Moving from Ubuntu 9.04 to Fedora 13

[OreoKing]

Hello everyone!

Well, I've been using Ubuntu Jaunty for a while now, it was my first Linux distro that I tried out and I've been using it since. Being satisfied with Linux, I see no reason to boot into Windows XP.

Anyways, I don't want to upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04, instead I want to try Fedora and by extension an RPM based distro. You can help make this happen.

Now here's the possible issues I think I might have. Because I have a dual-boot system; Windows XP and Ubuntu, it's imperative (big word) that nothing happen to XP as I'd have no way to recover (never had the installation CDs) and it's needed (family computer).

Here's my plan: Installing Fedora 13 over Ubuntu's partition, and setting up a separate root partition and /home partition.

-Will Fedora setup nicely in GRUB?

-If not how should I set it up during installation or what should I copy into the GRUB menu.lst?

-In Ubuntu I use a program called Startup Manager to set up GRUB so that it by default loads WinXP (so that the family doesn't freak or anything when they end up in Ubuntu). Does Startup Manger work in Fedora? If not, what should I write in GRUB so that Win defaults? (lots of GRUB learning here huh?)

-I'm also spoiled in Ubuntu because of sudo. I know now that traditionally one had to log into root to do any administrative tasks, but I like sudo a lot. Is there a way to setup sudo? Or is su the same thing? Lot's of info on this, please.

-How much space should I give root since I'm going with separate root and home partitions?

-Any other problems that you can think of that I might not have mentioned?

Sorry for the long thread, and thanks in advance for the help.

[an15wn]

Hello to you too...

Here's my plan: Installing Fedora 13 over Ubuntu's partition, and setting up a separate root partition and /home partition.

-Will Fedora setup nicely in GRUB?

Simple answer: YES!

-If not how should I set it up during installation or what should I copy into the GRUB menu.lst?

Since you're going to overwrite your Ubuntu with Fedora, all the magic regarding GRUB will be done by Fedora. Don't bother with that one.

-In Ubuntu I use a program called Startup Manager to set up GRUB so that it by default loads WinXP (so that the family doesn't freak or anything when they end up in Ubuntu). Does Startup Manger work in Fedora? If not, what should I write in GRUB so that Win defaults? (lots of GRUB learning here huh?)

I never use that thing in Fedora, because I usually edit the grub.conf directly. The point is, I think Startup Manager is specific to Ubuntu. Maybe there is a program that simplified editing GRUB in Fedora. But I just like to edit it directly.

If you like don't to edit it directly, there are grub editors for you out there...

-I'm also spoiled in Ubuntu because of sudo. I know now that traditionally one had to log into root to do any administrative tasks, but I like sudo a lot. Is there a way to setup sudo? Or is su the same thing? Lot's of info on this, please.

Using sudo/su excessively is not recommended as that will compromise the security. But, if you really want to do priviledged things, you can use su in Fedora. The difference is that sudo requires YOUR password and su requires ROOT's password.

What I usually did is su -. But never forget to 'exit'.

-How much space should I give root since I'm going with separate root and home partitions?

How big is your harddisk?
Usually, I just give around 10G for OS and /home will be setup accordingly.

-Any other problems that you can think of that I might not have mentioned?

I think if you really want to wipe your Ubuntu, there are no more problems at all. That's because you already have an experience with Ubuntu.

Sorry for the long thread, and thanks in advance for the help.

No problem...
Good luck

[AdamW]

you can set up sudo on Fedora to work how it does on Ubuntu quite easily. I think just installing sudo and adding a line like this to /etc/sudoers:

user ALL=(ALL) ALL

where 'user' is your username should do it. Alternatively you can just run:

su -c "somecommand"

instead of:

sudo somecommand

and it'll work much the same, with the difference that you enter the root password rather than your own.

[OreoKing]

Hello an15wn and AdamW,

Thank your for replying quickly, something I can't say about myself...

an15wn, is grub.conf significantly different than menu.lst? I was thinking of copy pasting or something. I'll probably look for dual-boot samples online or something.

Yeah I'm not against editing GRUB, I only need what I'm supposed to form it into.

As for Startup Manager, I'll see if I can compile it when I install Fedora.

Thanks AdamW for the additional info, I don't absolutely need sudo, su seems like it'll work just fine. I just didn't want to log out of a user acc and into root, though I don't think it would have taken long.

All in all thanks. Now I've just got to get stuff ready.

Fedora 13 here I come!

[sonoran]

Welcome OreoKing -
grub.conf and menu.lst, where both exist, are actually the same file, menu.lst being a link to grub.conf.

Grub is good at detecting Windows installations and not disturbing them. It usually lists Windows as "Other" in grub.conf. It should give you the option during install of which OS you want to boot by default. Grub sometimes gets the Windows partition position wrong, overlooking rescue or recovery partitions if they precede the actual Windows partition - so you might want to make fedora the default at installation. That way you will be able to boot Fedora and then edit grub.conf manually to boot Windows.

I just didn't want to log out of a user acc and into root, though I don't think it would have taken long.

You don't have to log out of your user acct - just open a terminal and use sudo, su -c, or su -, then as root launch a file manager (Nautilus, pcmanfm) or text editor to do your privileged business. You might see some complaint messages in the terminal about those apps being run as root, but they will work.

Good Luck with Fedora 13!

[an15wn]

an15wn, is grub.conf significantly different than menu.lst? I was thinking of copy pasting or something.

Already answered by sonoran...

I'll probably look for dual-boot samples online or something.

This post talking about triple boot configuration of my laptop...

Re: How to Triple boot the system?

This is grub.conf of my PC:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd0,3)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda4
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda4
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,3)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.33.4-95.fc13.x86_64)
        root (hd0,3)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33.4-95.fc13.x86_64 ro root=UUID=cdcad7f9-fadb-4070-a792-08fdaac58adc rhgb quiet vga=0x322 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 KEYTABLE=us
        initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.33.4-95.fc13.x86_64.img
title Windows XP Pro
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        chainloader +1

This is my harddisk layout (yeah there is unallocated partition.. )


Hope that help you to picture the multiboot configuration.