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How to install and boot 145 operating systems in a PC

Deaboot

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1^# 大中小发表于 2007-10-13 16:53 只看该作者

How to install and boot 145 operating systems in a PC

--- Updated 17 Sep 07, A warning added in Post #21 on 63 partitions in a Pata hard disk is no longer supported by Linux kernel newer than 2.6.20-------------------
--- Updated 20 Sep 07, a new nested Grub menu system + added Solaris and BSD systems showned in Post #32, #33 and #34 ----------------

Author's notes - This thread has picked up some interest from the Internet by readers who commented the title without reading its content. For this reason I summarize the information briefly as follow:-

(1) A simple howto procedure, which is applicable from 1 to 300+ systems, is described. (Let me know if there is anything simpler or easier)
(2) One standard Linux boot loader controls all the systems. (indirectly becasue every system has its own original boot loader preserved)
(3) The controlling boot loader is not attached to any operating system (This is my own choice. Grub can be attached to any OS, even in ntfs partition as work around available).
(4) 3 Dos, 5 Windows, 137 Linux (more Linux since added plus one Solaris and 2 BSD) using 3 Pata and 2 Sata hard disks) (The number is limited by the availability of partitions/hard disks)
(5) Every system is booted identically and universally by the same 3 lines of commands. No need to worry what OS it is. (using the exactly the method every Linux boots a Windows but on all other systems)
(6) The 145-system booting menu can be created ahead of the installation of the systems. (I believe this has not been tried before)
(7) A nested Grub menu system is showed (Showned in Post #32 to #34. This probably has not been tried before)

Although not indicated by the thread these points should be obvious to experienced PC users

(a) The described procedure is applicable to any boot loader. (Grub happens to be the easiest while the others may have various limitations or take too long or too much work to achieve the similar goal).
(b) Everything is standard, no new thing invented, no hacking involved and the technology has been there all the time (Anyone can do it. I am just the one who is willing to write about it)
(c) The arrangement makes every system suitable for booting manually, say by a Grub floppy or booted by any other boot loader(Every system is self sufficient with its own boot loader inside the boot sector of the residing partition)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

How to install and boot 145 operating systems in a PC

This is the "howto" I promised to write after this thread.

The 145 systems are:-

3 Dos
5 Windows
137 Linux

I have also installed most of the PC-based BSD and Solaris together with a Darwin x86 too but these systems dislike to co-exist with a large number of other systems so I have to keep them off in another PC until I find a way to tackle the technical issues.

There are only 3 steps in this howto.

Step 1 – A simple hardware scheme

An operating system needs to reside in a home. That is a partition to me. I used 2x300Gb Pata disk and 2x200 Sata Disk to set up 152 partitions. I always put one operating system in one partition. As an extended partition of each hard disk has no storage of its own, one data-only partition is needed for my personal data, another data-only partition to house the common boot loader and one Swap partition is needed for all the Linux I ended up losing 7 partitions leaving 145 partitions to house the 145 operating systems.

Step 2 – A simple boot scheme

I put Grub in a data-only partition, created a boot menu to boot all the partitions before any of the operating systems was installed. When a partition is filled the system inside becomes bootable instantly. This scheme is dead simple, technically sound, perfectly applicable is every situation but can be viewed unconventional to some PC users. For those who know nothing about Grub it is just one of the two boot loaders commonly used in Linux. The other one is called Lilo possibly used by less than 40% of the Linux distros at the begining of 2007.

In a nutshell I use this Grub to boot up the boot loader of any of the 145 systems that I choose to use. Afterward it is the duty of the second boot loader that brings up its master.

Step 3 – A simple installation scheme

It is really simple. I just installed each system inside a single partition. For MS systems there is more work as I had to install each as a stand alone system so that it always boot to a “C” drive. I then moved the disks with the MS systems to the final position and edit Grub's menu file to boot it back to a “C” drive status.

My scheme depends every system having a boot loader inside its root partition. This is inherent in every MS systems and other operating systems that rely on booting from a bootable primary partition. For Linux it is an optional choice.

Hardware used

The PC is a self-assembled unit using the cheap components available. Nothing to write home about. Just average for an ordinary PC user say 5 years behind the latest technology as this is all I can afford.

Motherboard : Asrock 939NF4G-SATA2
CPU : AMD 939 64 +3200
Ram :1025Mb
Video : Onboard integrated NV44 graphics DX9.0 VGA
Hard disk 2x300Gb Maxtor 133/Mb/s Pata Diamond Max 10
2x200Gb 150Mb/s Sata-I Maxtor Diamond Maxline III
Sound card : SoundBlaster 5.1
Network card : Generic Realtek 8139 10/100 Entrnet
Keyboard : Generic PS/2 keyboard
Mouse : Generic PS/2 mouse

Essential tools

(1) A bootable Grub floppy or a bootable Grub CD.

(2) A Linux Live CD. Ideally one that has Grub inside.

(3) A Dos 6 or above bootable floppy with fdisk.exe inside

(4) A Win2k or XP installation CD

For the production of the Item (1) above and how to use the rest see the last link of my signature.

Partition tables

Here is the details of the partitioning scheme as output by “fdisk-l” Linux command.

引用:

Warning: omitting partitions after #60.
They will be deleted if you save this partition table.

Disk /dev/hda: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks Id  System
/dev/hda1 *          1       122    979933+  16  Hidden FAT16
/dev/hda2          123       244    979965 16  Hidden FAT16
/dev/hda3          245       366    979965 16  Hidden FAT16
/dev/hda4          367    36483 290109802+ 5  Extended
/dev/hda5          367       609    1951866 82  Linux swap
/dev/hda6          610       1217    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda7          1218       1825    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda8          1826       2433    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda9          2434       3041    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda10          3042       3649    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda11          3650       4257    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda12          4258       4865    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda13          4866       5473    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda14          5474       6081    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda15          6082       6689    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda16          6690       7297    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda17          7298       7905    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda18          7906       8513    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda19          8514       9121    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda20          9122       9729    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda21          9730    10337    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda22       10338    10945    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda23       10946    11553    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda24       11554    12161    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda25       12162    12769    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda26       12770    13377    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda27       13378    13985    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda28       13986    14593    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda29       14594    15201    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda30       15202    15809    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda31       15810    16417    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda32       16418    17025    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda33       17026    17633    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda34       17634    18241    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda35       18242    18849    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda36       18850    19457    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda37       19458    20065    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda38       20066    20673    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda39       20674    21281    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda40       21282    21889    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda41       21890    22497    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda42       22498    23105    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda43       23106    23713    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda44       23714    24321    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda45       24322    24929    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda46       24930    25537    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda47       25538    26145    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda48       26146    26753    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda49       26754    27361    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda50       27362    27969    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda51       27970    28577    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda52       28578    29185    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda53       29186    29793    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda54       29794    30401    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda55       30402    31009    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda56       31010    31617    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda57       31618    32833    9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/hda58       32834    34049    9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/hda59       34050    34657    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda60       34658    35265    4883728+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/hdc: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks Id  System
/dev/hdc1             1       122    979933+  16  Hidden FAT16
/dev/hdc2          123       730    4883760 1c  Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdc3          731       3162 19535040 17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdc4          3163    36483 267650932+ 5  Extended

