Install Fedora-13 without bootloader

[hneri]

Hi

I am quite experienced Linux user. But latest years I've been using Ubuntu on my servers, deskto PC and laptop. But this time I decided to give a try for Fedora 13. Earlier my tests failed because of nVidia driver installation for every kernel update was so pain for me.

Fedora's Live CD is quite stripped. It has good tools installed but it's missing OpenOffice.org. That should be mostly for demostration to Windows users.
Installation with Live CD is straight forward even I haven't tried with Windows partitions (shrink or so). Ubuntu can be installed inside Windows drive (into loop file) without shrinking partitions. I don't know if Fedora can do the same.

But issues what I have got even before getting in...
Disk partition tools are very great. But when I tried to install Fedora into LVM without using separate /boot partition - that failed. I am using Ubuntu's GRUB2 and it can boot from LVM root directly. And I thought Fedora-13 can do the same.
I have been installing Red Hat Enterprise Linuxes many many times. And there is an option to skip bootloader installation. Why it is missing on Fedora?
I just want Fedora into LVM without anything else. Ubuntu's GRUB2 can boot from Fedora's /boot -directory even it's on LVM. If I get Fedora installed.

So error what I get trying to install Fedora...
Harddrive sda has just one big LVM partition, nothing else. Ubuntu GRUB2 is on MBR.
I have just one 10Gb LV for Fedora, existing /home and swap. Plus Ubuntu's own root partition what I don't need with Fedora. So partitioning program is completed as I like but then I get error message: Bootable partitions cannot be on a logical volume.

I have tried to install using Live CD, DVD with graphics and text modes. None of them gives me option to skip installing bootloader.

Another option I had on my mind is that I could try to use USB memory stick to have /boot. But I'm not sure if it works and installer will overwrite my existing GRUB2 on sda. If it works then I could move /boot -stuff into LVM and tell Ubuntu's GRUB2 to boot from Fedora's root LVM.

I hope you find solutions for me.
Regards, Hneri (RHCE,UCP)

[stoat]

Hello hneri,

You can skip installing the boot loader, but it's not so obvious as it used to be. You can do that by unchecking the option that says "Install boot loader on /dev/sda". But that will not solve your underlying issue which is to install Fedora into an LVM PV without a separate boot partition. There is more than GRUB in that separate boot partition. The kernels and initramfs files are in it partition, too. So IMO, until Fedora starts being released with GRUB 2 as its default boot loader, the installer probably will never allow what you want to do. Maybe somebody else has another opinion or an idea for you to try.

[hneri]

Thank you stoat for your comments.

/boot -directory should exists in LVM root partition. And kernel and ramdisk should stay there too. GRUB2 can find them and boot correctly. That's how Ubuntu works.

I got another idea to install Fedora-13. By using febootstrap -program from Ubuntu. But my Ubuntu 10.04 does not have latest rpm and yum -versions so it can't solve depencies correctly. I may try to boot Live-CD, get LVM up and then febootstrap.

[stoat]

Originally Posted by hneri

/boot -directory should exists in LVM root partition. And kernel and ramdisk should stay there too. GRUB2 can find them and boot correctly. That's how Ubuntu works.

Thanks for that. But I use Ubuntu and GRUB 2, too. My point was that your idea of not installing GRUB would not by itself work for that very reason. The Fedora installer will not put the kernels in the LVM PV just because GRUB is not installed.

Here's something that just popped into my head. Since you're booting with Ubuntu's GRUB 2, what if you went ahead and installed Fedora with its separate boot partition. Then in Ubuntu, mount the Fedora boot partition, mount the Fedora root logical volume, copy the contents of the boot partition to the boot directory in the root logical volume, edit /etc/fstab to remove the entry for the boot partition so it will not mount, edit /boot/grub/grub.conf for the root command line, then try using Ubuntu's GRUB 2 to boot the Fedora kernel which would then be in the LVM PV in the /boot folder of the root logical volume. What do you think? It might be a fun experiment. If it works, then delete the boot partition. If it fails, it breaks a brand new Fedora system. So what?