FC4 & FC5 on same disk?

[natallica]

Hello -

I was wondering how one would setup one hard drive to have both FC4 and FC5 installed on it? Do I setup '/boot,' '/,' and swap space for each distro?

Thanks...

-- N

[natallica]

* bump *

Anyone running more than one distro on the same disk?

-- N

[taurus]

Hello -

I was wondering how one would setup one hard drive to have both FC4 and FC5 installed on it? Do I setup '/boot,' '/,' and swap space for each distro?

Thanks...

-- N
Both releases can share the same swap space and even /home (if you have it on a seperate partition) but you better keep everything else seperate or you will confuse yourself plus the releases too when you use yum to update!!!

[natallica]

Thanks. I also found this online: http://enterprise.linux.com/print.pl?sid=04/12/23/2033238

However, I can't get the grub configured properly. I moved the System.map, vmlinuz, and initrd for FC4 into the /boot for my FC5 as suggested in the above article. I added an entry for FC4 in menu.lst, but I think the issue is that it cannot find '/' for FC4.

One other thing...when i created partitions for FC5 I made them all primary as per some intructions I had read. So I have:

sdb1 -> /boot FC5
sdb2 -> / FC5
sdb3 -> swap FC4

Now...I wanted to install FC4. In the install program when setting up custom partitions, I was not able to make sdb4 be /boot and primary. I got an error. So this is what I setup instead:

sdb4 -> extended containing:
sdb5 -> /boot FC4
sdb6 -> / FC4
sdb7 -> swap FC4

I don't know if the fact that these are extended partitions is an issue.

So...in menu.lst I have: root (hd0,0) as the boot images are now in sdb1. But how do I tell the system that / for FC4 is sdb6?

Right now, if I try and boot to FC4, I get a mod-probe recursion error during boot.

Thoughts anyone?

I appreciate the help, btw!

-- N

[FunkyRes]

I'm doing something similar to that.
Yes - you want a /boot. You probably also want a common /home.

When installing FC5 - set the mount point for the /boot partition as /boot but do not format it.

After FC5 firstboot, there will be a /boot/grub/grub.conf.rpmsave file with your FC4 kernel information.
Manually migrate them into the grub.conf file created by the FC5 install.

[natallica]

Okay...I've got it working now. I changed the FC4 grub entry from: ro root=LABEL=/ to ro root=/dev/sdb6.

Hope this helps someone...

-- N

[glennzo]

I run Fedora Core 4 and 5, Mandriva, WinXP (2 installs) and Windows Server 2003 all on 1 160 gig disk. That disk is /dev/hda. The swap, common to all the Linux installs, in /dev/hdb1. Fedora Core 5's grub handles all the booting. Anyone can do it with a little planning.

[fc-cornette]

As someone mentioned regarding sharing swap and /home, I usually share the two partitions with multiple installations. I am not sure since FC5 includes hibernation it would work sharing many Linux distributions or not.

Anyway, what I do is to have one installation to load grub into the MBR and then chainloader commands for the other installations using basically the same scheme that using an MS operating system as dual boot is loaded.

Create a /boot partition for each additional installation or if a boot partition is not created, install grub to the / partition. An example would be that windows installed in hd0,0 and a linux /boot partition is installed as hd0,1
You would run grub-install /dev/hda2 while into this installation to install grub into the /boot partition.

Say that you have another installation located in the extended partitions and information states that /boot in in /dev/hda5 and / is on hda6. I installed this installations grub into the mbr. I used the XP boot chainloader command and copied the stanza below the XP entry and changed the reference from the XP settings and retitled the entry Fedora <number>

What happens with this scheme is that whenever the one OS gets updated, it updates its own kernel information and it is not needed to cut and pasted the entries between installs. Also the other OS installed in MBR does its own housekeeping.

I love this scheme and did edt the grub.conf file previously. Also, there is an option for the bootloader for advanced features. If you are creating a new installation, selecting this option will let you add entries in this screen and also tell grub where to install itself to.

Good Luck!
Jim

[FunkyRes]

Okay...I've got it working now. I changed the FC4 grub entry from: ro root=LABEL=/ to ro root=/dev/sdb6.

Hope this helps someone...

-- N

The best way to do it honestly -

/boot = 100 MB
swap = 1024 MB

rest as a single PV in a single VG.
No label= to deal with.

When you have created the VG, make 3 LVs from it - one for FC4 root, on for FC5 root, and one for /home

Don't use up all the PEs in the volume group, leave some for expanding the LVs as you need to.

[mircea]

I have a A8N-VM motherboard and 2 HD. First I installed FC4 386 then I installed FC5 on the second hard drive. When I want to boot FC4 or FC5 I change the order of HD in BIOS. I don't now how to make MBR to work?
I read the last message of FunkyRes.
As I am new in Linux I want to ask:
What are PV, VG, LV, PE ?
If I want the same /home for both installations but now there are not distinct partition for home it is possible to do it?
I can install again FC5 but I don't want to harm my FC4.
There is anybody who can help me?
Thanks
Mircea

[fc-cornette]

The PV is Physical Volume, VG is Volume Group, LV is Logical volume, PE is Physical Extent (I believe).
Anyway, this is for setting up your hard disk with the Logical Volume Manager. This is used instead of traditional partitioning. Personally, I use regular partitioning over LVM.
To have two installations on the same hard drive, it is best to have different /boot partitions for each installation. It is also best to install the first distribution and leave space available for your secondary installation. If you select the advanced boot options during the installation, it will show you a screen that will allow you to select the partition that you want to install the bootloader on. For the second installation, it is good to set this to the /boot partition for your second installation. Theoretically (and hopefully in practice) the boot loader for your first installation will still be untouched in the maaster boot record. This is the reference to your hard drive as /dev/hdx without a number as is used for partitions, such as /dev/hdx1.