Dual os problem in linux redhat

wainiew0823 · 07-07-2010, 09:33 PM

Hi im having trouble in installing dual os in my laptop. i'm currently running in windows 7, how come I can't detect my internal harddrive. when i tried to install Linux the external harddrive was recognize.

vikas027 · 07-07-2010, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wainiew0823

Hi im having trouble in installing dual os in my laptop. i'm currently running in windows 7, how come I can't detect my internal harddrive. when i tried to install Linux the external harddrive was recognize.

The easiest way what I have found is to have a dual boot is :-

1) Install Windows 7/XP/Vista e.t.c., such that you have a unformatted partition left.
Say you have a 160 GB Hard Disk, use C: drive as 20GB , D: Drive as 100GB. Then do not format the rest 40 GB.

2) Boot your machine from Linux Bootable DVD/CD.

3) When prompted to partition the Hard Disks for installation, use option "use free space and create deafult partition" It is something like that, I believe the third option.

Also, it would be easier for you if you plugin your external drive after making your system dual-boot.

wainiew0823 · 07-07-2010, 10:45 PM

yes, I already allot a free unformated in my harddisk but when I use free space and create default partition there no option if it is SDA. unless I insert the external harddrive

Kenny_Strawn · 07-07-2010, 10:53 PM

If the drive is formatted in anything other than NTFS or FAT you will have to reformat it to work in Windows unless you find a Windows driver for the file system the drive is formatted in.

vikas027 · 07-07-2010, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wainiew0823

yes, I already allot a free unformated in my harddisk but when I use free space and create default partition there no option if it is SDA. unless I insert the external harddrive

Ideally, this should not happen.

Which version of Linux are you trying to install ?

Are you sure you have unformatted disk ? That disk must not show in Windows. I am just confirming it.

wainiew0823 · 07-07-2010, 11:19 PM

redhat 5 sir. yes im sure sir 20gb of free space

vikas027 · 07-07-2010, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wainiew0823

redhat 5 sir. yes im sure sir 20gb of free space

Ok Wainiew, if you have unformatted/unallocated space and still it is not detecting, my knowledge stops here.

Lets wait for someone else to answer.

wainiew0823 · 07-07-2010, 11:46 PM

thank for your help sir, I appreciate it for noobs like me

tommyttt · 07-08-2010, 01:54 AM

Hi Wainiew
When you say your trying to install Redhat 5 is that RHEL 5 or the very old Redhat 5? I can't comment on either of those since I don't use them. What I would do, after installing windows, would be use a program like gparted with the external drive disconnected and be sure it sees the internal drive. It should show the free space as unallocated. Try formatting it as ext3. That tells you it is reachable with the computers hardware.

Gparted can be obtained as part of PartedMagic. Download that and burn it to a CD. Boot with it and click on the partitioning icon, that brings up gparted.

After you know the computer can see that partition, leave PartedMagic and boot from your installation media. It should now be able to find that partition to install to.

If that doesn't work, come back to this forum and ask some more.

Tom

saikee · 07-08-2010, 02:08 AM

Use a Linux Live CD and show us the output of

Code:

fdisk -l

to stop the confusion.
If an old Red Hat 5 and not RHEL then it would not be able to recognise a Sata disk without the assistance of a driver.

Think I have advise this kind of problem before. The trick is not to offer unallocated space to an installer but partitions created by a Linux tool so that they are automatically Type 83 suitable for Linux installation.

For 20Gb space I would use 1Gb for a swap and the rest for one partition for mounting /. Foregt about the LVM and separate /boot. So two partitions should suffice. swap created in Linux should have Type 82 ID.

wainiew0823 · 07-08-2010, 08:53 PM

@tommyttt
I'm current downloading it right now, I'll try to what you advice after the download.

@saikee
I'm using RHEL_5, I thought Redhat 5 and RHEL are the same sorry for the confusion. Where will can I find the type 82 and 83 ??

saikee · 07-09-2010, 02:19 AM

In any Linux partitioning tool the partition ID are always displayed.

Code:

saikee@saikee-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb327b327

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       36483   293049666    5  Extended
/dev/sda5               1         122      979902   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6             123       24437   195310206   83  Linux
/dev/sda7           24438       36483    96759463+  83  Linux

If you create a partition in Linux, say using cfdisk, fdisk, parted, or sfdisk etc, it will be automatically Type 83 but you always have the option of "type" to alter it to any of the 100+ different types supported by Linux. Most Linux partitioning tools in terminal display these 100+ partition type numbers as choices if you alter the type ID.

