Zorin & Kubuntu - dual boot, which should be installed first?

Dan Torres

1/2/24, 5:32 PM

I am still a bit "beginner" with Linux (just fooling around with it for 20+ years) looking for the easiest, no command line (if possible) demands. Oh, I would like to create a data partion shared by both distros? Thanks for any help. Your Instructions are excellent. ( I could just go for it and if one setup doesn't work I could reformat the disk And start over. But that's a lot of trouble. ) If stable I may triple boot with Deepin.

Computer: 
6 year old HP Envy 
4 GB ram 
1 TB Hard disk

Nothing complex. Will be on a simple home network with 2 other Windows 10 computers

1 + 3

dual-boot

terdon

1/2/24, 6:16 PM

Can you clarify the actual question here please? Are you asking if the order you install these is important as in the title? Or are you asking how to make a shared data partition?

guiverc

1/2/24, 9:39 PM

If you're thinking of sharing $HOME (home partition) between two OSes; as someone who has done it, I can tell you it's both great & terrifying. Are you fully aware of the software stacks shared in both OSes; will you keep them both in perfect sync? as if they get out of sync, you can find one will lose access to data & you may not notice. It's not the OSes here you need to check, but each package version between the OSes involved. However you mention a number of *misspelt* OSes where this is a Ubuntu only site (Kubuntu is a Ubuntu *flavor* thus is a Ubuntu system).

guiverc

1/5/24, 7:41 AM

You can install OSes (*particularly GNU/Linux systems*) in whichever order you like. My current system has 3x OSes involved; and I just installed. If I want them in a specific order in GRUB for example; I'll just fix that myself post-install. I've got other boxes where I re-install regularly (for QA or *Quality Assurance* purposes) and those boxes are multi-OS (some have 3, others have 4 OSes..) but again the order doesn't matter; I replace whichever I want & if I need to adjust something; I do that post-install. Ubuntu has many ISOs available using different installers too! You decide.

Score:1

Ubuntu

Rinzwind

1/2/24, 5:50 PM

In general: all you need is unallocated partitions for each OS as large as at least the minimum required space for each. What that is for Zorin or Deepin is out of scope of AskUbuntu and also depends on usage. If you use / everything in the OS (so no /home) and put your personal files always on the data partition 25Gb is more than enough. Possibly the same for all Linux :)

The data partition: you can create that at any time but this also is started with an unallocated partition. So use a partition manager like gparted (you can make a bootable gparted for this) to create the space needed for each.

As to what to install 1st: it does not really matter when using Linux. All can and will work with the GRUB bootloader. There is also a tool to fix problems with your boot called boot repair. Only older Windows needed to be installed before any Linux.

+ 1

terdon

1/2/24, 6:12 PM

The OP seems to be asking which of the two to install first (in the title, albeit not in the body of the question), so you might as well add a note about that. I don't see why it would make any difference, as long as the OP installs grub with the second one, overwriting any bootloader installed by the first.

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EN: Zorin & Kubuntu - dual boot, which should be installed first?

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