ubuntu and Windows
I'm an avid Xubuntu (Ubuntu + XFCE) user but I also dual boot with Windows XP. I originally created 3 partitions and wanted to use the empty one as a storage volume but now I want to install Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (the one with Unity) to do advanced testing and packaging. Ideally I would love to keep these two totally separate as I had problems in the past with conflicts between Unity and XFCE. This way I could wipe the Ubuntu w/ Unity installation if there are problems and really mess around with it.
My disk looks like this:
Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390721968 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 63 78139454 39069696 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT /dev/sda2 78141440 156280831 39069696 83 Linux /dev/sda3 156282878 386533375 115125249 5 Extended /dev/sda4 386533376 390721535 2094080 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda5 156282880 386533375 115125248 83 Linux
Keep each in it's own partition and totally separate and be able to select from each of the three systems from the GRUB boot menu...
sda1 ---> [Windows XP]
sda2 ---> [Ubuntu 12.04] "Unity"
sda3(4,5) --> [Xubuntu 12.02] "Primary XFCE"
What is the safest and easiest way to do this without messing my system up and requiring invasive activity?
Start your installation using the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS CD.
- When you reach the
Installation Type Page
, selectSomething Else
. - Now, you will get a page listing your partitions.
- Select
/dev/sda2
and selectModify
- Now, give the
Use as
asext4
andmount point
as/
- You can just reuse your existing
swap
partition. - Continue with the installation.
After the installation, you should be having a system that you desired.