Hi all,
I’m currently using Zorin OS, but I’d like to perhaps explore other Linux distributions. Is it possible to dual-boot another distro, and then if I’m satisfied and after having installed all the apps I need, to erase my Zorin OS partition and only use the other, new distro?
You can install as many as will fit on the drive, there’s no limit other than your own sanity
You can always slap LVM or btrfs or ZFS on top to get more. But even with something more basic like ext4 you can still install multiple distros as long as they’re in their own folder, and when you pivot root you pivot to a folder of it, it doesn’t have to be the root of any filesystem. If you have a BIOS system technically you don’t even need a partition table as syslinux fits the ext4 header and can boot from ext4.
I’d probably just do btrfs subvolumes or ZFS datasets though, more reliable and more manageable. And you don’t waste space with individual partitions either.
But will I be able to eventually remove OS #1 and switch to the one installed afterwards?
Yes, you just boot a live USB and use GParted to delete what you don’t want anymore and grow the rest.
i’ve found that lots of distros do not behave well with mutiple boot scenarios and will overwrite the boot information for existing installs
Using a third-party boot manager like rEFInd helps to bridge the gap with dubious motherboards that don’t implement the UEFI spec right. Just make sure all the installed distros have their own ESP, then you can get into whatever distro’s GRUB via rEFInd. And it’s pretty.
The issue is usually around fighting for the same ESP, and not all distro’s GRUB finding the other distros, and made worse by some UEFI firmwares not offering all available EFI applications as bootable so you end up stuck with the wrong GRUB.
Use a VM
That doesn’t solve my problem, since I want to eventually erase OS #1 and permanently switch to OS #2, which I won’t be able to do if I use a VM.
No. You are be able to do that, if you allow VM to access partitions as is, or whole disks. You then just, boot into them normally if you want to switch completely. There are also ways to boot directly into virtual disk images, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you could “convert” virtual hard disk image into a partition on your regular hard disk anyway.
That’s how I started using Windows, it’s a slippery slope, didn’t fall for it!
I don’t think you understand the joke. Usually people switch to Linux dual booting coming from Windows, I was making the opposite joke - starting from Linux and dual booting into Windows and then switching.
PS. I once set up BURG and quad booted 4 Linux distros, get on my level
I can recommend Btrfs for testing distros on bare metal. You can install them onto subvolumes without needing to change the physical partition layout, then once happy with one delete all the other subvolumes to reclaim your space. Only downside is not all distros’ installers support them natively so it needs some manual work occasionally.
Why not use virtual machines? They are much less invasive, and you can easily remove them. The only downside is that it uses a bit more resources than you would normally, but it’s not a huge problem nowadays, even for budget computers as long as your host desktop is not resource-hoggy.
