I have an PC with both windows and Mandriva 2007 installed and managed by grub. They are installed in a 160 GB HD, the master one(it is configured as master in the disk controller).

There is a second HD of 40GB where there are a NTFS partition, a swap partition and an extf3 partition. This 2nd HD is configured as slave in the disk controller. This disk is the old machine master disk.

I would like to know if I can install Fedora Core 8 in the linux partition of the 40GB slave HD and if it will be automatically included in the grub menu. Is there some danger of corrupt the master disk partitions during Fedora Core 8 setup?

Greetings from Sao Paulo - Brazil

Ricardo

I suggest that when you install Fedora Core 8 that you tell Fedora not to install any boot loader. Then you can configure the /boot/grub/menu list file in Mandriva 2007 to triple boot Windows, Mandriva, and Fedora.

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Steve Stites

It won't be automatically included. But it's easy to fix. What you really want to do is install Fedora Core 8 to the second drive, and when it asks where to put grub, put it in the root partition (should be like /dev/hdb1 or something like that), not the MBR. Then edit the Mandriva grub.conf file to add Fedora like this

Updating the grub config file in Mandriva will not be automatic. Mandriva doesn't know about Fedora (or any other distro) you install on the second drive.

As jailbait pointed out, you will have to manually update the /boot/grub/menu.lst in Mandriva to add an entry for Fedora.

Easiest way I know to do that: when you install Fedora, tell it to install grub to the root partition (the boot sector of the partition in which you instal Fedora) instead of to the MBR (master boot record of the first drive). Then, when installation is complete, just copy the Fedora entry in Fedora's copy of /boot/grub/menu.lst, and paste it into the Mandriva /boot/grub/menu.lst.

You can do that after installing Fedora by mounting the Mandriva partition from Fedora and opening Mandriva's copy of menu.lst to do the paste.

When you reboot, your grub menu should list Fedora.

PJValdez beat me to it. More than one way to do something in Linux, eh?

The method suggested by PJValdez is better than mine. His method (also suggested by Saikee in a superb document referenced in his sig) doesn't depend on having the correct kernel and initrd information in the grub stanza. Using the method he suggested, any distro installed in that partition will boot, if the bootloader for that distro is installed to the boot sector of the partition.

I did the Fedora's installation and try to follow your suggestions, however:

1. Fedora's installer didn't ask for GRUB installation.

2. When Fedora's installer ask about what disk area it must use I answered "use existing linux partitions space"(in the slave disk). The installation ran without troubles.

When I reboot the machine and select Mandriva in the existing Grub menu there were a trouble. The /etc/fstab mounts a hdb6 disk that, after Fedora's installation, seems didn't exist. The Madriva's boot report an error and ask to give the root's password and try to hit:

e2fisk -i 8193 hdb

I did it and receive an error. The suggestion didn't solve the corruption. (Now we know that its not a corruption)

Then I thank: I'll boot with a db 2006 Live CD and manually remove the db6 reference from /etc/db. I boot with Live CD and mount the da2 linux partition via da Control Center. But I discover that I can't access any directory of the partition. Using Conqueror or trying via Console.

The new doubts are: Do I lost my Console? If the names of the devices were altered by Fedora's installation we can conclude that my original idea is not useful and/or can't be implemented?

I would like to read your opinion, guys.

If you can imagine a way of recover at least my Console with /etc/Console alteration, may you suggest a step-by-step way to do this?

Cheers

Console