/dev/hdc5          3163       3770    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc6          3771       4378    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc7          4379       4986    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc8          4987       5594    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc9          5595       6202    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc10          6203       6810    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc11          6811       7418    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc12          7419       8026    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc13          8027       8634    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc14          8635       9242    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc15          9243       9850    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc16          9851    10458    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc17       10459    11066    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc18       11067    11674    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc19       11675    12282    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc20       12283    12890    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc21       12891    13498    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc22       13499    14106    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc23       14107    14714    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc24       14715    15322    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc25       15323    15930    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc26       15931    16538    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc27       16539    17146    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc28       17147    17754    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc29       17755    18362    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc30       18363    18970    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc31       18971    19578    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc32       19579    20186    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc33       20187    20794    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc34       20795    21402    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc35       21403    22010    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc36       22011    22618    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc37       22619    23226    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc38       23227    23834    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc39       23835    24442    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc40       24443    25050    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc41       25051    25658    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc42       25659    26266    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc43       26267    26874    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc44       26875    27482    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc45       27483    28090    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc46       28091    28698    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc47       28699    29306    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc48       29307    29914    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc49       29915    30522    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc50       30523    31130    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc51       31131    31738    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc52       31739    32346    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc53       32347    32954    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc54       32955    33562    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc55       33563    34170    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc56       34171    34778    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc57       34779    35386    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc58  *    35387    35994    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hdc59       35995    36483    3927861 83  Linux

Disk /dev/sda: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks Id  System
/dev/sda1 *          1       5099 40957686 7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2          5100       6315    9767520 83  Linux
/dev/sda3          6316       6923    4883760 83  Linux
/dev/sda4          6924    24792 143532742+ 5  Extended
/dev/sda5          6924       7531    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6          7532       8139    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7          8140       8747    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda8          8748       9355    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda9          9356       9963    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10          9964    10571    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda11       10572    11179    4883728+  a9  NetBSD
/dev/sda12       11180    11787    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda13  *    11788    12395    4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda14       12396    23916 92542401 c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda15       23917    24792    7036438+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks Id  System
/dev/sdb1 *          1       1216    9767488+ 7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2          1217       1338    979965 1b  Hidden W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb3          1339       1460    979965 83  Linux
/dev/sdb4          1461    24792 187414290 f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5          1461       2676    9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb6          2677       3892    9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb7          3893       6324 19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb8          6325       8756 19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb9          8757    11188 19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb10       11189    13620 19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb11       13621    16052 19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb12       16053    18484 19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb13       18485    20916 19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb14       20917    23348 19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb15       23349    24792 11598898+  83  Linux

My hda has partitions hda61, hda62 and hda63 but they are not shown by fdisk program.

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Deaboot

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2^# 大中小发表于 2007-10-13 16:54 只看该作者

Here is the Grub menu.lst that boots 145 systems

引用:

#Grub menu booting 3 Dos, 5 Windows & 100+ Linux----------------------------
color white/green black/light-gray
title You are now booting from hda3 data-only partition
boot

title       DOS 6.22 (FAT16) @ hda1
root       (hd0,0)
unhide    (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader  +1

title       Win 3.11 @ hda2
root       (hd0,1)
hide       (hd0,0)
unhide    (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader  +1

#hda3 is the data-only partition hosting Grub to boot all other systems

#hda4 is the extended partition

#hda5 is the common swap partition for all Linux

title       Puppy 1.0.6 @ hda6
root       (hd0,5)
chainloader  +1

title       Videolinux 2.0 @ hda7
root       (hd0,6)
chainloader  +1

title       Mandrake 9.2 @ hda8
root       (hd0,7)
chainloader  +1

title       Turbo Linux V7 @ hda9
root       (hd0,8)
chainloader  +1

title       elive 0.3 @ hda10
root       (hd0,9)
chainloader  +1

title       Red Hat 9 @ hda11
root       (hd0,10)
chainloader  +1

title       Lycoris 4 @ hda12
root       (hd0,11)
chainloader  +1

title       Libranet 2.8.1 @ hda13
root       (hd0,12)
chainloader  +1

title       Mandrake 10 @ hda14
root       (hd0,13)
chainloader  +1

title       Debian Woody 3.0 @ hda15
root       (hd0,14)
chainloader  +1

title       Yoper 2.0.0 @ hda16
root       (hd0,15)
chainloader  +1

title       Knoppix 3.6 @ hda17
root       (hd0,16)
chainloader  +1

title       Buffalo 1.5 @ hda18
root       (hd0,17)
chainloader  +1

title       Kanotix 9.2004 @ hda19
root       (hd0,18)
chainloader  +1

title       Kalango 3.2 @ hda20
root       (hd0,19)
chainloader  +1

title       Blag 30001 @ hda21
root       (hd0,20)
chainloader  +1

title       Fedora Core 4 @ hda22
root       (hd0,21)
chainloader  +1

title       Debian Sarge @ hda23
root       (hd0,22)
chainloader  +1

title       Red Flag 4.1 @ hda24
root       (hd0,23)
chainloader  +1

title       Linare Ed 2 @ hda25
root       (hd0,24)
chainloader  +1

title       Tiny Sofa 2.0 @ hda26
root       (hd0,25)
chainloader  +1

title       Slackware 10 @ hda27
root       (hd0,26)
chainloader  +1

title       Xandros 201 @ hda28
root       (hd0,27)
chainloader  +1

title       Vine 3.2 @ hda29
root       (hd0,28)
chainloader  +1

title       Specifix 0.15 @ hda30
root       (hd0,29)
chainloader  +1

title       Ubunto 5.04 @ hda31
root       (hd0,30)
chainloader  +1

title       PCLinuxos 0.91 @ hda32
root       (hd0,31)
chainloader  +1

title       Asian Linux 2.0 @ hda33
root       (hd0,32)
chainloader  +1

title       Ubuntu 6.04 Dapper @ hda34
root       (hd0,33)
chainloader  +1

title       Wolvix 1.0.4 @ hda35
root       (hd0,34)
chainloader  +1

title       Mepis 3.4.2 RC2 @ hda36
root       (hd0,35)
chainloader  +1

title       DreamLinux 1.0 @ hda37
root       (hd0,36)
chainloader  +1

title       Slampp 1.1 @ hda38
root       (hd0,37)
chainloader  +1

title       Slax 5.0.6 @ hda39
root       (hd0,38)
chainloader  +1

title       PCLinuxos 0.92 @ hda40
root       (hd0,39)
chainloader  +1

title       Netsecl 2.0 @ hda41
root       (hd0,40)
chainloader  +1

title       Vector 5.1 @ hda42
root       (hd0,41)
chainloader  +1

title       Suse 10 @ hda43
root       (hd0,42)
chainloader  +1

title       Kororaa 2005 Beta 2 @ hda44
root       (hd0,43)
chainloader  +1

title       smgl 0.95 @ hda45
root       (hd0,44)
chainloader  +1

title       Lunar 1.6 rc3  @ hda46
root       (hd0,45)
chainloader  +1

title       Foresight 0.93 @ hda47
root       (hd0,46)
chainloader  +1

title       SkoleLinux Sarge @ hda48
root       (hd0,47)
chainloader  +1

title       Nepalinux 1.0 @ hda49
root       (hd0,48)
chainloader  +1

title       Klax 3.5 @ hda50
root       (hd0,49)
chainloader  +1

title       SciLinux 2005 @ hda51
root       (hd0,50)
chainloader  +1

title       Progeny 2.0 @ hda52
root       (hd0,51)
chainloader  +1

title       grml 0.6 @ hda53
root       (hd0,52)
chainloader  +1

title       Karamad 1.4.2 @ hda54
root       (hd0,53)
chainloader  +1

title       Whax 3.0 @ hda55
root       (hd0,54)
chainloader  +1

title       Troppix 1.2 @ hda56
root       (hd0,55)
chainloader  +1

title       TopologLinux 6.0 @ hda57
root       (hd0,56)
chainloader  +1

title       Haansoft 2006 WS @ hda58
root       (hd0,57)
chainloader  +1

title       Fedora Core 3 @ hda59
root       (hd0,58)
chainloader  +1

title       ScientificLinux 4.0 @ hda60
root       (hd0,59)
chainloader  +1

title       Slynux 2.0 @ hda61
root       (hd0,60)
chainloader  +1

title       Slax 5.1.8 @ hda62
root       (hd0,61)
chainloader  +1

title       Elive 2 @ hda63
root       (hd0,62)
chainloader  +1

#Starting point of another hard disk----------------------------

title       DOS 7.1 @ hdc1
root       (hd1,0)
hide       (hd0,0)
hide       (hd0,1)
hide       (hd0,2)
unhide    (hd1,0)
makeactive
map       (hd1)    (hd0)
map       (hd0)    (hd1)
chainloader  +1

title       Win98 @ hdc2
root       (hd1,1)
hide       (hd0,0)
hide       (hd0,1)
hide       (hd0,2)
hide       (hd1,0)
unhide    (hd1,1)
makeactive
map       (hd1)    (hd0)
map       (hd0)    (hd1)
chainloader  +1

title       Vista @ hdc3
root       (hd1,2)
hide       (hd0,0)
hide       (hd0,1)
hide       (hd0,2)
hide       (hd1,0)
hide       (hd1,1)
unhide    (hd1,2)
makeactive
map       (hd1)    (hd0)
map       (hd0)    (hd1)
chainloader  +1

#hdc4 is the extended partition

title       B2D Pure KDE 2005 @ hdc5
root       (hd1,4)
chainloader  +1

title       CollegeLInux @ hdc6
root       (hd1,5)
chainloader  +1

title       Berry 0.76 @ hdc7
root       (hd1,6)
chainloader  +1

title       Morphix 0.4 @ hdc8
root       (hd1,7)
chainloader  +1

title       Feather 0.74 @ hdc9
root       (hd1,8)
chainloader  +1

title       Buffalo 1.7.3.9 @ hdc10
root       (hd1,9)
chainloader  +1

title       Cento 4.1 @ hdc11
root       (hd1,10)
chainloader  +1

title       Vector 4.3 @ hdc12
root       (hd1,11)
chainloader  +1

title       Tao Linux 4 @ hdc13
root       (hd1,12)
chainloader  +1

title       Fedora Core 2 @ hdc14
root       (hd1,13)
chainloader  +1

title       Agnula Demudi 1.2 @ hdc15
root       (hd1,14)
chainloader  +1

title       Damn Small Linux 2.1 @ hdc16
root       (hd1,15)
chainloader  +1

title       Monoppix 1.1.8 @ hdc17
root       (hd1,16)
chainloader  +1

title       Sympony A4 beta @ hdc18
root       (hd1,17)
chainloader  +1

title       Pocket Linux 1.2 @ hdc19
root       (hd1,18)
chainloader  +1

title       UltimaLInux 4.0 @ hdc20
root       (hd1,19)
chainloader  +1

title       Vlos 1.2 @ hdc21
root       (hd1,20)
chainloader  +1

title       Tinny Sofa Ceara @ hdc22
root       (hd1,21)
chainloader  +1

title       64 Studio 0.6 @ hdc23
root       (hd1,22)
chainloader  +1

title       KateOS 2.2 @ hdc24
root       (hd1,23)
chainloader  +1

title       Rubix 1.0 @ hdc25
root       (hd1,24)
chainloader  +1

title       Sam 2006-1 @ hdc26
root       (hd1,25)
chainloader  +1

title       Parsix 0.85 @ hdc27
root       (hd1,26)
chainloader  +1

title       Foxdesktop 1.0 @ hdc28
root       (hd1,27)
chainloader  +1

title       Kanotix 64 2005-4 @ hdc29
root       (hd1,28)
chainloader  +1

title       Pardus 1.0 @ hdc30
root       (hd1,29)
chainloader  +1

title       rPath 0.99.2 @ hdc31
root       (hd1,30)
chainloader  +1

title       Stx 1.0 rc2 @ hdc32
root       (hd1,31)
chainloader  +1

title       Stux 0.9.2 @ hdc33
root       (hd1,32)
chainloader  +1

title       StartCom 4.0.4 Raam @ hdc34
root       (hd1,33)
chainloader  +1

title       Slackware 10.2 @ hdc35
root       (hd1,34)
chainloader  +1

title       Foresight 0.9 @ hdc36
root       (hd1,35)
chainloader  +1

title       Xandros 3.0 @ hdc37
root       (hd1,36)
chainloader  +1

title       Ubuntu 5.10 @ hdc38
root       (hd1,37)
chainloader  +1

title       Kubuntu Dapper @ hdc39
root       (hd1,38)
chainloader  +1

title       Gentoo 2006.1 @ hdc40
root       (hd1,39)
chainloader  +1

title       LinuxTLE 8.0 @ hdc41
root       (hd1,40)
chainloader  +1

title       Underground 2.2 @ hdc42
root       (hd1,41)
chainloader  +1

title       DreamLinux 2.1 @ hdc43
root       (hd1,42)
chainloader  +1

title       Linux Mint 2.1 @ hdc44
root       (hd1,43)
chainloader  +1

title       Pioneer 1125 @ hdc45
root       (hd1,44)
chainloader  +1

title       Ubuntu 7.04 @ hdc46
root       (hd1,45)
chainloader  +1

title       Bayanihan 4 @ hdc47
root       (hd1,46)
chainloader  +1

title       Mandriva 2007 @ hdc48
root       (hd1,47)
chainloader  +1

title       Freespire 1.1.73 @ hdc49
root       (hd1,48)
chainloader  +1

title       Caixa Majica 11 @ hdc50
root       (hd1,49)
chainloader  +1

title       Ehad 2006 classic @ hdc51
root       (hd1,50)
chainloader  +1

title       Vlos 1.3 @ hdc52
root       (hd1,51)
chainloader  +1

title       Backtrack 2006-2 @ hdc53
root       (hd1,52)
chainloader  +1

title       Ubuntu 6.06 @ hdc54
root       (hd1,53)
chainloader  +1

title       Blag 30002 @ hdc55
root       (hd1,54)
chainloader  +1

title       Fedora Core 5 @ hdc56
root       (hd1,55)
chainloader  +1

title       Suse 9.1 Professional @ hdc57
root       (hd1,56)
chainloader  +1

title       Vine 4.0 @ hdc58
root       (hd1,57)
chainloader  +1

title       Wolvix 1.0.5 @ hdc59
root       (hd1,58)
chainloader  +1

#Starting point of another hard disk----------------------------

title       XP Pro @ sda1
root       (hd2,0)
hide       (hd0,0)
hide       (hd0,1)
hide       (hd0,2)
hide       (hd1,0)
hide       (hd1,1)
hide       (hd1,2)
unhide    (hd2,0)
makeactive
map       (hd2)    (hd0)
map       (hd0)    (hd2)
chainloader  +1

title       Xenoppix 3.03 @ sda2
root       (hd2,1)
chainloader  +1

title       Musix 0.39 @ sda3
root       (hd2,2)
chainloader  +1

#sda4 is the extended partition

title       GeoLivre 5 @ sda5
root       (hd2,4)
chainloader  +1

title       Ututu x2 2005.1 @ sda6
root       (hd2,5)
chainloader  +1

title       Helix 1.7 @ sda7
root       (hd2,6)
chainloader  +1

title       MagicLinux 2 rc2 @ sda8
root       (hd2,7)
chainloader  +1

title       Zenwalk 1.2 @ sda9
root       (hd2,8)
chainloader  +1

title       MedianLinux  4.0 @ sda10
root       (hd2,9)
chainloader  +1

title       NetBSD i386 3.0  @ sda11
root       (hd2,10)
chainloader  +1

title       Arabian 0.6 rc1 @ sda12
root       (hd2,11)
chainloader  +1

title       Mepis 3.3.2 @ sda13
root       (hd2,12)
chainloader  +1

#sda14 is Fat32 partition holding personal data

title       Slamd64 11 @ sda15
root       (hd2,14)
chainloader  +1

#Starting point of another hard disk----------------------------

title       Win 2k @ sdb1
root       (hd3,0)
hide       (hd0,0)
hide       (hd0,1)
hide       (hd0,2)
hide       (hd1,0)
hide       (hd1,1)
hide       (hd1,2)
hide       (hd2,0)
unhide    (hd3,0)
hide       (hd3,1)
makeactive
map       (hd3)    (hd0)
map       (hd0)    (hd3)
chainloader  +1

title       FreeDos @ sdb2
root       (hd3,1)
hide       (hd0,0)
hide       (hd0,1)
hide       (hd0,2)
hide       (hd1,0)
hide       (hd1,1)
hide       (hd1,2)
hide       (hd2,0)
hide       (hd3,0)
unhide    (hd3,1)
makeactive
map       (hd3)    (hd0)
map       (hd0)    (hd3)
chainloader  +1

title       System Rescue CD 2.1.6 @ sdb3
root       (hd3,2)
chainloader  +1

#sdb4 is the extended partition

title       Xfld 2.0 @ sdb5
root       (hd3,4)
chainloader  +1

title       Kanotix 2006-1 @ sdb6
root       (hd3,5)
chainloader  +1

title       Paipix 5.00 2006-3 @ sdb7
root       (hd3,6)
chainloader  +1

title       Frugalware 0.4 @ sdb8
root       (hd3,7)
chainloader  +1

title       Sabayon x86_64 3.0 @ sdb9
root       (hd3,8)
chainloader  +1

title       Quantian 0.7.9.1 @ sdb10
root       (hd3,9)
chainloader  +1

title       Suse 10.1 x86 64 @ sdb11
root       (hd3,10)
chainloader  +1

title       Slackware 11 @ sdb12
root       (hd3,11)
chainloader  +1

title       Knoppix 4.0.2 @ sdb13
root       (hd3,12)
chainloader  +1

title       Mandriva 2006 0.4 @ sdb14
root       (hd3,13)
chainloader  +1

title       Fedora Core 6 @ sdb15
root       (hd3,14)
chainloader  +1

I know I know this page is boring unless you are interested in the details. So how about these statistics

No
of
disros Country
2 Argentina
1 Asia
4 Australia
1 Austria
1 Belgium
4 Brazil
1 Bulgaria
5 Canada
3 China
2 Czech
2 Europe
7 France
14 Germany
3 Global
1 Hungary
1 India
2 Iran
1 Ireland
5 Isle of Man
3 Israel
5 Italy
5 Japan
1 Nepal
2 Netherland
1 New Zealand
4 Norway
1 Philippines
2 Poland
2 Portugal
2 Puerto Rico
1 S Korea
1 Sweden
2 Switzerland
1 Syria
1 Taiwan
1 Thailand
1 Turkey
5 UK
44 USA
145 Total

39 countries are contributing the operating systems.

The 3 Dos are Dos 6.22, Dos 7.1 and Freedos.

The 5 Windows are Win 3.11, Win98, Win2k, XP home and Vista

There are 114 unique systems as 17 of then have more two versions, 3 of them have 3 different versions and 2 have 5 versions. For example I have kept Fedora core for ver. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

I only paid for all the MS systems except the free downloadable experimental Vista. All Linux are free downable systems.

A Linux can be freely downloadable from many Internet sites as an iso file that can be burn into a bootable CD. Once the CD booted up a user can follow the instruction to install the system as quickly as 10 to 12 minutes.

Many Linux distros also produce Live CD with which a user can have a full operating system without being installed into a hard disk.