5

I dual booted ubuntu with windows 7. I learned that ubuntu creates 2 partitions, one being storage and the other being SWAP. Here is a picture of my Disk Management.

enter image description here

I'm wondering is it safe to have 4-5 primary partitions? I want to install another linux OS and Mac OS X.

1
  • If Windows is in BIOS boot mode, you have to maintain MBR(msdos) partitioning as it only boots in BIOS mode from MBR. And Windows only boots in UEFI boot mode from gpt partitioned drives. But install must be UEFI, you cannot convert Windows BIOS install to UEFI. You may be able to convert drive to gpt, but that breaks Windows.
    – oldfred
    Jun 27, 2015 at 3:46

3 Answers 3

3

First, you can't have 5 primary partitions!!! The max number of primary partitions would be 4 Unless you use GPT, and choosing 4 primary partitions is not that smart idea in general as you'll not be able to add new partitions if needed, instead you should use extended partition that may include many logical partitions.

Now For having triple or quad boot,a simple answer is yes you can do, but always you have to think in order, windows must be installed before Linux since Windows bootloader will not discover your *NIX, while GRUB could easily discover other OS.

Those are some links that would help you:

2
  • Well, in order to run OSX you need GPT, and GPT supports more than 4 primary partitions. Also OSX have pretty good bootloaders, which can find Windows and Linux on their own... Clover is UEFI boot loader if I am correct...but there are others as Chameleon. On my hackintosh I had some troubles with it, but after several atempts I got it working. Jun 26, 2015 at 6:38
  • @MiHa sure, thanks for your notes, I already linked with some useful links above that could help
    – Maythux
    Jun 26, 2015 at 6:40
0

Yes ... more than a dual boot is OK as far as multiple linux OS although lately I have not attempted to cut an OSX alongside the others

... as a side note I have tripple booted my nexus 4 mobile :

ubuntu 15 / firefox OS / lollipop 

another approach would be to use a vmware like tool to cut various OS partitions from within your ubuntu

0

As others have said, it is possible. Before you go too far down that road, though, you must ascertain whether you're booting in BIOS mode with MBR or in EFI mode with GPT. It looks like you're probably BIOS/MBR, unless the Windows partitioning tool is hiding your ESP. To be 100% sure, check this page of mine, which presents more details on boot modes. Which boot mode you're using determine which boot loader options are available to you -- and as others have said, the partition table type determines what limits you have on number of partitions.

Beyond that, I must advise against booting more than a couple of OSes directly on a computer. Whether in BIOS or EFI, multi-booting creates complications on the boot process, and those can be difficult to overcome unless you're an expert on the subject. It gets harder the more OSes you add. It's often possible to stumble through it by following a well-written guide or by sheer dumb luck, but a better option is often virtualization. Pick your most important OS (or maybe two) and run it natively, then run everything else in virtual machines. This simplifies each OS's boot setup, and you can even mix-and-match BIOS vs. EFI boots. Personally, I mostly use VirtualBox in Linux, but others like VMware, KVM/QEMU, or other tools.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .