Arch Linux

Aditya Raj Bhatt

Member

From: New Delhi, India

Registered: 2013-02-27

Posts: 17

How to install Ubuntu alongside Arch Linux?

I already have Arch installed and I have downloaded the Ubuntu 13.04 ISO. My grub file is auto generated following the beginners installation guide since I don't have much knowledge about GRUB2 commands or configuration. I looked up https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … _arguments - The Ubuntu ISO section, but didn't understand it. It instructs to to create a /archives but I don't know whether I have to create a new partition or do it in the one where Arch is. Also do I have to install Ubuntu before doing this. But wouldn't that overwrite my existing "grub.cfg"?

Can I do something like deleting the existing grub.cfg, installing Ubuntu on a separate partition and then add Arch to the Ubuntu grub menu. If this can be done, please tell me exactly what to delete in "/boot". I'm thinking the wiki's method is much more difficult and would prefer to add menu entries to Ubuntu's grub rather than the existing one. I have seen many people doing this on Google, but they all install Arch after Ubuntu rather than the other way round.

Running lsblk -lf

NAME   FSTYPE LABEL      UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                           
├─sda1 ntfs              1CF45A405825898C                     
├─sda2 ntfs              E27CDAE57CDAB40F                     /mnt/tempdrive1
├─sda3 ntfs              D44E14D44E14B0EA                     /mnt/tempdrive2
├─sda4                                                       
└─sda5 ext4   arch_linux 44d38a19-2b36-465f-9ae1-f3387e5dc558 /
sr0                                                         

#sda4 is an extended partition which has sda5, on which Arch is installed. sda2 and sda3 are the #Windows partitions I want to delete and merge into a single one to make space for Ubuntu. sda1 is #/boot (maybe, that's what it shows in Gparted. Doesn't it have to be boot since it is the only one left?

Please help with detailed instructions since I am a complete novice at these sort of things (boot and all). Contrary to the norm, I installed Arch first, and am curious about Ubuntu so I want to try it out. Post any other information you'd like to have, and maybe I'll post a gparted screenshot if needed.

P.S- Not sure whether I'm allowed to post about installing some other distro, so I posted in this section. Please notify me via email if I'll have to remove it, and I'll do so.

JohnnyWho

Member

Registered: 2013-03-21

Posts: 20

Re: How to install Ubuntu alongside Arch Linux?

Yes, you are allowed.
From what I have understood,  you are trying to dual boot ubuntu and Arch? If so, install ubuntu the normal way. Go to "advanced partitioning" on ubuntu installer (that is, gparted if I can recall), delete sda1, sda2, sda3 (!keep backups first!) and tell the installer to use the free space of the drive. It will do automatic partioning, will install grub on sda etc. Then you will boot through ubuntu `s grub. If you want to boot through the arch grub, boot into arch (or chroot) and do:

grub-mkconfig
grub-install /dev/sda

P.S.: All the best, but I do not thing that this is an Arch specific question after all. Why should it be tougher to install ubuntu after arch than than opposite?

Xyne

Administrator/PM

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 6,965

Website

Re: How to install Ubuntu alongside Arch Linux?

Please help with detailed instructions since I am a complete novice at these sort of things (boot and all).

The Arch forum is not the place to ask for detailed instructions for installing Ubuntu on a second partition. If you have some specific problem that is Arch-related then you may ask here, but otherwise you should look up the relevant information yourself online (the Arch wiki, search engines, etc.)

To answer you question about "/archives", that would be the path to an ISO somewhere on your system. Which partition depends entirely on where you saved it. I doubt that you really want to have an ISO menu entry though. If you have a system BIOS, I would recommend setting it to boot directly from the disk for the installation, once you've figured out how you want to set up the system.

I'm leaving this open for now but if you continue to ask for a full walkthrough then I (or another mod) will close it.

---

My Arch Linux Stuff • Forum Etiquette • Community Ethos - Arch is not for everyone

senjin

Member

Registered: 2006-09-15

Posts: 181

Website

Re: How to install Ubuntu alongside Arch Linux?

I have bad experiences with allowing Ubuntu to manage grub. In my case Ubuntu tried to do some automagic, but it failed to make a proper grub config and I couldn't boot to Arch. Also, if you change the settings manually, Ubuntu will overwrite them on grub update. So I recommend uninstalling grub from Ubuntu, install it from Arch, and configure grub manually.

andrekp

Member

Registered: 2012-06-07

Posts: 112

Re: How to install Ubuntu alongside Arch Linux?

I am not sure to what senjin refers, as I have never had a problem with ubuntu controlling grub, with one exception:

Sometimes ubuntu's OS-prober can't find Arch (so it disappears from the automatically created menu).  Maybe this is the problem senjin found.

One way around this is to have a file in your Arch /etc that OS-prober looks for when it searches for other operating systems.  Look for a file in your ubuntu called /etc/lsb-release.  Make an appropriate copy in your Arch install, and OS-prober will always find it.

Another way to ensure OS-prober always finds Arch is to mount the Arch / partition before [re]running update-grub.

Finally, since you don't really need to ever generate a new menu entry for Arch - since it will always be the same - you can simply run update-grub once, copy the menu entries generated into /etc/grub.d/40-custom, and then disable the OS-prober (so it will only ever update the ubuntu entries (what I do these days).

grub, run from other distros, losing "Arch" seems to be a fairly common problem that is easily solved by any of the above.

Aditya Raj Bhatt

Member

From: New Delhi, India

Registered: 2013-02-27

Posts: 17

Re: How to install Ubuntu alongside Arch Linux?

I'm sorry about the "detailed instructions" but what I meant was a verbose reply like "andrekp" has given. I'm going to try all 3 and it one works I'll mark the thread as SOLVED. Thank you. Although I recommend creating something of this sort at the wiki. It only has a well-explained dual booting guide for Windows.

keaaw

Member

Registered: 2023-03-16

Posts: 2

Re: How to install Ubuntu alongside Arch Linux?

FYI:
I just ran the installer for Ubuntu 22.04LTS on a system with an existing archlinux (the only OS on the system), and the Ubuntu installer gave the explicit option to install Ubuntu alongside archlinux.   In the end, Ubuntu rewrote the GRUB menu (putting Ubuntu at the top), including entries for the archlinux and archlinux with advanced options, and leaving the archlinux installation otherwise untouched, and allocating all the rest of the free space of the drive to the new Ubuntu install.  I tested the archlinux boot and it worked perfectly.

polarrr

Member

Registered: 2004-09-12

Posts: 110

Re: How to install Ubuntu alongside Arch Linux?

This is from 10 years ago. Not sure how relevant the discussion is today.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,074

Re: How to install Ubuntu alongside Arch Linux?

Unlikely to be much, please pay attention to the dates and don^'t necrobump.

Closing.