Solus + a Linux distro (dual boot)

nosubway

I installed Solus as my main os deleting windows 10. I'd like also to install a second distro alongside, but I don't know how to manage the partition. I've 500 mb for boot partition (sda1) + 240 GB SolusSystem. If i want to install another distro how to manage boot partition?

nosubway

i want to specify that my problem is that partition for boot is fully dedicated to Solus, so it's not possible to split to free space on that partition (to ad a new boot partition), the other possibility is to split sda2, but i'm newbie so fear to do something wrong. If you could indicate me maybe a link for documentation or something similar. Anyway thank you in advance.

sgvd

There is always a chance you break something, so only continue if it's no big deal installing the whole disk from scratch after messing it up!
Chanting "backup, backup, backup"

If you're current setup is this:

sda
-- sda1: 512mb (Solus boot)
-- sda2: 240Gb (Solus root)

I would use a partition manager (gparted, disks, etc.) to shrink the sda2 partition to create two new partitions like so:
If you use the gui of such a tool, it should be pretty self-explanatory.

sda
-- sda1: 512mb (Solus boot, Fat32/exFAT, boot/esp flags set)
-- sda2: 200Gb (Solus root, ext4)
-- sda3: 512mb (Ubuntu boot, Fat32/exFAT, boot/esp flags set)
-- sda4: 40Gb (Ubuntu root, ext4)

The order can be different and I rounded the sizes a little, so don't assume it should be exactly like this. I am not sure what distro you want to double boot, but some may not actually enable you to install the bootloader in a custom partition and simply use the first one they encounter (or all).

nosubway

Thank you for the support, really kind. My idea is to try some distros, just to see other solutions. Before installing Solus as main OS, i tried alongside Windows 10(R.I.P): Ubuntu (not bad), Elementary(not like), Linux Mint(great to begin), Manjaro (Nice, but not feeling) then I tried Solus (GOAT) live and it blows away. Solus remains my distro of choice but i'd like to try Debian also (and Arch as I learn more, not now) . I will verify if the distro enables to install the bootloader in a custom partition first of all and i also will do a backup before installing a new distros. 😀

synth-ruiner

nosubway have you considered trying other distros in a VM? it's not 100% the same as running it on your machine, but it's definitely good enough for testing things out...

nosubway

yes, i tried with ubuntu with VM but i don't like that solution so much. I also would like try to understand better grub and partitions. I didn't like dual boot with windows, maybe between linux OS is better.

synth-ruiner

nosubway it's nice if you have a spare computer for trying things out. I have a laptop that I don't need for anything important so it's pretty trivial to wipe a partition and mess around. I'm trying out Void Linux this week 😀 if you wanna resize your partition and mess around I say do it, just make a good backup first.

lekkerlinux

nosubway I had Windows 7 and Zorin on the same desktop PC for years. Windows had some problem with updates not installing after they download and the internet cutting out. Could never find out whats wrong and fix it.

I think Linux is actually easier than Windows. You just choose the easier versions to use like Zorin or Solus.

They don't break like Arch based Manjaro etc.

lekkerlinux

synth-ruiner I have Solus and Zorin on my box. Solus did a good job while installing and automatically resizing the existing partitions with Zorin on it.

I thought of dual booting with Fedora, but Solus looks much more user friendly and doesn't update too frequently like Fedora. I think Fedora is for developers and not normal home/office use, anyway.