Installing MX18 without updating GRUB

[lapata]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie with Linux so I need your help.

I got a laptop with UBUNTU installed (sda1 1GB as esp, sda2 5GB as recovery, sda3 790GB as root+home, sda4 8GB as swap)
I followed Dolphin's tutorial on how to install MX on a multi-booted system (link inside MX manual).
So I resized sda3 and now I have sda3 630GB and sda5 130GB.

But I have some questions while running installation from LiveCD:
1st: how not to install GRUB during MX installation in order to update UBUNTU's GRUB later on?
2nd: if I want to share the same swap partition with UBUNTU should I select sda4 or none? Selecting sda4 will just re-label it or will affect UBUNTU also?
3rd: and what about boot partition? is it OK if I choose to be installed at sda5 (the same partition with MX root)?
in other words how will I install everything on sda5, share swap with UBUNTU and leave GRUB intact .

thanks guys.

[fehlix]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie with Linux so I need your help.

I got a laptop with UBUNTU installed (sda1 1GB as esp, sda2 5GB as recovery, sda3 790GB as root+home, sda4 8GB as swap)
I followed Dolphin's tutorial on how to install MX on a multi-booted system (link inside MX manual).
So I resized sda3 and now I have sda3 630GB and sda5 130GB.

But I have some questions while running installation from LiveCD:
1st: how not to install GRUB during MX installation in order to update UBUNTU's GRUB later on?

As you have an esp, you appear to boot in UEFI-mode.Which means in UEFI, all installs do have it's own EFI-GRUB,
installed within that esp-partition ( under /EFI/ubuntu .. /EFI/mx18.1 etc )
You select with the installer when booting Live in UEFI mode the GRUB-target as "ESP"!

2nd: if I want to share the same swap partition with UBUNTU should I select sda4 or none? Selecting sda4 will just re-label it or will affect UBUNTU also?

Lables are mostly ignored, so yes you can reuse swap, as long as you not intent to use "hibernate" - "deep sleep"

3rd: and what about boot partition? is it OK if I choose to be installed at sda5 (the same partition with MX root)?
in other words how will I install everything on sda5, share swap with UBUNTU and leave GRUB intact .

If you share boot paritions, you soon will have trouble.
Don't use extra "boot" partition for non-encryterd partition.
Best if boot-partition is really needed, like for encrypted-luks, always create an extra boot partition for that install.
If extra boot-partition is needed, better re-label it like bootUbuntu, bootMX18.1. etc

[lapata]

As you have an esp, you appear to boot in UEFI-mode.Which means in UEFI, all installs do have it's own EFI-GRUB,
installed within that esp-partition ( under /EFI/ubuntu .. /EFI/mx18.1 etc )
You select with the installer when booting Live in UEFI mode the GRUB-target as "ESP"!

You 're right about the UEFI and I'm sorry I didn't mention it.

If you share boot paritions, you soon will have trouble.
Don't use extra "boot" partition for non-encryterd partition.
Best if boot-partition is really needed, like for encrypted-luks, always create an extra boot partition for that install.
If extra boot-partition is needed, better re-label it like bootUbuntu, bootMX18.1. etc

Honestly, I don't know what's the difference between boot and root partition
But when you say sharing is a 'troublemaker' you mean that when bootMX and rootMX sharing the same sda or when bootMX and bootUBUNTU sharing the same sda?
and to link it with the above; will it be better to select bootMX to be installed on sda1 (ESP partition)?

[fehlix]

Honestly, I don't know what's the difference between boot and root partition
But when you say sharing is a 'troublemaker' you mean that when bootMX and rootMX sharing the same sda or when bootMX and bootUBUNTU sharing the same sda?
and to link it with the above; will it be better to select bootMX to be installed on sda1 (ESP partition)?

Never do that" boot on ESP partition", I know Arch likes do do that. But this is another story.
Simply do not use extra "boot". Don't touch that option within the installer.
The boot folder stays under the "/"-(root-parition) within the same root of the installed system.
And you will be fine. It is only needed for luks-encryption.

[lapata]

to wrap-up:
root > sda5
home >rootMX
swap >swapUBUNTU
boot >rootMX
right?

[fehlix]

to wrap-up:
root > sda5
home >rootMX
swap >swapUBUNTU
boot >rootMX
right?

Looks, good.
If after installing MX would not show up within the UEFI-boot menu (Some laptop require to press a key like F12),
that would be another little issue, to sort out. As some UEFI are easier to deal with than other.
Also if something still not is as you like it,
do post "Quick System Info" (from the menu) , or the output of "inxi -Fxrz".

[lapata]

thank you fehlix

[lapata]

Everything went fine except one small detail

I'm facing with an BootSecure issue

In BIOS I set MXLinux partition to boot prior to UBUNTU
When SB is activated I get a message "Booting in insecure mode" and PC boots in UBUNTU

When I deselect UBUNTU partition from booting sequence list I get
"Operating System Loader has no signature. Incompatible with SecureBoot. All bootable devices failed SecureBoot verification"

Of cource when I disable SecureBoot from BIOS then I can get boot from MXLinux partition

Any remedy for this?

Thanks guys

[spoiler]

Code: Select all

System:    Host: Laptop-MX Kernel: 4.19.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 6.3.0 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: MX-18.1.1.1.1.1_x64 Continuum Feb 9  2019 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 15-3567 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 033HWX v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 2.7.1 date: 09/25/2018 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-7020U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake 
           rev: 9 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 18432 
           Speed: 1077 MHz min/max: 400/2300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 912 2: 933 3: 921 4: 932 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Kabylake GT2F v: 4.5 Mesa 18.2.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-1-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wireless 3165 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: f040 bus ID: 01:00.0 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Dell 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 02:00.0 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 960.48 GiB used: 33.81 GiB (3.5%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM035-1RK172 size: 931.51 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Ultra Fit size: 28.97 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 124.99 GiB used: 5.16 GiB (4.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 7.74 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda4 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0 C mobo: 41.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb http://iso.mxrepo.com/antix/stretch/ stretch main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ stretch non-free main
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 210 Uptime: 15m Memory: 3.72 GiB used: 838.6 MiB (22.0%) Init: SysVinit 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 6.3.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.12 inxi: 3.0.29 

[/spoiler]

[dolphin_oracle]

The remedy is to disable secure boot which you did. Sn installed Mx system cannot boot on a secure-boot enabled uefi system.

[lapata]

OK then.

Thank you Dolphin