Arch Linux

borrell

Member

Registered: 2008-12-02

Posts: 31

Website

Dual boot Arch + Ubuntu on encrypted LVM

Hey guys,

My current setup is as follows:

100MB /boot partition, ext2
Giant LVM, encrypted, containing multiple volumes.

Basically Arch installed on an encrypted LVM as described here http://www.pindarsign.de/webblog/?p=767

I'm wanting to now dual boot it with Ubuntu, and was wondering how I should go about it. Ideally, I'd like to install Ubuntu to the encrypted LVM as well. This would mean I need it to prompt me (as Arch does) when it's booting for the passphrase to unlock the LVM partition and continue booting.

My concerns about this would be Arch and Ubuntu sharing the /boot partition, and about Ubuntu wiping out something critical when I install it.

Any advice or hints on how I should set this up?

Thanks

weltio

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2009-04-05

Posts: 89

Re: Dual boot Arch + Ubuntu on encrypted LVM

Mhm, I really don't see why ubuntu should kill something. So my advice is to control your paths twice (thats a really common mistake - especially done by me )
The /boot shouldnt be a problem either - you only have to look for the space, i dont know how much there is.

jnguyen

Member

Registered: 2011-02-17

Posts: 139

Website

Re: Dual boot Arch + Ubuntu on encrypted LVM

Here's how I would do it:

sda  = MBR               <-- Arch GRUB installed here
sda1 = /boot for Arch
sda2 = LVM for Arch
sda3 = /boot for Ubuntu  <-- Ubuntu GRUB installed here
sda5 = LVM for Ubuntu

This way you can keep Arch and Ubuntu completely separate. All you have to do is chainload to the Ubuntu GRUB.

Last edited by jnguyen (2011-05-19 12:57:07)

---

TOMOYO Linux: Mandatory Access Control.
My AUR packages

anArch

Member

Registered: 2011-06-21

Posts: 1

Re: Dual boot Arch + Ubuntu on encrypted LVM

Having separate LVM:s is not a satisfying solution if one wants to have a volume for shared files that can be accessed from both installs. Isn't it possible to install Ubuntu without a bootloader? At least openSuse gives the option.

aiBo

Member

Registered: 2010-11-10

Posts: 50

Re: Dual boot Arch + Ubuntu on encrypted LVM

I have a setup like you want to do on my laptop with debian instead of ubuntu. Works fine. Since this distros have different kernel image naming policies there are no conflicts between them.

Hint: Don't let Ubuntu install it's bootloader unless you want grub2.