I dual boot Arch Linux and Ubuntu. I have the following partition setup:
Here sda1 is where Ubuntu is installed, Arch on sda2. New Partition #2 is the proposed /boot. sda4 is a common home for both the OS.
The grub was installed by Arch. I would like to create a separate /boot partition for encrypting the root filesystems of both the OSes.
I am following this guide on Community Wiki, and have a few questions.
The guide is written for 10.04 and does not mention anything about dual booting. Will it still work? I already have 500 MB of unallocated free space which I can use for /boot. Then why should I use the live disk? Can't I do everything from my current Ubtunu installation?
This is what I understand. /boot partition can't be shared between operating systems. Since I require /boot for my Arch, I should copy the contents of /boot from Arch to the newly created /boot from Ubuntu. Now I can reboot to Arch. Then I should change the fstab of arch to mount the new /boot. Then I install GRUB on the /boot partition from Arch. Should I make any changes to Ubuntu's fstab? Will this break Ubuntu?
If what intend to do is wrong, how do I do this?
61 Answer
You can not create more that 4 primary partitions in MBR.
I suggest temporarily removing /sda3 swap partition.
Move left side of /sda4 right.
Remove /sda3.
Create an extended partition in unallocated space.
Create two partitions inside the extended.
Format one as swap, the other as ext2 for /boot.
Update /etc/fstab with new UUIDs and mount points for swap and /boot.
You will have to update /etc/fstab in both Arch and Ubuntu to mount the new partition as /boot and also copy there contents of both boot directories.
You will also need to re-install grub after that.
These operations can be done while booted from Ubuntu LiveUSB.
But it will be much easier to have two separate /boot partitions for each OS.
And also ext3 is not a good choice for /boot. I would recommend ext2.
ext3 is similar to ext4 but obsolete. ext2 does not have journal, it works faster. Journal is not that important for /boot.
So there is not reason to use ext3. You can choose between default ext4 or ext2.
