Triple Boot?

Mr Tickle · 05-03-2004, 05:34 AM

At the moment I have Win xp pro and Mdk 10. Since I can't get my IC working in mdk I'm thinking of installing another version of linux (which I don't know yet)

How would I go about doing that? I've heard that different distro's can share /home etc.

Here's what I've done. While in XP using partition magic I formatted 13G as Ext3 and then rebooted with mdk10 and installed using existing partitions. (the 13G one) AFAIK everything is in a single partition inc swap etc. I also made a boot floppy cos I didn't want lilo on my mbr.

I don't mind reinstalling mdk10 if needs be seeing as my speedtouch usb is playing up. (It works fine in mdk9.1) I would like to try Gentoo, Well anything other than mdk seeing as I want to keep mdk10.

Sorry for rambling on. Any help is appreciated

bruno buys · 05-03-2004, 06:21 AM

How much disk space is there left? You´d better remove mdk and install the other one. Don´t try gentoo. Try suse or redhat/fedora.

mbegovic · 05-03-2004, 09:22 AM

The Gentoo istallation is a great way to learn about the way your Linux system works. However, it is a really long and difficult process. If you are doing this with the aim of getting a single device working, maybe the three-day struggle to get everything up and running in Gentoo is not the way to go.

You should really have a primary swap partition, a /home partition, and a root partition for each Linux system.

mbegovic · 05-03-2004, 09:31 AM

Sorry. Just realized that I phrased my previous post kinda wrong. What I meant to say, of course, is ONE swap, ONE /home (to be shared), and separate root partitions for each.

Mr Tickle · 05-03-2004, 12:31 PM

My aim is to get mdk10 working properly I.e. an internet connection

And also have another distro to try out. What is gentoo like? Do I need to be a computer nerd to be able to use it?

Maybe I'll try suse 9 ?? or rh 9 then as a second linux os.

What's the best way for me to format the linux partition? Should I get partition magic to delete the linux partition creating free space and then get mdk to create the partitions from the installer? Will it create the /root, /home, swap and /share partitions for me?
If so how would I install the 2nd linux os sharing /home and swap? Would it try to overwrite mdk10?

Thanks

bruno buys · 05-03-2004, 12:58 PM

My aim is to get mdk10 working properly I.e. an internet connection

Ok, no prob.

And also have another distro to try out.

In the same harddisk?

What is gentoo like? Do I need to be a computer nerd to be able to use it?

Gentoo is not for the beginner. I don't know much about it, but people say it's great. But for the advanced.

Maybe I'll try suse 9 ?? or rh 9 then as a second linux os.

This is very reasonable.

What's the best way for me to format the linux partition?

It depends. Post here the output of the commands "df" and "cat /etc/fstab" for more details.

Should I get partition magic to delete the linux partition creating free space and then get mdk to create the partitions from the installer?

Do you still have win in the same disk? So, this disk will host three systems?

Will it create the /root, /home, swap and /share partitions for me?

When you say "/root" you should be meaning "/", right? "/root" is the home of the root user. The installer will do what you ask it to do. If you run the default partitioning scheme, it will do the easier thing, considering you already have two systems installed. If you run the expert partitioning, you will be able to edit manually every partition.

If so how would I install the 2nd linux os sharing /home and swap?

We'd better wait to see your df and fstab outputs, right?

Would it try to overwrite mdk10?

It's possible. But it will warn you, anyway.

Mr Tickle · 05-03-2004, 01:35 PM

Thanks.
I'll reboot to linux later. I'm downloading suse now. I'll try those commands and give you the output.
Yes by /root I meant / sorry

Here's some info on my filesystem:-
2 phyical drives. 1st partitioned as C, D and E. 2nd partitioned as F and Ext3 (created & formatted using Pmagic)

C, D, E and F are all ntfs The Ext3 is 13G I boot linux from a floppy so the mbr is standard MS.

bruno buys · 05-03-2004, 02:04 PM

Downloading suse? But suse releases no isos of their products. You mean the live evaluation cd?
If you are downloading live-eval cd's, beware that these cd's are designed for one to try and see what a linux is, and if it's gonna work ok on his system. But they can't be installed on the hd.

Mr Tickle · 05-03-2004, 02:56 PM

df output:-

Code:

[mrtickle@localhost mrtickle]$ df
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part5
                       12G  2.0G  8.6G  19% /
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
                       27G   12G   16G  42% /mnt/win_c
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part1
                      7.9G  6.1G  1.8G  78% /mnt/win_c2
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part5
                       49G  7.5G   42G  16% /mnt/win_d
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part6
                       40G   17G   23G  44% /mnt/win_e

and cat /etc/fstab output:-

Code:

[mrtickle@localhost mrtickle]$ cat /etc/fstab
/dev/hdb5 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom2 auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/win_c2 ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/win_d ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0
/dev/hda6 /mnt/win_e ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0

SuSE Sparc CD iso's 1 to 5 http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=2 Won't these install? I might have to get RH9 then.

bruno buys · 05-03-2004, 03:20 PM

No, friend, these sparc won't install on a pc. Sparc's are different kind of computer.
You see, there are several "architectures" a computer may be built with. The pc is the most popular, and is referred to as "x86". Other ones are:
ppc (powerPC)
Sparc
Alfa
IA64 (Intel Arch. 64bits)
MAC
etc etc...

Always when you look for software for your pc, you have to stick to the x86 options. the other ones are for different kinds of computer.

mbegovic · 05-03-2004, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bruno buys
What is gentoo like? Do I need to be a computer nerd to be able to use it?

Gentoo is not for the beginner. I don't know much about it, but people say it's great. But for the advanced.

That is not true. The Gentoo installation takes a long time and requires you to read plenty of material from the handbook. On the other hand, you are guided through the whole process very carefully. Gentoo tells you exactly what to type in and in what order.

Mr Tickle · 05-03-2004, 05:16 PM

Thanks Bruno Buys, I knew about ppc and ia64. You've saved me a big download

I'll continue to try and get my speedtouch working. And I'll try Gentoo... I only have time to lose

It looks like from the output I provided above that there's only a / partition for eveything.