Am Sa, den 01.11.2003 schrieb Globe Trotter um 00:34:
> So, during installation, when it asks for / to be put in, I offer that other /1
> directory? Is that right? I am unclear about what needs to be done to the
> bootloader.
That is basically the way, how to proceed.
You have two options:
1. quick and dirty
2. a general reorganisation of your harddisks to easily support
the use of several Linux distros (and perhaps one of the *bsds)
quick and dirty:
You use your /1 partition (/dev/hde1) as the root partition for a second
Linux distro. It's about 4 gb, it's enough for one. You have to decide
either SuSE or Fedora.
In both cases: Start the installation, when asking for hard disk
partitioning, select manual partitioning (!) (be careful with SuSE, its
menues are a bit misleading at this regard!). You will see a graphical
representation of your harddisk(s). Select /dev/hde1 as the root
partition (select formatting the file system, too). Double check your
selection! Then select your /usr/local partition (/dev/hde6), select
edit, and select /usr/local as the mount point without
changing/formating the partition. So you will have access to your
current data (provided your home dirs are in /usr/local).
Proceed with the installation. At the point dealing with the bootloader,
you MUST change the default settings. Select installing the bootloader
(lilo in SuSE, grub in Fedora) in your / partition (/dev/hde1) without
changing the mbr! Fedory will follow your selection, with SuSE you must
use lilo as bootloader, there is a bug in SuSE's grub configuration!
You should use /home for the home directories (to avoid a confusion with
the homes for different distris). Later you may make symbolic links to
directories in /usr/local for easy access.
When installation is finished, reboot. Because you didn't change the
mbr, your current RH9 system should boot normally. Edit the
/boot/grub/grub.conf file. You should see an entry like this:
title Red Hat Linux 9 (2.4.20-20.9)
root (hd4,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-20.9 ro root=/dev/Volume00/RH9
hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-20.9.img
Add the following entries:
title SuSE 9.0 / Fedora Test
rootnoverify (hd4,0)
chainloader +1
The x in both (hdx,y) entries must be the same!
/dev/hde is the fifth harddisk, grub start the numbering schema with 0,
so its hd4. /dev/hde1 is the first partition, again grub start with 0,
so it's partition 0
I'm wondering about your /dev/hde and /dev/hdg, it seems you have 7
harddisks installed in your system? Or do you have more as the usual two
IDE controllers in your system and accidentily use the upper one? I'm
not so familiar with IDE devices, because all my systems use SCSI.
Strange: /dev/hdg is identical with /dev/hde but seems not to be used.
> root]# /sbin/fdisk /dev/hde
>
> The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 232514.
> There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
> and could in certain setups cause problems with:
> 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
> 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
> (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
>
> root]# /sbin/fdisk /dev/hdg
>
> The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 232514.
> There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
> and could in certain setups cause problems with:
> 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
> 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
> (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
After starting the program for each harddisk you should type "p" to
print the actual partition table (and then "q" to quit). Would be nice
to see the output for both disks as a double check.
If there really is an used second harddisk you might use it. But may be
your disks are configured as a raid.
The second alternative would imply to rearrange your harddisk as
follows:
Partition 1: 70 mb ext2 as /boot for all installed systems
( as a common starting point )
Partition 2: about 500 mb - 1 gb swap for all installed systems
Partition 3: about 4 - 6 gb as root for first Linux distro
Partition 4: about 4 - 6 gb as root for second Linux distro
Partition 5: about 4 - 6 gb as root for third Linux distro
Partition 6: about 4 gb as /usr/local for common binaries
Partition 7: rest of the disk for a common /home
You can rearrange your current installation in that way without damaging
your current data and your RH9 installation. It's lot of work, a little
bit difficult because you have to arrange for primary and secondary
partitions and, perhaps, using LVM, and you have to be very carefully.
But it's possible and will make your life easier in the long term. In
order to determine the necessary step we need more information about
your hardware (esp. the harddisks).
Hope this helps.
Peter
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