Installing Kubuntu 6.06

[rube-kubuntu]

Kubuntu Live CD runs OK on my HP Pavilion t3320, but when I decide to install on /dev/hda I'm faced
with the question 'do you want to make these partitions active ?' What does this mean ? - ( aren't all
hard disks meant to be 'active' when power is applied to them ? ) What I'd like to do is to have a dual
boot with Win-XP on /dev/hda1, Kubuntu-root on /dev/hda3 and /home on /dev/hda5. These partitions
already exist BTW, as FAT-32 and 2 ext3 partitions, as a legacy from a previous dual-boot install.
Thanks for any help, Rube

[sky]

Re: Installing Kubuntu 6.06

Hi,

Usually you don't need to make a partition active, an active partition mean that system will try to boot from it, but it's useless as grub is installed on mbr.
If I'm mistaking please can someone correct ?

Cheers

[Rog131]

Re: Installing Kubuntu 6.06

Straight from the horse's mouth (The Linux Information Project):


Active Partition Definition
http://www.bellevuelinux.org/active_partition.html

An active partition is a partition that contains the operating system that a computer attempts to load into memory by default when it is started or restarted. A partition is a logically independent section of a hard disk drive (HDD).

When booting (i.e., starting) a computer, the master boot record (MBR) looks at the partition table and selects the primary partition that is marked active in that table. The MBR is a small program that is executed when a computer starts up in order to find the operating system and load it into memory. It also contains the partition table and other information needed by the BIOS (basic input output system) to access the hard disk drive (HDD).

snip
However, in the case of Linux, it is possible to boot into partitions other than the active partition, including into logical partitions, because control of the booting process is handed over to LILO (Linux loader) or GRUB (grand unified boot loader).....

[rube-kubuntu]

Re: Installing Kubuntu 6.06

Thanks Sky and Rog131 - this clears things up for me a bit. Does this mean that when installing Kubuntu, I should just ignore any question about making a partition active - and only ask for formatting of the /dev/hda3 (root) and /dev/hda5 (/home) partitions ?

( Like gold on the moon, linux software is great when you can get to it ... )

[Rog131]

Re: Installing Kubuntu 6.06

Yes (i think ) - if you are using grub (or lilo). Grub takes care of boot process and doesn't check boot flag (active partition).

More
GNU GRUB Manual 0.97
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html

Linux Partition HOWTO
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/