Is it possible to boot a third os on a 3 HD system?

meshullam · 01-12-2006, 03:32 PM

I have a system with 3harddrives. I already had Windows XP and Mandrake Linux 10.1 installed. Mandrake Linux and Windows XP are on IDE 0. I installed Fedora Core 4 on Drive 1. Although my boot up offers a choice between Fedora 4 or Windows XP I am not able to boot Mandrake Linux. Is there a way that I can have the choice of booting any one of the three on a menu? I only show the partition I installed Fedora 4 on and I have no idea how to mount my other drives none of the documentation has been very clear and I would like to access to all 3 choices and to see access the other hard drive files even when using Fedora 4. Any help would be appreciated.
I installed Fedora 4 because I wanted to install oracle 10g express.

Thank you

Ken

saikee · 01-12-2006, 03:46 PM

Of course you can. Here is a small proof

You haven't supplied the Mandrake root partition so I assume it is in 2nd disk 3rd partition or hdb3 for showing the commands. Adjust to suit your own circumstance. This is what you need to do

(1) Boot up Fedora

(2) Make a temporary directory in /mnt of Fedora, mount Mandrake partition and then change root into Mandrake

Code:

mkdir /mnt/temp
mount /dev/hdb3 /mnt/temp
chroot /mnt/temp

(3) You are now inside Mandrake. As Mandrake can use either Lilo or Grub so I give both commands for you to replicate Mandrake's boot loader in its root partition hdb3. Can try both as one should work

Code:

grub-install /dev/hdb3
lilo -b /dev/hdb3
exit

(4) The exit statement should bring you back to Fedora. You then edit its /boot/grub/menu.lst with addition of these lines

Code:

title My Mandrake in hdb3
root (hd1,2)
chainloader +1

To Grub (hd1,2) means 3rd partition of 2nd disk as Grub counts from 0.

Fedora should boot Mandrake on a reboot.

meshullam · 01-12-2006, 05:55 PM

Mandrake linux is on the first hard drive partition 1, windows xp is on the first hard drive partition 2 and on the second hard drive the first partition is a swap partition the second is \home and the 3rd partition is Fedora core 4. I am not sure I understand the commands you listed as I am still new to the command line in terminal mode.\

Ken

saikee · 01-12-2006, 06:24 PM

On account of your assertion Mandrake is in 1st partition of 1st disk then my edited commands are

(1) Boot up Fedora

(2) Make a temporary directory in /mnt of Fedora, mount Mandrake partition and then change root into Mandrake

Code:

mkdir /mnt/temp 
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/temp 
chroot /mnt/temp

(3) You are now inside Mandrake. As Mandrake can use either Lilo or Grub so I give both commands for you to replicate Mandrake's boot loader in its root partition hda1. Can try both as one should work

Code:

grub-install /dev/hda1 
lilo -b /dev/hda1 
exit

(4) The above "exit" statement should bring you back to Fedora. You then edit its /boot/grub/menu.lst with addition of these lines

Code:

title My Mandrake in hda1 
root (hd0,0) 
chainloader +1

To Grub (hd0,0) means 1st partition of 1st disk as Grub counts from 0. Fedora should boot Mandrake on a reboot
--------------
More explanation

To mount another operationg system on the filing structure is a essential technique because the commands are identical to one if you wish to see XP partition.

Change root is a Linux command whereby you can "hoop" from Linux A to Linux B. Linux A is Fedora and Linux B is Mandrake here. As you are inside Mandrake you can ask Mandrake to install its boot loader inside the root paartition of hda1 because your MBR is already in use, right?

Fedora's standard boot loader is Grub and Grub's configuration file is always called menu.lst stored in /boo/grub directory. If you edit that file you are in a position to tell Grub what to do. The /boot/grub/menu.lst can be edited in Fedora desktop. Click home and search for it. Use Gedit to change the file.

If a Linux has a boot loader inside its partition it can be "chainloaded" which is the easiest way to boot up a Linux. Every Linux boots XP by chainloading.

