  | |  | how to install two new linux versions on hdb | how to install two new linux versions on hdb 2005-01-05 - By Rick Stevens
Back Ralph E. Kenyon, Jr. wrote: > I have a dedicated Redhat 9 system running as my development server on > a home LAN. > I use it mostly with tux, apache, and samba mounts. > I just added a second hard drive - 60 Gig. > I would like to install Fedora Core 3 - I have the cd's and Mandrake > 10.1, both on the new drive, but I can't afford to risk anything > happening to the functionality of the Redhat 9 system, at least not > until I can reproduce its setup. > Right now the second hard drive has not even been partitioned. I'm > reluctant to take any risks that might interfere with Redhat 9 on hda. > > All my searching has only yielded dual boot setup that presumes that > one of the operating systems is windows. So far I have found nothing > on setting up two or three different linux systems on one machine. > > My experience is limited. My original system was a pre-loaded Redhat > 6.2. Later I did a "wipe-out everything" clean install of redhat 9, > with mostly everything, so it could be both a server and a workstation. > > Do I need to create partitions before trying to install? > Do I need two new boot partitions, one for each version, on hdb? Do > they both need to be near the beginning of the drive? > Can the fc3 installation be told to "not mess with" hda? How about > Mandrake 10.1? Can it co-exist with redhat? > > I still want to be able to run the Redhat 9 system, shutting it down > only for temporary periods while I learn FC3 and Mandrake, and > configure them to perform the same function that Redhat 9 does now.
It is certainly possible to install FC3 on the second hard drive. Simply boot the first FC3 CD (or DVD) and select a "New Installation". When you get to the disk partitioning screen, make SURE you specify "hdb" as the installation target. If you do manual partitioning, make doubly sure you always specify "hdb" for the new partitions.
The installation is easy. There is a danger here, however. Both RH9 and FC3 by default use disk labels in their /etc/fstab files. The danger comes in the idea that you will now possibly have two partitions labeled, for example, "/usr"--one for RH9 on hda, one for FC3 on hdb. When the system boots, which one of those will get used? It is impossible to predict. I have a way around it however. Read on.
<soap> Installer authors, if you're listening...how about setting up the labels with the OS version included? E.g. "/usr-fc3" Sure would make life easier for the tyros out there. </soap>
Here's my suggestion: Before you install FC3, boot up RH9 and modify the /etc/fstab file to use the actual partition names instead of the labels (e.g. replace "LABEL=/" with "/dev/hda1", etc.) You can get a list of what partitions are mounted where by using the "mount" command. Once you've fixed up RH9's /etc/fstab, you can then install FC3.
When FC3 is installed, reboot RH9, mount the FC3 root partition somewhere and edit FC3's /etc/fstab file to use _its_ partition names and not labels. When that's done, unmount the FC3 root partition and reboot into FC3. They should both live happily together at that point.
If that isn't clear, let me know and I'll give you some examples. -- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -- - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer rstevens@(protected) - - VitalStream, Inc. http://www.vitalstream.com - - - - To iterate is human, to recurse, divine. - -- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --
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