Triple Boot, install problems...
 

I have RH/Fedora Core 1, Win XP Pro, and I just installed Mandrake 10.0 Commuity on another partition. Problem is Fedora will no longer boot. If I try it comes to a screen asking me do I want search for new hardware and has a little timer going. If I select yes, it appears to rediscover my ethernet card. If I let the timer go, it will attempt to boot but will come across errors, concerning an IP addy being in use, and some other jargon I can't nake sense of.

Now when I installed Mandrake I selected grub as the bootloader, because I heard that was the way to go. Hope I didn't hose the system. By the way, Mandrake and Windows boot fine. Only Fedora is giving me problems. Grub was the bootloader I used with Fedora which I guess was a more updated version because it was a little prettier. In any case, should I have installed them in a different order? Or should I have used another boot loader? I'm not opposed to reinstalling both Fedora and Mandrake if that will help. Wanted to salvage what I've already done so far though, if at all possible. O, and Fedora and Mandrake are on the same physical disk, just different partitions.

My apologies for the rammbling. Off to sleep I go.

I have installed as many as three GNU/Linux distro on the same system, and here is what worked for me. If I redcall correctly, I had RH on the machine, then added Mandrake, and later Debian (I think that was the order).

When I did the installs, I use the same swap partition for all three, and DID NOT install the bootloader. I used LILO, but that should not matter. After you install another distro, just modify lilo.conf (grub.conf) and add the kernels and partitions to boot.

If you let the installer put in a new boot loader, was my experience things did not work. See if your .conf files for RH and Fedora are still intact (/boot), and copy them into new entries for grub.conf.

Here's some info to read... http://thestarport.org/people/steve/...e-distros.html

Thanks for the suggestions. So, I open up Konsole in Mandrake and type "/boot"? If you can't tell I'm really bad with all these commands. I'm still not clear on how I would access my Fedora files if I can't boot into it. I will try some more when I get back home though. Thanks again.

I'm willing to start over and reinstall both Mandrake and Fedora, which actually looks like the least stressful way to go right now. If I did that, is it possible to have them share the same partition? If not, no biggie but to make sure I have the rest of the steps down...


1) Install Fedora and use the Grub Bootloader...

2)Install Mandrake and DO NOT choose to install a bootloader...or DO choose one (Grub?) just don't install it to the MBR?

3)Go back into Fedora and somehow add an entry for Mandrake in Grub?

4)Installations complete, hard part should be over, right?

-Later folks, thanks for the help. 1 day till I can get that "Linux for Dummies" book. Can you believe it's $30? Anyway, peace.

Ok,Ok here's where I get mad. I tried starting over from scratch installing Fedora first, then Mandrake. Fedora went in but I couldn't reinstall Mandrake because it kept running into errors installing packages, UNTIL I let it erase the Fedora partition. My thinking there was Fedora would let me reinstall with little difficulty. That appeared to work, sort of. Now I can't boot into Fedora (I added it to the Lilo bootloader screen) What will happen is it will keep coming up with this hardware config screen, after getting numerous errors while booting up. No matter if I let it try to install my hardware or ignore it will hang at this black screen saying it's trying to start something, I just forgot exactly what that quick!!UGggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

I tried it installing Madrake first, then Fedora but MAndrake wont work, constantly booting to this command line screen, wanting me to enter........something. What? I have no idea.So no matter which one I try to install first, the other wont work, They will indenpently though, telling me I'm setting something up wrong.

Suggestions? I'm really anxious to get this thing working........

I have partition magic at my disposal,and of all things my Windows partition is the only thing that is working ok, for right now. I am willing to start over again. Can someone tell me the easiest way that isn't dependent on Terminal? Or the least terminal dependent way? Terminal isn't my friend right now..........

I've been over at least 10 hours of tutorials and googling,and asking God.......all led to nothing on this one.

Help:(

If they work independently of each other, you're having no trouble installing them. It seems to be a Lilo config issue. Why don't you post the contents of /etc/lilo.conf? Maybe we can spot something.

BTW, dude, 'Linux for Dummies'?! Try O'Reilly's 'Running Linux'. It's expensive, but worth it (if you're the book-learning type).

Ok, i will post it later, it's payday so you know I'll be out :)....Anyways I'll check out that book too, hope it isn't too expensive. I just wanted ot get the "For Dummies" book becuase it breaks everything down on a real basic level, which I will need for this. I may end up getting both books though.....Thanks again, though. Later.

Um, I ran "vi /etc/lilo.conf" and here's what I came up with.

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
default="linux-smp"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/hda3
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hda3
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
"/etc/lilo.conf" 48L, 1063C

Please let me know if I did something wrong. I hope this helps you, help me.....

-Still working at it..............G'night to all

O, mbegovic, I ordered that book like you suggested. It got some really good reviews on Amazon, and it was only $19 (Well, $25 after shipping) I'll begin with the "For Dummies" book and work my way up. Thanks again.

O, and I forgot to tell you. MY Fedora partition is on hda6, and my Fat32 partition is on hdb2. I was trying to get these mounted, when I boot up Mandrake & Fedora.Thanks again.

triple boot issues
 

I have nearly the same issue so any help here would be good, I also bought Linux for Dummies (me) and Linux in a nutshell, I think I will also start with LFD and work up.

My issue is I have 3 primary partitions,

1 - win 98 - 10GB
2 - Linspire 4.5 10GB
3 - Mandrake 10 ce 60GB

I want to keep linspire as the new kernel comes out on the distro by September, and that is where I started, although I prefer Mandrake, unfortunately in Linspire CNR I paid for the years membership and the win4lin in Linspire (can anyone tell me how I can rip these to Mandrake)

As I understand it there appears to be an issue between the 2 distros Lin and Man, with lilo and grub,

I can boot 98 and mandrake fine, after I ran an update from the cd and reinstalled the mbr (grub) but Linspire does not appear in the mbr, how do I make it appear...!!!!!!


"you are young but you will learn grasshopper"

:scratch:

STILL AT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I reinstalled Mandrake and I still have Fedora stitting on a seperate partition, not knowing how to get it working. What I was thinking was maybe I should reinstall Fedora, giving it it's own swap file? I say this cuz whenever I install, it wants to format my Mandrake swap file, but I always de-select that. Anyone think that might do it?

Also, when resintalling Fedora, what mount point should I give it? I though I could just reinstall it, GET IT WORKING, then edit my Grub menu in Madrake.

Suggestions please.

Ok so here's where i am now, I triedd giving Red Hat it's own partition, and IT's own swap file, still no luck. It boots to this screen to detect my hardware then after I hit enter a couple of times to progress through the process, it hangs on a black screen,saying it's trying to startup. What I thinkk I will try next is giving Fedora it's own partition, and swap file on my secondary HD. Still looking for suggestions to get this going though. I would appreciate any input.