Triple boot; XP/FC4/FC5

Regulus · 04-02-2006, 11:23 AM

Hi,

I was planning to upgrade my PC to FC5, dualbooting with Win XP. However, some of the programs I've been using are not yet available for FC5. Hence, I thought it would be good to have FC4 on my machine as well, as I can run these programs under this distribution.

From what I've read on these forums, it is unwise to share /home between the two Fedora's, and I don't think that not doing this is a big problem. However, has anybody tried anything like this before? Where can I expect problems, and what should I do with the bootloader?

Regards,
Regulus

Randux · 04-02-2006, 11:25 AM

Partition the drive according to your needs, install the new distro in the partition you allocated, then update the bootloader to include the new distro. Linux and *doze is the only complicated part. You already did that, now adding additional distros is a slam dunk.

kuitang · 04-02-2006, 11:55 AM

Partition so that both FCs have separate root partitions and do not share any other mount points. Then just add an entry to lilo.conf and update it by running /sbin/lilo.

Regulus · 04-03-2006, 02:58 PM

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. Sofar installing Windows and FC5 has been a piece of cake, but upon installing FC4 I run into problems.

Sofar, I've partitioned the drive as follows

Code:

/dev/hda1   20GB  HPFS/NTFS  Windows XP
/dev/hda2  100MB  ext3       /boot
/dev/hda3   20GB  LVM        Fedora Core 5
   LVM +    10GB  ext3       /
       +     1GB  swap
       +     9GB  ext3       /home

I had planned to use a LVM for Fedora Core 4 on /dev/hda4, also 20 GB, with the same setup as FC5. For the remaining disk space I had in mind to create a few GB vfat partition for sharing stuff between Windows and Linux and the rest as a share between the two Fedora's.

However, upon creating the partitions during the FC4 install, I cannot create a LVM on /dev/hda4. I'm not too familiar with partitioning, but I think the problem is that /dev/hda4 has to be extended, which may conflict with the idea of LVM.

Any ideas why I cannot create the LVM, and how should I solve the problem?

Regards,
Regulus

Randux · 04-04-2006, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regulus

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. Sofar installing Windows and FC5 has been a piece of cake, but upon installing FC4 I run into problems.

Sofar, I've partitioned the drive as follows

Code:

/dev/hda1   20GB  HPFS/NTFS  Windows XP
/dev/hda2  100MB  ext3       /boot
/dev/hda3   20GB  LVM        Fedora Core 5
   LVM +    10GB  ext3       /
       +     1GB  swap
       +     9GB  ext3       /home

I had planned to use a LVM for Fedora Core 4 on /dev/hda4, also 20 GB, with the same setup as FC5. For the remaining disk space I had in mind to create a few GB vfat partition for sharing stuff between Windows and Linux and the rest as a share between the two Fedora's.

However, upon creating the partitions during the FC4 install, I cannot create a LVM on /dev/hda4. I'm not too familiar with partitioning, but I think the problem is that /dev/hda4 has to be extended, which may conflict with the idea of LVM.

Any ideas why I cannot create the LVM, and how should I solve the problem?

Regards,
Regulus

The original post was asking a question about a bootloader. But you didn't post any feedback and now this is turning into a general "how do I install FC4 and LVM" thread. I don't know about LVM but if you can define one on hda3, then why isn't that enough?

I don't think 4 has to be extended, but if you don't make it extended, that's the end of your partition table. If you do, you can start logical partitions in 5 and beyond, but LVM may not support running in logical partition. Maybe someone else will know the answer.

Or you could just do a simple install of FC4 in hda5 and leave the LVM stuff for later.