Install Ubuntu 14.04 alongside Debian Wheezy

[vvanherk]

Hello.

First off, I'm a bit of a Linux novice, thus the question.

I have a laptop primarily used for a client work. It is running Debian Wheezy, and wish to keep it intact in case I need to do more work for client.

I would like to install Ubuntu 14.04 alongside Debian, and use Ubuntu as a bit of a play/experiment area, etc. HD has lots of space (600GB free), and as far as I can tell Grub is installed in MBR.

I did some searches, and from what I can tell, it sounds like I can just install Ubuntu from ISO file, specify how much space to use (say 400GB), and that's it. This sounds almost too easy. Once I install and restart machine, will there be selection for what Distro to boot.

Any input and advice appreciated.

[dasein]

Speaking as a former power-distro-hopper, I can tell you that if all you want to do is experiment/play around, there's nothing quite like using virtualization tool (e.g., VirtualBox). There's a couple of very strong reasons to prefer a "virtual" solution:

1) Making a quick snapshot of the virtual machine (VM) is easy-peasy, so if you mess something up, rolling back to a previous version is literally a matter of a single click. (Compare to making a full system backup, restoring via rescue disk if something goes wrong, etc.)

2) The VM acts like a kind of "sandbox," protecting your Debian install from inadvertent/collateral damage.

[acewiza]

Why not 15.04?

[vvanherk]

I have Ubuntu 14.04 on a VM on my Macbook.

I want to have dual boot on this other laptop of Debian and Ubuntu.

Any advice or verification of process still appreciated.

[fsmithred]

In this context, free space means unpartitioned space. If you used the entire hard disk for debian, you'll need to resize (shrink) a partition to make space for the ubuntu installer to create a new partition. I think you need to do this first, but I suppose it's possible that the ubuntu installer will let you resize an existing partition.

If you let ubuntu put grub in the mbr, it should see the debian partition and create a boot entry for it. If not, running update-grub from within ubuntu should do it. Then if you decide to remove ubuntu, you should run grub-install from debian first. (i.e. let debian take over booting before removing ubuntu.)

[aplistir]

Yep. Should be easy,

Just wanted to add one thing. Installing Ubuntu WILL reformat your swap-partition, which is not a big problem, but you should be aware of it.

Formatting swap will change its UUID and then debian wont find swap anymore.. unless you change the new UUID to /etc/fstab in debian ..

[v&n]

I suppose it's possible that the ubuntu installer will let you resize an existing partition.

Having witnessed frequent "Partitions messed up" threads at ubuntu forums, I would never trust the installer's default partition manager.

Easier (due to more intuitiveness), and safest option would be to boot into a live session ("Test without installation" option of the live disc) > use GParted (available on Ubuntu live disc) to do all the partition manipulation beforehand. That is, Resize to shrink existing partition(s) > create a new ext4 partition > lable it for easy recognition.

Once the target partition is ready, start the installer > choose "Something else" option at the partitioning stage > choose your newly created target partition > set it as the mount point for '/' > proceed with installation. You can safely ignore the warning about "formatting the root partition" if you didn't mark it for formatting (was just formatted by gparted, no point in doing that again although you may if you wish).

Just wanted to add one thing. Installing Ubuntu WILL reformat your swap-partition, which is not a big problem, but you should be aware of it.

I don't think that will happen.

I haven't experimented myself but I do know that the Live disc starts using the available swap partition from the beginning, and keeps using it throughout the installation (to take advantage of the swap and offer better live session performance). Besides, many folks at ubuntuforums have a tendency to keep installing multiple *buntus or other Linux distros on different partitions as dual/triple even quadruple boots. None of them (including newbies) ever reported problem with swap (or at least I never saw one, and I was there for quite some time).

But this point does raise a question about encrypted swap. If the OP uses one, they will have to create a new one for the new OS. The existing swap partition is encrypted automatically if you chose to encrypt your home during previous OS installation. So that is a good point to keep in mind.

Another point to remember is - if you are not using GPT, but the old MBR partitioning scheme, you can have a maximum of 4 Primary partitions on the hard disk, Extended one counting as One Primary partition. Linux has no problems in booting from Logical partitions, so it would be a good idea to create an Extended partition to be able to create any number of (logical) partitions in it as/if/when required.

fsmithred's advice about "grub-install" is a really good one, and should be kept in mind as well.

If you need step-by-step instructions, good people at ubuntuforums.org would gladly offer that, some even with screenshots.

@ vvanherk,
Needless to say, you should backup all your data before proceeding with installation if it is a production system (which you said it is) not a testing one. You might even wish to create a system backup using disk imaging tools like clonezilla, just in case...