I decided to install MeeGo and Arch Linux on it. This is really strange combination (I know...). But the idea is that the latter is the home server OS, while the former as a minimal backup desktop environment, just in case anything happens and I need to have some easy internet.
MeeGo uses syslinux(extlinux) as its bootloader. It doesn't seem to support chainloading grub, also it cannot directly load a OS from another partition. So the easiest way to dual boot is to use grub in Arch Linux.
1. Install MeeGo (I am using netbook version 1.2). Follow the directions here.
When you are asked to partition your hard drive, You need at least have this following 3 partitions,
a. One ext3 partition mount as /boot, this will be used by Arch Linux later as well, I think 200MB is well enough.
b. One btrfs or ext3 partition mount as / for Meego.
c. A swap partition, of course.
After installed Meego, try boot into MeeGo and find out the name of the linux kernel file. To do this, boot in MeeGo, open a Terminal, type
cd /boot
then type
ls -l
There will be a file name starting with vmlinuz-, with a series of numbers after it (Mine is vmlinuz-2.6.37.2-8.27). This should be your linux kernel file for MeeGo. Write it on a paper for later use.
2. Install Arch Linux (I am using version 2011.8.19). Follow the instructions here.
When you are asked to prepare hard drive, do not use Auto-Prepare. Rather, use "Manually partition Hard Drives". Here you will create a new partition for Arch Linux (or more if needed). Then select "Write" to write the partition table.
Then you will need to manually configure mountpoints. Mount the following partition to Arch Linux,
a. The ext3 partition created in 1a. Also mount it to /boot. Do NOT format it!
b. Format the newly created partition as btrfs or ext3. mount it to / for Arch Linux.
c. The swap partition created in 1c.
Now, the installer will write the partition table.
Later, when you are asked to select bootloader, choose GRUB.
After installation of packages, the installer will ask you to install bootloader for the system. You will be asked to edit the configuration file. After the two Arch Linux items, add the following lines to the configuration file,
# (2) MeeGo
title MeeGo (2.6.37.2-8.27)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.37.2-8.27 root=/dev/sda2 ro quiet
Note that you should change line 3 to whatever partition your mountpoint /boot is on, which is created in step 1a. For example, if it is on /dev/sdb3 it should be root (hd1,2) (Note this one counts from 0).
For line 4, the root= part is the partition you created in step 1b. Thus it should be in a different partition.
Now save, and the installer will quit. Reboot and you will get fresh dual boot of MeeGo and Arch Linux, cheers!