Code:

                                                                cfdisk (util-linux-ng 2.14.2)

                                                                    Disk Drive: /dev/sda
                                                             Size: 300090728448 bytes, 300.0 GB
                                                    Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 36483

       Name                    Flags                 Part Type            FS Type                         [Label]                      Size (MB)
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
       sda5                                           Logical             Linux swap / Solaris                                           1003.46            *

 01 FAT12                 12 Compaq diagnostics    4F QNX4.x 3rd part       81 Minix / old Linux     A8 Darwin UFS            E1 DOS access
 02 XENIX root            14 Hidden FAT16 <32M     50 OnTrack DM            82 Linux swap / Solaris  A9 NetBSD                E3 DOS R/O
 03 XENIX usr             16 Hidden FAT16          51 OnTrack DM6 Aux1      83 Linux                 AB Darwin boot           E4 SpeedStor
 04 FAT16 <32M            17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS      52 CP/M                  84 OS/2 hidden C: drive  B7 BSDI fs               EB BeOS fs
 05 Extended              18 AST SmartSleep        53 OnTrack DM6 Aux3      85 Linux extended        B8 BSDI swap             EE GPT
 06 FAT16                 1B Hidden W95 FAT32      54 OnTrackDM6            86 NTFS volume set       BB Boot Wizard hidden    EF EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
 07 HPFS/NTFS             1C Hidden W95 FAT32 (LB  55 EZ-Drive              87 NTFS volume set       BE Solaris boot          F0 Linux/PA-RISC boot
 08 AIX                   1E Hidden W95 FAT16 (LB  56 Golden Bow            88 Linux plaintext       BF Solaris               F1 SpeedStor
 09 AIX bootable          24 NEC DOS               5C Priam Edisk           8E Linux LVM             C1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-12)    F4 SpeedStor
 0A OS/2 Boot Manager     39 Plan 9                61 SpeedStor             93 Amoeba                C4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16 <   F2 DOS secondary
 0B W95 FAT32             3C PartitionMagic recov  63 GNU HURD or SysV      94 Amoeba BBT            C6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16)    FB VMware VMFS
 0C W95 FAT32 (LBA)       40 Venix 80286           64 Novell Netware 286    9F BSD/OS                C7 Syrinx                FC VMware VMKCORE
 0E W95 FAT16 (LBA)       41 PPC PReP Boot         65 Novell Netware 386    A0 IBM Thinkpad hiberna  DA Non-FS data           FD Linux RAID autodetec
 0F W95 Ext'd (LBA)       42 SFS                   70 DiskSecure Multi-Boo  A5 FreeBSD               DB CP/M / CTOS / ...     FE LANstep
 10 OPUS                  4D QNX4.x                75 PC/IX                 A6 OpenBSD               DE Dell Utility          FF BBT
 11 Hidden FAT12          4E QNX4.x 2nd part       80 Old Minix             A7 NeXTSTEP              DF BootIt
























         Enter filesystem type: 83

alli_yas · 07-09-2010, 03:39 AM

@wainiew0823

As an aside, why are you installing RHEL on your laptop? RHEL is enterprise commercial Linux; meaning its meant for server applications - and you require a subscription to deploy it.

If you're installing on your laptop to learn I suggest you install either CentOS (which is a RHEL clone but is free and supported) or Fedora (which contains the latest and greatest features that are planned for future RHEL releases).

I've also found that dual booting can be a painful exercise; and generally the best way I've found to do it is to install Windows first; and thereafter use Anaconda to shrink the Windows partition (though this is not a very precise method and you can break your Windows install).

My personal preference/suggestion is that if you can do this, rather don't dual boot; but run your Linux stand-alone.

saikee · 07-09-2010, 05:48 AM

alli_yas,

I have downloaded a RHEL from Distrowatch.com. Has to be a free version and not the current one.

Haven't used it much and it might have even got a sell-by date refusing to work after a period has expired.

I agree using CentOS is a safter bet if one is happy to stick with a 2.6.18 kernel while most of the others are onto kernal 2.6.33.

alli_yas · 07-09-2010, 06:43 AM

Quote:

I have downloaded a RHEL from Distrowatch.com. Has to be a free version and not the current one.

Haven't used it much and it might have even got a sell-by date refusing to work after a period has expired.

Not sure what version you downloaded, but it won't have an expiry date as such. Red Hat sells subscriptions as their licensing model that entitles you to full support and access to the latest updates.

The big thing about Red Hat is that if you don't have the subscription; your install will become out of date very quickly; versus CentOS; where you do have access to the latest updates from the CentOS support community.

Regarding the kernel version; RHEL/CentOS 5 uses 2.6.18 versus Fedora 13 which is currently on 2.6.33 - the choice of which to use depends on what you're trying to achieve.

If you're running the OS on a server/trying to simulate the behaviour of the server; its logical to chose the more stable RHEL/CentOS 5. However, for your own personal "playground" with the latest and greatest from Red Hat/Fedora; go with the latest Fedora 13.

Take note though that Fedora doesn't lend itself to being an "easy to use" distro (such as Ubuntu/Mint/etc) - having the latest applications means there'll be bugs and you have to be able to figure them out and fix them.