Rahul,
While we are “working” on getting multi-boot systems, as Jaymes stated, it is not the main focus. If it works for you, awesome, if not, I hope to have success soon.
That said, I have a couple questions to ask followed by methods that may help you out.
First,
Multiboot imaging CAN be done on all versions of FOG, but not in the means you’re probably hoping for right now. The method to get multiboot systems requires a few key points which arises my questions.
Question 1) Are all of the systems the same? Meaning, are the hard-drives the same size, the specifications of the systems the same, etc…?
If they are all the same, then you can create an image from the FOG GUI and in the Image Type, choose RAW image format. This method takes a while as it performs a bit by bit copy of the hard-drive. This is why it’s pertinent that all the systems to be receiving the image be the same. This includes the system you create the image from.
Question 2) What version of FOG are you currently working with?
This question is generic in this form, however it helps me understand where to assist as possible. Meaning, if there’s something specific needed I can build a custom init.gz to help you out. I also want to know if you’re kernel is working okay so you have limited issues in the future. 0.32 is pretty good and I’m going to guess this is the version you’re using unless you let us know otherwise.
Question 3) Are you going to be okay that all of the systems have the same hostname from the linux side?
While I’ve never seen any problems with linux hosts having the same hostname in a network, it could cause issues in your DNS setup as pinging blahblah.localdomain wouldn’t work properly. It would try translating blahblah.localdomain to all of the hosts connected at the time, which just wouldn’t work.
Question 4) On the Windows XP part of your setup, do you plan on using the true “FOG Service”?
Your reference to fog service in your original post was, I imagine, referring to the FOG system, there is actually a “thing” called the FOG Service. Typically, this is installed within client systems so as to manage snapins, printers, hostname changing, domain joining, and task checking. This will greatly help your Windows systems as they cannot all contain the same Hostname.
Second,
Just an informative note, multiboot setups are not an end-all be-all type system. This means your multiboot system may not be another, random, person’s multiboot setup. For this reason, a step-by-step tutorial on creating one, even if we had one, may not even be useful to you or others. While others could, potentially, obtain the same results, Linux has many-many-many flavors of distributions to work with. So just because you prefer Ubuntu, doesn’t mean another will. For this reason, I think it’s pertinent to note that, while others may shun me for saying this (or just ignore it completely and do what they do, chances are unlikely of a true step-by-step tutorial on how to do this.
There are many tutorials available on the internet that already describes how to create a multiboot system on just about any Linux/Windows/MAC system. Imaging them is an entirely different matter. Each distribution uses their own method of partition layouts, filesystem types, and methods of use. Each one is customizable as well and, for this reason, difficult to come up with a true FOG Howto for imaging them, even if we get this working with FOG.
