Possible dual-booting with a full-featured live install?

[philotux]

I have been thinking to make a full-featured live install on an external SSD. I wondered if it is possible to shrink the live-usb partition to make space for installing another OS. And can live-uefi partition be used to install the bootloader for the new OS?

[fehlix]

I have been thinking to make a full-featured live install on an external SSD. I wondered if it is possible to shrink the live-usb partition to make space for installing another OS. And can live-uefi partition be used to install the bootloader for the new OS?

That might be possible. Would rather suggest to create a GRUB on the external SSD and install Live as frugal.
That might be easier, as GRUB could easily take the other installed OS's into it's the grub-menu.

[philotux]

So, should I install the other OS first, and then the live as frugal later?

[fehlix]

So, should I install the other OS first, and then the live as frugal later?

Doesn't matter. If you want to be able to boot from the external SSD, I would probably create an OS independent GRUB-installtion. But you can install also a OS which installs Grub, an reuse this grub to boot into frugal.
After frugal install you'll find a grub.entry file with the antiX folder which contains the grub-menu entry for frugal boot.
Have fun.

[philotux]

Ok! I'll try your suggestions and see if I can manage.
Thanks!

[cornelyus7]

So, should I install the other OS first, and then the live as frugal later?

Doesn't matter. If you want to be able to boot from the external SSD, I would probably create an OS independent GRUB-installtion. But you can install also a OS which installs Grub, an reuse this grub to boot into frugal.
After frugal install you'll find a grub.entry file with the antiX folder which contains the grub-menu entry for frugal boot.
Have fun.

Hi fehlix,

Sorry to barge into this thread, but I have a similar situation..

I have a windows 10 installation on a laptop with SSD, and would like to have a frugal_static install of MX Linux..
I already have a partition formatted in ext4 to accomodate this, what I would need is to have a grub partition with entries for windows and mx..
if I want to boot into it without using the "auxiliar" usb pen with the initial Live Mx installation right?

[fehlix]

I already have a partition formatted in ext4 to accomodate this, what I would need is to have a grub partition with entries for windows and mx..

Those steps I see for setting up dual booting with winOS and MX Linux frugal :
-> create a ext4 partition to hold grub and frugal install
-> Install MX Linux frugal on the ext4 partition
-> Install GRUB on the ext4 partition
-> adjust GRUB menu with adding MX Linux frugal boot entry

Now different Options to get into GRUB menu:

On a UEFI system:
-> add GRUB-efi boot loader to UEFI boot menu (NVRAM entries)
and/or
-> add GRUB-efi bootloader to WinOS boot menu

On BIOS system
either
-> install GRUB into MBR (overwrite win-mbr) and load WInOS from Grub menu
or
-> "inject" Grub bootloader into the WinOS boot menu

Probably to begin with, would be to provide some infos:
Booted from LiveUSB:
"Quick System Info"

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sudo lsblk -f

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sudo parted --list

[BitJam]

I have been thinking to make a full-featured live install on an external SSD. I wondered if it is possible to shrink the live-usb partition to make space for installing another OS. And can live-uefi partition be used to install the bootloader for the new OS?

We call a "full featured live install" a frugal install and it is very easy to dual boot this with another OS. If you did not mean you want to run MX live then you can ignore the rest of this post.

Install the other OS first. The boot your MX live-media and select the "frugal_static" option either in the F5 menu if you are booting legacy or from a text menu if you are booting UEFI. You will then be offered a choice of existing partitions to install to. Everything for the frugal install will be put in one top-level directory with a name that starts with "MX-Frugal" (see note). So do the frugal install to the partition on the SSD where you installed the other OS.

After the frugal install is complete, we will boot into the frugal system. When we do the install we create a file called grub.entry in the "MX-Frugal..." directory. Add this grub entry to the grub boot loader for the other OS and this will allow you to boot into the frugal install from their grub menu.

You can also boot into the frugal install from the live-media by choosing a "frugal" option again.

