Hello,

I have A system with 2 350 gb hards that are stripped raid. This is hardware raid.

I currently have 5 partitions, Windows XP Service 2 on one, Windows 2003 Server on one, School on one, Applications on one, and Web Development one another one.

I currently have about 325 gb hard disk left. I want to install Solaris 10 and need to know how and how much disk space is needed. I will also be installing Fedora and Suse and I am concerned because grub takes over.

Can someone point me in the right direction, or to a web site to help with this.

Thank you
Dee

First make sure your H/W raid is understood by Solaris.

It would help to know how is that free space available, and specifically if you have one primary partition slot available.

325 GB should be enough

Install S10 update 1 or Solaris Express, its grub will be able to boot all of them.

The free space is not partitioned at all and I don/t want to use it all, I was thinking of using at least 20 gb each for Solaris, Fedora and Suse. Hard drives are striped raid 0. I have not installed Fedora, Suse or Solaris yet, but Have them. I do not know which to install first.

I have installed Fedora before on another computer and grub took over.

Do I partition first? Do I install Fedora and Suse without Grub and then use Solaris grub? Do I now have to download Solaris 10 update 1 or Express?

Thank you again
Dee

Sounds OK.
Doesn't tell if Solaris has support for your raid H/W.
Doesn't matter that much, but be aware that Solaris requires a primary partition, so make sure preserving one.
Can you elaborate.
That makes sense.
You can have all grubs installed.
That's your choice, you do not tell why you want to install Solaris, for what purpose ...

My raid not hardware I have been told, it is software. The software raid is NVIDIA.
When I tried to install Fedora on this system we are talking about Grub would not let me get to windows, I had to uninstall it and going into both windows login and fix the boot.ini to make it work again.

Sounds like I have to create a partition for Solaris before installing it, Fedora and Suse tries to use free space.

I am installing thest because I just finished certificattions in CIW, going to Linux and Unix next. I have used both in my working environments, but need the certifications.

Thank you
Dee

Looks very much hardware RAID to me, not software ...
Grub can pass control to windows boot.
So does Solaris.
You overlook the Solaris primary partition requirement, though.

OK, based on your last replay I believe you suggest that I install Fedora and Suse doing a manualy partition with them, but do not use grub. Then install Solaris doing a manual partition but use grub to access all the operating environments. Is this correct?

Dee

I'm repeating myself, you are missing Solaris primary partition requirement.

You wrote you have 5 partitions on the initial system, but do not explain what is your current partition table, and the expected one once all O/Ses are installed.

I have 5 partition tables currently, all the rest 325 GB is free space, and has not been partitioned. There is partition for Windows XP, one for Windows 2003 Server. The other three are not operating system partitions. This is what I is was asking if I should partition as I do the installs. I know with Fedora and Suse even though I have all this free space I can manually partition the size I want those two to be.

Thank you
Dee

By design, there can be only 4 primary partitions, known as fdisk partitions.
When you use logical partitions, you loose at least one of the primaries.
As you seem to ignore what is your current partition layout, I'm assuming XP and 2003 are both using their own primary and that what you call the non operating system partitions are three logical partitions on a same primary slot.
If you want to install two Linux and one Solaris distribution, you have to make sure the linux ones are going to logical partitions on the same slot as the windows ones, and that a primary slot is kept free for Solaris.

Yes, that is my set up. The windows partitions are primary and the other partitions are logical. I assume during the installation of the two linux distributions that manually setting them I can make them logical. I will then create another primary partition of Solaris.

I think this is what you are stating. I also thiink do not use grub the the linux distributions, only for the solaris distribution and with this I can access all the operation system. I created a bitmap of my disk manaager, but see no way I can attach it.

Thank you
Dee

Sounds OK.
Don't forget to backup any important data you have, just in case, as playing with partition tables and installing O/Ses can prove destructive ...

I would like to thank you so much for all your help. I will working on doing this Monday evening and let you know how things wents.

Again, thank you for you help, understanding and patience.
Dee

You are welcome

I have one more questions to ask before I do this install tonight. My system is sada raid0. Does this make any difference.

Thanks
Dee