Stop Microsoft
Operating Systems => Linux and UNIX => Topic started by: Crunchy(Cracked)Butter on 28 November 2002, 18:25
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I want to triple boot with WinME SuSE and RedHat on my laptop, anybody has a preference or an ideal way of installing these 3, of course i know windows has to go first but what then?
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I suppose it comes down to which boot loader you want, and whose looks best. Obviously you are going to use a RH Grub or the one used by Suse.
I really doesn't matter.
Create a boot part. of 100MB
Create you home, you will be able to share this all round - But remember that if you create EXACTLY the same user names on a shared Home then KDE and GNOME setups will have some strangeness going on.
create you first root and swap. Install a distro.
Then install a second distro.
Do not re-format Home or boot. Swap is shared with all distros.
Create a new root for your next distro. Make boot disks.
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Which version of SuSE do you plan to use?
If it's 8.0 I would go with Red Hat as last install, I've had some freaky experiences with SuSE's Lilo in the past, whereas Mandrake and RH gave me no probs at all (with the bootloader that is).
Since SuSE 8.1 uses Grub as default I don't know if there's any improvement over 8.0 with Lilo.
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My SuSE version is 8.1 and its uses grub as far as i know.
What i was thinking was creating 3 partitions on the laptop, 10GB for windows, 5GB for SuSE and 5GB for RH all using Fdisk. This not a good idea first?
If i am to create a shared home then i'm gonna need an idiot proof guide to tell me.
Can i do all this with Fdisk, create home and boot?
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quote:
Originally posted by Linux Frank:
I suppose it comes down to which boot loader you want, and whose looks best. Obviously you are going to use a RH Grub or the one used by Suse.
I really doesn't matter.
Create a boot part. of 100MB
Create you home, you will be able to share this all round - But remember that if you create EXACTLY the same user names on a shared Home then KDE and GNOME setups will have some strangeness going on.
create you first root and swap. Install a distro.
Then install a second distro.
Do not re-format Home or boot. Swap is shared with all distros.
Create a new root for your next distro. Make boot disks.
Actually, using the same account name is no problem, using the same home directory is.
<OT>
Makes me think - if directory /foo is owned by user AJ, with uid 2, and the partition containing directory /foo is mounted by another system, where Miranda has pid 2, is the directory then effectively owned by Miranda or is it protected otherwise?
</OT>
Anyway, share /home and /boot, and if you want some other directories used by all distros make a partition for those too. Swap should of course be shared. /, /usr, /var, /etc, /bin, /sbin, dev and all those are best kept apart, they'll probably conflict, and are sure to cause confusion. Do remeber though that /tmp should be sharable.
I'd do a 4/4/8/4 split (or something close), with 4 for Win. 4 for secondary distro, 8 for primary distro, and 4 for shared disks (between the distros - fat disks are hell). But that's just me ofcourse. Those parts could be sub-divided in partitions.
Win should be installed first. Fdisk can be used for creating partitions after that, if you want.
I'd put /boot on a primary partition, as well as windows. The rest can be put on logical drives on an extended partition (with 1 primary partition to spare. Use it for a / if you want to).
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Okay i've installed Redhat all byitself only because windows burped and died on me while i was at college, all i did was change my preference from single to double click! Now it won't even boot. Anyway i got everything off the drive via SuSE.
Now everything is wiped from the drive and RH is installed, infact i am posting now with it. The ony problem with this installation so far is the sound doesn't work, no biggy but i'm hoping somebody will help me on this?
Anyway, this installation was just a test to see if everything worked. Back onto the topic at hand.
People who have posted with helpful suggestions i thank you, however the suggestions have gone over my head so i'm going to play with FDisk and seperate my HDD into 3 drives instead. 10GB for win and 5GB each for both linuxes. These swap partitions you guys talk about is making me scared in doing anything, anyway can i do this or is this what you guys mean?
Drive 1/windows
Drive 2/linux swap (768MB Shared) /dev/hda3 (i think)
Drive 3/boot partition (SuSE) /dev/hda1 (i think)
Drive 4/root (SuSE) /dev/hda2 (i think)
Drive 5/boot partition (Redhat) /dev/hdb1 (i think)
Drive 6/root (Redhat) /dev/hdb2 (i think)
If i have got this wrong then please tell me.
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Do not use the Microsoft FDISK to create the Linux partition. Just install Windows but make sure your Windows partition is small enough so you have room for the other distros. Then use the partitioning software in the installation process of the other distros, again leaving enough unpartitioned space for the next one.
You do want a swap partition but it can be shared by both Linux installations, no need for a separate one for each. The size depends on your RAM. Here is what I would recommend depending on how much RAM you have:
128MB - 256MB swap
256MB - 256MB or 512MB swap
512MB - 512MB swap
You will also create this during the installation of the the other OSs. As far as the boot loader goes you should also be able to use the same /boot partition for each distro as well (just don't select "format" when it comes to the "/boot" partition on the second Linux install). So your partition table would be something like this:
/dev/hda1 - VFAT/Windows - However big you want
/dev/hda2 - /boot ext3 - ~75MB
/dev/hda3 - swap swap - See note above
/dev/hda4 - / for Linux 1 ext3 - However much you want to give it
/dev/hda5 - / for Linux 2 ext3 - However much you want to give it.
This *should* work.
You should end up with two kernels in your /boot, you may have to add an entry in the boot menu for the first kernel/distro after installing the second distro. In fact after installing the first distro and before installing the second distro make a copy of your "grob.conf" or "lilo.conf" depending on which boot loader you are using. You can use the info from that after installing the second distro if you need it.
[ November 28, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
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Okay i will check it out and try it. RH did allow me to boot other OS'es if needed and there was a menu in which to select them.
I take it i create all these partitions with the first installation and then with the second installation (with RH) i can just select the empty space i created yes?
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Well the only way you "create" open space is by deleting partitions. You don't want to do that. You just want to do a normal installation but don't do an "automatic partitioning" setup. Do a manual partitioning setup with "Disk Druid" (in RedHat).
Set up your partitions manually with Disk Druid, two of them will already be created (/boot and swap) so you only have to selecte those. Use "/boot" as the mount point on the existing "/boot" partition that you created in Mandrake but do not format it. Use the SWAP partition that you created in Mandrake as the SWAP partition in RedHat by selecting it in Disk Druid. The only partition you should have to create at this point since it is your last OS is the "/" partition with the remaining free space. I hope I have explained this well enough, maybe not.
Don't spend a lot of time configuring anything on any of the OSs until you are sure you have all three of them booting the way you want. Then configure to your hearts content.
[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
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Okay this is what i have done.
installed windows and SuSE. and it looks like this:
Hard Drives
\/ MountPoint|Type|Format|Size(MB)|Start|End
/dev/hda1| vfat| 9782| 1| 1247
/dev/hda2| swap| yes| 737| 1248| 1341|
/dev/hda3| reiserfs| 4299| 1342| 1889|
/dev/hda4| EXTENDED| 4259| 1890| 2432|
/dev/hda5| /boot| ext3| yes| 102| 1890| 1902
/dev/hda6| /| ext3| yes| 4142| 1903| 2430
I will install RH on hda6.
Thing is, how would i boot SuSE? it doesn't have a /boot as you can see, the ones in bold is what i created with RH. I'm thinking Suse's boot is with hda4 but i don't know. Anybody explain? I'm gonna need to leave the laptop as it is until i am totally sure.
After the partition screen there is the option to boot other Oses, only windows was detected, i manually selected Suse to try it and would i correct if i selected hda3 since there doesn't seem to be another boot point?
[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: Crunchy(Cracked)Butter ]
[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: Crunchy(Cracked)Butter ]
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Well you should have been able to create a /boot partition in SuSe just as you have in RedHat. Not to worry though. All you should have to do is copy your SuSe kernel to the RedHat /boot partition and copy SuSe's GRUB kernel section into a GRUB entry in RedHat. No sweat. Create a directory called "/suse" in RedHat, then mount the SuSe partition (/dev/hda3) on that directory (mount /dev/hda3 /suse). Copy the SuSe kernel over from /suse/boot to /boot and add the GRUB entry using info you find in SuSe's GRUB config file.
[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
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SuSE uses Grub like RH.
I'll install RH first then get more info on this copy kernel thingy.
But it is safe to install anyway yes?
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Once you install RedHat you will probably lose the ability to boot into SuSe until you copy the kernel over and add it to your RedHat GRUB menu. Reread my last note as I was changing it while you were entering your last note.
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RH is installed along with SuSE and windows.
Problem is, from within RH i cannot see SuSE or windows partitions. It sees its own only. But going to the hardware browser RH can see them and see them only, i cannot access said drives.
What do i do?
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Did you mount the partitions from the other OSs?
[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
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How would i do that in RH?
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to mount a FAT partition do this as root
# mount -t vfat /dev/hda5 /mnt/Windows
not too sure about linux partitions though /dev/hda5 is the name of the partition its on so dont just write hda5 (http://tongue.gif)
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I tried that, no luck, it says /mnt/Windows does not exist.
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sorry, u need to create the directory /mnt/Windows first...
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Bah! Where would i do this i wonder! (http://smile.gif)
RH will not boot anymore because i used the SuSE installation cd to boot SuSE.
I'm thinking that maybe i should install RH BEFORE SuSE, what do you think?
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Did you create a boot floppy during the installation? Let me give you a bit of advice, create the boot floppy during installation when it asks, it will make it much easier to fix your boot loader in cases like this. You most certainly do not have to reinstall to fix a boot loader. Also, please read the FAQ on how to mount partitions.
[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
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Yes i created boot floppies.
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Then you should be able to stick the RedHat boot floppy in the drive and boot it up just as if you had booted from your GRUB menu. Once booted up you need to reinstall the Boot loader on the boot sector by opening a terminal and typing:
$ su -
(enter root's password)
# grub-install /dev/hda
Then to mount your SuSe partition you would:
# mkdir /suse
# mount -t reiserfs /dev/hda3 /suse
You should find a /suse/boot directory containing the kernel and the suse grub configuration. You'll need to look at SuSe's grub.conf and find the section for the kernel that SuSe boots. Copy that section to your RedHat grub.conf and copy the suse kernel (and initrd if it uses it) to the /boot partition which is where your RedHat GRUB and kernel reside. In RedHat the grub configuration file can be accessed either at /etc/grub.conf or /boot/grub/grub.conf (they are the same file, one is a link to the other). A RedHat kernel configuration section will look something like this:
Make a similar section for SuSe except replace the "vmlinuz-2.4.18-14" with whatever SuSe's kernel name is, and change the "root=LABEL=/" in that SuSe entry to "root=/dev/hda3". If SuSe does not use an initrd just delete that line in the SuSe section.
Now I don't remember how SuSe does it's /etc/fstab but you may have to modify it if it does it like RedHat does. The first column for the "/" partition should be "/dev/hda3" rather than "LABEL=/" or whater. RedHat labels the partition and uses it in the fstab rather than the real device name. No big deal though because you can just change that in the /etc/fstab to the real device name (/dev/hda3 in your case) in the /suse/etc/fstab if it needs it. If you don't change that SuSe will likely try and boot the RedHat partition. In fact, you might want to change it on RedHat's /etc/fstab as well. In your case the RedHat /etc/fstab should have "/dev/hda6" for the "/" partition entry.
Just be careful when editing config files that you are abolutely sure that you know whether you are editing the SuSe file or the RedHat file. It would be easy to fat finger and mix them up. Remember when booted in RedHat the SuSe configuration files will always start with "/suse". For instance "/suse/etc/fstab".
A side note, to mount your Windows partition you would do something like this:
# mkdir /c
# mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /c
which will mount your "C:" drive on the "/c" directory.
If you want any of the mount examples automatically happen when you boot your system then you need to add a line in the /etc/fstab for each partition that you want to mount.
[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
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Okay thanks, i'm gonna keep what you have written until i reinstall everything again.
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I don't get it. Why reinstall everything? Now is the time to use that information.
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RedHat stopped working, i booted it up and it stopped working alltogether.
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Could you be a little more descriptive? You are making this too much like work for me. If you want help I'll need details.
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Okay i used the boot disk for Suse after i found i couldn't boot SuSE when i installed RH. I booted SuSE hoping that IT detected the RH partition like it does with the windows partition, plus i am more familar with SuSE.
