I have a 250 gig primary drive with XP. I have a 400 gig Slave drive 250 gig NTFS partition for data backups. 150 gig for Linux. The 150 gig extended partitions are split into 12 partitions. Each having a 19 gig root partition and a 2 gig swap file. I want to keep everything intact using one of partitions for OpenSolaris. I also want grub to be on the root partition. I will be using Windows XP to boot to that partition. I use boot part to get this part done. Can anyone give some guidance here. I've been looking for install steps but are coming up short on what I want to do.

First point - you should onl;y need one swap partition - all your distros should eb able to use the wrong one.

Not sure here, but does Solaris need to be on a primary partition?

Do you mean you want to chainload to various grub installs on each partition?

Edit - first line should have said same one, not wrong one.

First point - you should only need one swap partition - all your distros should be able to use the wrong one? Answer: Swaps don't concern me at this time.

Not sure here, but does Solaris need to be on a primary partition? Answer: If it does I have one available.

Do you mean you want to chainload to various grub installs on each partition? Answer: No Bootpart takes care of all that for you. It finds the Linux partition that you want to use and updates your boot.ini file for you. The best part is it's free software.

Question again: If I load OpenSolaris on a primary partition can grub be installed to that root partition? And if so is there a detailed install instructions to guide me thru it.

So you do want to chainload (or whatever the Bootpart terminology is) to various grub installs? Aren't you saying you want grub on the solaris partition for Bootpart to call?

Have you tried doing a grub-install onto the solaris partition? I haven't played with solaris for a bit, but I gather that grub can boot solaris natively, although that isn't quite the same thing

I really haven't tried alot yet because the install process is much different than the other distros that i have installed. That's why I am looking for some detailed install instructions to fit what I want to do.

You can't do that. Solaris requires a primary partition. OpenSolaris even prefer a whole disk.
Solaris enhanced Grub is required to boot OpenSolaris.
?

Originally Posted by harley51
I have a 250 gig primary drive with XP. I have a 400 gig Slave drive 250 gig NTFS partition for data backups. 150 gig for Linux. The 150 gig extended partitions are split into 12 partitions. Each having a 19 gig root partition and a 2 gig swap file. I want to keep everything intact using one of partitions for OpenSolaris.

You can't do that. Solaris requires a primary partition. OpenSolaris even prefer a whole disk.

(Can OpenSolaris be put on a 20 gig primary partition)

Quote:
I also want grub to be on the root partition.

Solaris enhanced Grub is required to boot OpenSolaris.

(True but can Grub be put on the root primary partition)

Please use proper quote tags, your reply is hard to read.


Sure.
Grub is always installed on the Solaris partition.

Is there install instructions on how to do this.

Yes:
http://dlc.sun.com/osol/docs/content/IPS/roadmap.html

I give you my experience, I hope it helps you

I used linux to do partition on my disk ( you can do it on more disk too) : 1 primary partition ( say part 1) reserved for xp
1 primary partition for solaris ( say part 2) choose format bf (you'll find it linux fdisk)
install linux, no matter on primary ( say part 3) or logical, declare swap as logical, it will not be seen from soalris to avoid confusion.

if you install solaris after linux, the MBR will be destroyed by solaris and no menu for linux, wile windows is visible. NO PROBLEM with linux.

You reboot with linux CD1, as if you want to install, after detection of HD, use the shell, change terminal (ctrl+F2) , mount you linux partition
mkdir tt
mount /dev/hda3 tt
chroot tt
add to the grub/menu.list the same lines as for Windows, just change title ane the partition.
then run
grub-install /deb/hda ( or /dev/sda if you have scsi disk)

That's all, you 'll get menu for both linux and solaris and Xp if it is installed


good luck

bela

Thanks for sharing.

Alternatively, for the grub part, you can simply add the Linux menu entry to Solaris grub menu.lst. Better to save it on an USB key or a sheet of paper before installing (Open)Solaris as it can't read ext2fs by default.