Assuming you want to run MX *live* then dual booting is very easy because a frugal install will not touch any of the existing bootloaders or partitioning. It will use an existing partition and give you an entry you can add to an existing grub menu.

Note: we will also create one other top level directory called /Live-usb-storage/. This will give you direct access to the space on the partition you installed on via ~/Live-usb-storage/ under your home directories. This is also a convenient way to share information between the two systems.

[cornelyus7]

Probably to begin with, would be to provide some infos:
Booted from LiveUSB:
"Quick System Info"

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sudo lsblk -f

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sudo parted --list

1. Quick system info

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System:    Host: mx1 Kernel: 4.15.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 6.3.0 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: MX-18.2_x64 Continuum March 14  2018 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 2349P94 v: ThinkPad T430 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 2349P94 serial: <filter> UEFI: LENOVO v: G1ET93WW (2.53 ) 
           date: 03/08/2013 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 18.7 Wh condition: 49.0/56.2 Wh (87%) model: LGC 45N1005 
           status: Charging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-3320M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge 
           rev: 9 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20753 
           Speed: 2602 MHz min/max: 1200/3300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2580 2: 1822 3: 1900 
           4: 1899 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1600x900~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile v: 4.2 Mesa 18.2.6 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-1-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
           port: 5080 bus ID: 00:19.0 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel 
           port: efa0 bus ID: 03:00.0 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: wwan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 247.80 GiB used: 6.4 MiB (0.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Extreme size: 14.91 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 9.19 GiB used: 6.4 MiB (0.1%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2574 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb https://mirrors.evowise.com/mxlinux-packages/antix/stretch/ stretch main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.uk.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 https://mirrors.evowise.com/mxlinux-packages/mx/repo/ stretch main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list 
           1: deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list 
           1: deb http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:      Processes: 246 Uptime: 6m Memory: 11.55 GiB used: 1.20 GiB (10.4%) Init: SysVinit 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 6.3.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.12 inxi: 3.0.33 

2. sudo lsblk -f

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NAME   FSTYPE   LABEL       UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
loop0  squashfs                                                  /live/linux
loop1  ext4                 8d95001a-cdd3-4af6-abd2-857fa6a2a50a /home
sda                                                              
├─sda1 ntfs     Recuperação 90286D97286D7CDA                     
├─sda2 vfat                 E26D-D061                            
├─sda3                                                           
├─sda4 ntfs                 5CD86F42D86F1992                     
├─sda5 ntfs                 E09896229895F76E                     
└─sda6 ntfs     Novo volume 6AEC1752EC1717C1                     
sdb                                                              
└─sdb1 vfat     MXLIVE      9E95-0BDD                            /live/boot-dev
sr0      

3. sudo parted --list

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Model: ATA Samsung SSD 860 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  473MB  472MB   ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 2      473MB   578MB  105MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp
 3      578MB   595MB  16.8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 4      595MB   127GB  127GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 5      127GB   128GB  821MB   ntfs                                       hidden, diag
 6      128GB   250GB  122GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata


Model: SanDisk Extreme (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  16.0GB  16.0GB  primary  fat32        boot, lba

[fehlix]

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NAME   FSTYPE   LABEL       UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                              
├─sda1 ntfs     Recuperação 90286D97286D7CDA                     
├─sda2 vfat                 E26D-D061                            
├─sda3                                                           
├─sda4 ntfs                 5CD86F42D86F1992                     
├─sda5 ntfs                 E09896229895F76E                     
└─sda6 ntfs     Novo volume 6AEC1752EC1717C1                     

Suggest you boot with LiveUSB and reformat the partition to be used for frugal partittion (sda6 ?) to ext4.
Reboot again with LiveUSB and use frugal_static persistence option, select sda6 as frugal-device
and let it rename the device to anitX-frugal.
After all is set up and frugal booting with LiveUSB is working.
Post again:

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lsblk -f

and also post the generated grub.entry file found with /antix..../grub.entry
In the next step we will prepare a Grub install to boot into frugal and winOS. ...