I quit SuSE and reloaded RH, i logged in, and let it load up but while it was at the login screen it just froze and did so everytime.
Because of my lack of knowledge i then wiped everything, anyway windows is now installed and i will install them again after college.
But, ive posted my problem on another board and some guy said that i don't need a boot partition anymore, i can just have the win parttition then an EXtended with 2 logical drives and a swap. Does this sound right?
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Ive been dying to try out debian, or openbsd maybe ill triple boot my laptop.
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Are you then going to post how you did it?
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How about this:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=4622 (http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=4622)
It's an example of booting several different Linux distros and Win98 using GRUB.
And here is the latest GRUB documentation:
http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub-0.92/grub.html (http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub-0.92/grub.html)
Probably the "easiest" way for you to do it is to create a GRUB floppy as in the example. Install Windows first leaving the free space. Then on each Linux distro that you install do not install the boot loader on the MBR, but instead install it on the partition where the kernel resides for that distro.
Since I have all of the operating systems in question I could set up a triple boot in VMware exactly as you are trying to do and give you some pointers. Not sure if I will have the time to do it this weekend though. If nothing else, it would make a good addition to my RedHat tips section. I used to have a machine set up with around 8 operating systems (DOS 6, Win3x, Win95, WinNT, OS/2 Warp, RedHat, Debian, Slackware) and could boot any of them from a boot menu. But this was a few years ago and used a combination of LILO and the boot loaders of the other operating systems.
I think the key you might be missing is you want to install the boot loader of the later installed Linux distros on the Partition boot record rather than the MBR (Master Boot Record). Then your primary boot loader will do nothing more than boot strap the boot loader of the OS you are trying to boot from that OSs partition boot record.
[ November 30, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
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Void main yeah hey that sounds good thanks. I've got all 3 operating systems installed by the way and i've got partition magic installed so its no biggy if i have to format the linux partitions and start again.
At the moment the hard drive is setup like this.
Windows Drive
EXTENDED
then i have 2 /Root partitions and 2 / partitions and the swap partition.
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2 "/Root" partitions? "/" is what is referred to as the root partition. You should have the Windows partition, two "/" partitions and one swap partition when you are done. Once Linux is installed you should never have to "reinstall", even if your boot loader is not configured properly. You should be able to boot the system from your boot disk and then fix the boot loader if needed.
If your RedHat installation freezes at the graphical login then you have some sort of problem that a reinstall is not going to fix (unless you select a different video card). You'll need to change your startup not to boot into X so you can figure out what is causing the problem. Did you ever list your video card make/model/chipset?
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Sorry my bad. i have the 2 / partitions and the swap partition but i have also got the 2 /boot partitions.
Windows has 9GB
Suse has 4.5GB with reiser
RedHat has 4.5GB with Ext3
The swap of 768MB
Then 2 Boot 102MB partitions for each linux distro
Anyway, i have tried to setup my HDD with the 4 partitions as you say. Suse is okay with this and before i install RH, the HD will have the windows partition, suse partition and the swap. Problem is RH insists on having a boot partition and a boot and won't install if i just allow for it to have a "/" partition.
Where am i going wrong?
The video card is a SiS 630 which comes with my laptop. At the moment RH is working because i wiped the partition and reinstalled.
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quote:
Originally posted by void main:
You should end up with two kernels in your /boot ...
One thing to watch out for in this scenario is that your system will be able to find the correct System.map (http://www.dirac.org/linux/systemmap.html) file for the running kernel - if you keep that file in your /boot directory. It might make little or no practical difference if you use the wrong System.map, but better safe than sorry.
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Void Main have you tried this "Triple Boot" with VMware yet?
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quote:
Originally posted by Crunchy(Cracked)Butter:
Void Main have you tried this "Triple Boot" with VMware yet?
I'm only one man. (http://smile.gif) I've been too busy in heated political discussions and playing with kernel patches etc... I was hoping you had it all sorted out by now. (http://smile.gif) It *is* still on my list but it means touching Windows which makes it not the top of the list.
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Whoa, i'm not wanting you to do it when i command, i was just wanting an update with your thoughts.
I *can* get all 3 installed but not in the new way you suggest by only creating 2 / partitions and the swap.
No rush anyway.