Preparing a Boot Environment for Installing Multiple Operating Systems

If you are installing Oracle Solaris as part of a multiple boot environment, review the following specifications for various operating systems.

Table 2-1 Multiple Operating System Environments

Existing Operating System	Description
Microsoft Windows	Set up sufficient disk space for installing the Oracle Solaris release. All versions of Oracle Solaris for the x86 platform use the GNU Grand Unified Bootloader (GRUB). Oracle Solaris recognizes Windows and ensures that Windows partitions remain unchanged during an installation. When the installation completes, and the system reboots, the GRUB menu displays both the Windows and the Oracle Solaris boot entries. Note - The Oracle Solaris operating system on x86 systems now stores Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) time in the Real Time Clock (RTC) or hardware clock. Previously, the operating system stored local time in RTC on x86 systems.
Linux, or Windows and Linux	If you have the Linux operating system, or both Linux and Windows operating systems, installed on your x86 based system, before installing Oracle Solaris, save a copy of the `menu.lst` file. After the installation, you will need to edit the `menu.lst` file to add the Linux information from the previous installation. For instructions, see Modifying Boot Entries and Parameters by Editing the menu.lst File in Booting and Shutting Down Oracle Solaris on x86 Platforms. Note - When installing Oracle Solaris on a system that also has the Linux operating system installed, the Oracle Solaris partition must precede the Linux `swap` partition.
Solaris 10 OS	The installer on the LiveCD cannot be used to install multiple instances of Oracle Solaris. The text installer, however, supports multiple instances of the Oracle Solaris operating system on the same partition, as long as the instances are on different slices. The LiveCD and text installers can be used to replace the Solaris 10 1/06 and later releases on an existing system that has multiple instances of Oracle Solaris installed. Note - If you need to preserve a specific Solaris Volume Table of Contents (VTOC) slice in your current operating system, use the text installer.
Extended partitions	If you have another operating system on an extended partition, the existing extended partition does not need to be changed during an installation. You can create, resize, or delete an extended partition when you install Oracle Solaris by using either the LiveCD GUI installer, the text installer, or the Automated Installer. You can also choose to install Oracle Solaris on a logical partition within an extended partition.

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