Installing Fedora 13 as dual boot with Ubuntu

Collywobbles · #1 24th July 2010, 04:54 PM

Hi,

I am currently running Ubuntu 10.04 (with GRUB 1) with Windows XP on a partition.

I have tried the LiveCD and would like to install Fedora 13 onto a 3rd partition (with plans to remove Ubuntu later if Fedora works for me).

Is it okay to install from the LiveCD or should I use a proper installation CD?

I started the "Install to Hard Drive" from the LiveCD to see what it intends to do with my disk. I see that it wants to create a separate /boot partition in ext4. This slightly worries me as my Ubuntu is running on ext3 with no separate /boot partition. What effect will creating the separate /boot partition have on my existing Ubuntu install and is it okay to use ext4?

Thanks for any help!

CiaW · #2 24th July 2010, 07:17 PM

I''m not an expert, but here's my take on it. I have a laptop that was dual-booting F11 (lxde spin -- only installable through a livecd) and Linux Mint (Ubuntu-based). It's currently just F11 lxde and Puppy. Using ext4 should be fine, even if Ubuntu is ext3. Sharing data should be ok, occasionally I would mount one of the partitions on the other distro to grab a file.

However, you can install Fedora without a separate /boot partition if you want with an install dvd or the cd's. Just specify the location of the / (root) mount point and it'll put the boot directory under that. Then you can also specify the ext3 instead of 4 file system, I'm not sure but I think ext3 may be a tiny bit faster. Less overhead. But if your concern is whether ext4 is ok for Fedora while Ubuntu is using ext3, it should be fine. hth.

AceRoom · #3 25th July 2010, 12:39 PM

It should be fine. I suppose Ubuntu will take its own boot partition (or in this case the root partition) as its own. You can install Fedora GRUB on either the MBR or on Fedora's partition. To add new OS to GRUB list, it is easier with GRUB2 (On Ubuntu). You can just

Code:

sudo update-grub

so it would be easier to install Fedora's GRUB to the root partition. You can choose this option at install. However, if you plan on deleting Ubuntu later without reinstall Fedora, it would be easier to just replace Ubuntu's GRUB with Fedora's.