I want to install FC2 for someone with WinXP and they're kind attached to XP. I just want to know what are the chances that I will destroy their partion table.

Thank you.

None whatso ever. (unless you format the partition, which is not much likely as you will be prompted twice before doing that.)

Just follow the installation (use anaconda - graphical installation)

Easy as windows.

If at any time you lose access to win xp, just bot from win xp cd and fixmbr.

I have installed FC1, RH9, RH8 and have never had problems. At least not such, that I couldn't solve. And if you just follow the anaconda installer, you will be good, without risk.

I would be more careful than the above poster makes it sound. Kernel 2.6 handles things differently, and there *is* a problem with the installer, but nobody is quite sure what exactly is causing it, and what the fix/workaround is. I've been reading up on this bug today as I prep for my FC2 upgrade.

Apparently you *can* hose your partition table and XP won't boot, and using the XP install CD to repair/fixmbr doesn't work either. Lots of stories about good linux folks need to reinstall XP from scratch.

I, too, have installed dual-boot setups on machines from RH6.2 through FC1, and this bug has me pretty nervous. I was going to put FC2 on my girlfriend's machine (in some extra unpartitioned space I've been reserving...) but she'd kill me if it screwed up XP. So, I'm gonna wait.

Honestly, I'm disappointed that this bug wasn't resolved before FC2 when final. It apparently surfaced in Test 1, but never got closed.

Be patient, I'm sure more will be learned, soon. In fact, I wonder if there will be a FC2.1 final after this gets fixed. Having this bug active for 6 months on the ISOs isn't a good thing.

True this is not a good thing... but if it were fixed and FC2 was re-released it would be 2.2 not 2.1 because even number releases are generally the "stable" versions and odd numbers are generally "current" releases...

I just finished downloading it... I downloaded disc 1 & 2 at about 6:30 this morning from the duke mirror because the Fedora site hadn't been changed to allow access... and my simultaneous downloads finished in about an hour and a half... (Cable Internet)... and when I got home from college at around 1:30 i tried to finish with discs 3 & 4 and i couldn't get anything higher than 10K downloads!!! even torrent was going at like .08K

But I kept trying different mirrors and finally tried the kernel.org mirror and was getting like 190K which was surprising because of all the bandwodth flooding of today...

So i now have all 4 discs... probably going to install tomorrow...

But if anyone wants to know know a fast mirror... try kernel.org it worked great for me...

I just did an install of FC 2 next to Win XP and had no problems at all with it. No fixmbr problems, nothing. If you stickto the instructions, you will be just fine

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/....cgi?id=115980

Its a good read, but there's still know resolution AFAIK.

I too have been doing alot of bugzilla reading, hence my post. I have a few questions.

1) are all HDD's at risk?
2) are windows 98/ME and Win2k at risk?
3) is it just an NTFS prob and if so is vfat safe?
4) I understand that the prob stems from a change at the kernel level but will there be a fix soon?

I was just about to introduce a business man to linux. I have been anxiously awaiting FC2 for weeks. Luckily, while /. ing i came across the bugzilla report. And to tell you the truth is has me very scared. Thats not a good first impression. And I really can't risk it. Right now I'm even afraid to install FC2 on my workstation as I tripple boot WinME - Win2k - Fedora (current FC1).

Also I have a box coming, on which I want to go fully Linux. I'm aware that the inabilty to dual boot issue is just a side effect of a bigger problem, so while I'm sure my clean install will boot, will the partion table still be damaged?

Thank you.

Damn, that seems like a major bug. I might hold off on installing FC2 until a fix is published...

Anyone know if resizing the ntfs partition and adding the Linux partitions before the actual FC2 installation would avert the problem?

pls clarify this,
1) does this affect only kernel 2.6? if so is there any option during installation to use kernel 2.4 as default?
2) does it affect if xp is on extended partition and fc2 on primary partition or vice versa?
3) will installing xp with fat32 solve the problem?
i am interested in trying both fc2 and mdk10, but this bug has terrified me.

We might all want to readup on the bugzilla report.

As far as I understand the problem only affects kernel 2.6. The rest I am igonrant on.

I too am terrified. I can't afford such a waste of time or HDD rigth now, yet I have a few projects for which I've been waiting for FC2.

Just to let you guys know that my WinXP partition in my primary HD went busted when I installed FC2 .. I've no idea what went wrong or of this is coincident .. I'm yet to recover the partition but most probably I'll just reinstall WinXP from scratch again (tho I hardly use it ..).

Checking the bugzilla, it seems FC2 caused it .. here is one of quoted text which I was getting ..

Forget the ntfs scare. I have a more annoying problem. I have just installed FC2 with no problems, however I use FAT32 and have no need for XP(so if it is gone, I don't care, but nothing happened to Win XP during my installation).

However I have this other annoying problem. During installation and after it, my mouse doesn't work. The installer recognizes it as a 3 button mouse. It is actually a Wheel mouse with 2 buttons. I have not had any luck making it work yet. But I feel optimistic. It started to work for one session and stopped again, so I am confused.

Report: Perfect install with FC2 on second hard drive...WinXP with NTFS on hda...no problems with bootloader or MBR. This must be a HARDWARE issue or a certain set of conditions. After I get my big system configured, I have the same thing to do with my LAPTOP, and both OS's will be on the same drive. We'll see...

Marghorp,

I saw this once on my pc after installing either Core 1 final, or Core 2 test 3 (it was a late night, i forget which). Agreed, it's strange behaviour, but I couldn't reproduce it on later installs or even be definite about what i was installing to cause it, but managed to fix it pretty quickly.

After booting, I was able to find my way to the mouse hardware options by using the keyboard, and from there select a generic scroll mouse and save the changes. After that, the mouse immediately began working, without restarting/logging out. I can't remember exactly what went wrong, but i recall seeing two possible "generic scroll mouse" options in the mouse hardware panel, and i think it was the lower one in the list that was selected by default after installing. In my case, picking the "other one" worked.

I know this is a bit vague - sorry. Maybe someone else might recognize these symptoms and be able to advise. I'm new to this, and haven't yet earned my penguin-wings, but maybe text the above might help.

Also, cheers to everyone in these forums - thanks to you lot, I'm armed to the teeth with RPMs, FAQs and suchlike to aid me in my quest. The newbie learning curve is quite steep but after a week of late nights and fretting over partition geometry things are going quite smoothly now

Use Alt+F1 to open up the menu, then go to System Tools (or Settings?) to open a GNOME Terminal. Then type system-config-mouse and fiddle around until it works consistently.

Use WinXP's System Information tool to find which tty the mouse uses (COM1/2/3)