You have to come down to play around a bit in the command mode. That is where all the action is!

meshullam · 01-13-2006, 12:52 PM

Well I tried several things and now I cannot get windows to boot up anymore and when I try to boot up mandrake linux it says i have to update e2fsck!
I do not know how to do that. When trying to boot Mandrake 10.1 it says filesystem has unsupported features get a newer version of e2fsck!

on drive hda1 is my mandrake boot
hda2 is my windows os fat32
hdb5 says windows must be storage
hdb6 is supposed to be my mandrake linux \home files ext 2
hdb7 is Fedora core ext 2
Is there anything I can do I have reinstalled Fedora as a ext2 it used to be ext3.
I used mandrake to try to fix windows boot from my rescue disk it did not work. I can only boot Fedora now and I have a lot of important files in Window Xp Pro. I don't mind if I have to reinstall Mandrake linux 10.1 but I don't want to lose my windows files.

Thank you

Ken

saikee · 01-13-2006, 02:33 PM

You will not lose 1 byte of your XP pro. But I would be very careful in any installation from now on.

TO solve the problem we need you to establish the following?

(1) The partitioning scheme of all three disks so that we wouldn't give out the wrong instructions. Boot up Fedora, click system tools/terminal and then type

Code:

fdisk -l

and cut and paste the content to here.

(2) Establish the booting order of your 3 disks the way Grub sees them. To do this you list Fedora's /boot/grub/device.map here.

(3) The booting confguration file of Fedora and Mandrake. For Fedora it is in /boot/grub/menu.lst. SO list it here.

You haven't confirmed what kind of boot loader you Mandrake uses so I give you instructions to list both Lilo and Grub as one of them will yield result.

To do this you make a temporary directory in /mnt of Fedora, mount the Mandrake partition as before

Code:

mkdir /mnt/temp 
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/temp

You then list the content of either

/mnt/temp/boot/grub/menu.lst

or

/mnt/temp/etc/lilo.conf

The two files will help us to understand if there is any problem in booting up Mandrake and Windows.

Lastly can you make a booting tool - the most lethal booting weapon in booting - a bootable Grub floppy. You do this while inside Fedora.

You first locate the directory Fedora stores Grub's stage1 and stage2, you then change directory to it, pop in a floppy and use Linux "dd" command to write the stage1 and stage2 at the boot sector of the floppy. Cammands are

Code:

find / -name stage1

Don't use the one in /boot/grub. The directory you should change to should be something like

Code:

cd /usr/share/grub/i386-readhat

To copy the boot loader across the dd commands are

Code:

dd if=stage1 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
dd if=stage2 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1

There is no PC system alive I know that cannot be booted by this Grub floppy !

Let us know when you are ready.

meshullam · 01-14-2006, 06:49 PM

My hard drive 0 Hda2 where had windows xp is showing 'no filesystem' under the hardware browser all my other drive and partitions still show. Does that mean windows is gone? I managed to save all my important files on my third drive so if I have to reinstall windows to that partition it will be ok.

meshullam · 01-14-2006, 06:51 PM

I also forgot to tell you that lilo is the bootloader for my mandrake linux 10.1 on hda1 partition 1

Thank you

Ken

meshullam · 01-14-2006, 07:00 PM

Disk /dev/hda: 20.4 GB, 20491075584 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2646 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 678 5125648+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 679 2645 14870520 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/hdb: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 64 514048+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb2 65 12161 97169152+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5 65 5164 40965718+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/hdb6 6440 12161 45961933+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb7 5165 6439 10241406 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/hdd: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12921 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdd1 * 1 12921 97682728+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

This is what my drives look like
Ken

saikee · 01-14-2006, 07:29 PM

You can see your XP by mounting it in either Fedora or Mandrake with command

Code:

mkdir /mnt/hda2
mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2

You can then go the the Graphic desktop to play the MP3 music and check your photos in XP partition mounted in /mnt/hda2.

Instructions in Post #6 are compatible with your hard ware information should be OK to proceed.