Dual/Multi Boot

arco

Member
Can anyone simply tell me whether EasyBCD is strictly a dual boot solution or can it be used to boot more than 2 OS's on multiple partitions and or physical hard drives and if so are there limits to the number? Thanks for any help provided.
 
I was interested to come across this thread when searching the forum for possible solutions to a problem I have come across on my first experiment with EasyBCD. I wanted to set up a multiboot system on my laptop with Windows 7 and maybe 2 or 3 Linux distros. So I was encourages by the comment above by Peter (Ex_Brit) that it's possible to run 6 OSs.... or at least 3 using EasyBCD.

It appears, however, that EasyBCD can't cope with more than one (Linux) OS which uses GRUB2 as its bootloader. To avoid hijacking threads, I have posted a new separate query giving full details of the problem I encountered. If anyone can offer a simple, clear solution, I'd welcome it!
 
I never used Linux so can't help you there I'm afraid. Hopefully someone else with that experience will spot this. The guide I linked has several sections on Linux, no ideas from that?
 
EasyBCD does not (yet) support chainloading multiple, unique instances of GRUB2. What this means is that EasyBCD can't get you directly into two or more different GRUB2-loaded Linux OSes, it must first take you to the GRUB2 menu and from there you can select the Linux distribution installation to boot into. So EasyBCD can get you booting into as many OSes as you want, GRUB2 included, just not in a single step.

This is in contrast to EasyBCD's unique single-stage implementation for Legacy GRUB, LILO, etc which can present *all* installations directly from the first (BCD) menu and get you directly into them.

If a single-stage menu is desired, it can still be achieved by installing legacy GRUB for each Linux installation.
 
Thanks, Mahmoud. As you have replied in this thread rather than the separate more detailed one I posted, I'll follow up here. One suggestion and two questions.

The suggestion: to include prominently somewhere in the EasyBCD promotional documentation a clear statement that - at present - EasyBCD doesn't support direct booting into more than one Linux OS which uses GRUB2. Many Linux users like to run several distros, and most Linux distros I believe nowadays use GRUB2 bootloaders. It's obvious just from the latest couple of forum pages that I'm not the only member (Lilinux is another) who has come up against this limitation. It would have been good to have known this before starting...

Question 1: given this constraint, precisely how can it be overcome? The reply to Lilinux' post advised "adding the second Linux OS to the the first Linux OS' boot menu", but did not explain how. Maybe some expert Linux users know .... but I suspect many don't. The reply above also seems to suggest that for easyBCD to boot into more than one Linux (grub2) OS, somehow one has to insert the second Linux distro into the first one's GRUB2 menu, but doesn't say how.

Question 2: I posed this in my separate thread, and it is nice and simple: can EasyBCD manage one Linux distro which uses GRUB2 (eg Mint) and one which uses GRUB Legacy (eg PCLinuxOS), without special tweaking or linking the two Grubs together?
 
And this is why we avoid reposting to multiple threads!

See my answer to you there.

Thanks and apologies. I did not deliberately set out to post to multiple threads, but I did think my situation was directly related to the initial discussion (and the answer offered) in this thread. I have however now added further information in that other thread, and this one can be closed.
 
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