Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

[copycat]

I've got two HD's, one's for XP (Home), the other's for Linux(s). On the 2nd HD I've got a linux swap, two KDE's (KDE 3.1 and 3.2, both SuSe), two /home (one for KDE 3.1, one for KDE 3.2, but I can get to both from both KDE's), and a backup partition for some files on the XP disk. All of these things are on seperate partitions, labeled sdb1 through sdb7. As you can see, there's only one swap, since I (can) only use one KDE at one time, they can share the swap. Yes, they're SATA discs, but no, they're not on a RAID.

At the moment that disc's partitioning is full. However, I've noticed sdb2 is only using 3GB of the 15 GB I allocated, and that partition won't be getting any more data since SuSe/Novell discontinued update support for KDE 3.1. So, I want to downsize that partition. I can do that from KDE 3.2, since sdb2 is not mounted on that OS.
But, I thought, maybe Feisty install can do that too, so I got to expert partition, but all I could do was create a new partition or delete a partition. So, no resizing apparently, I guess I'll have to leave that to KDE 3.2 then.

Next part, that swap I talked about. I want Feisty to use that same swap, just like the other two Linux OS's, even if it's smaller (I didn't pay attention to what it said what space it needed as swap), it's 1011.8 MB, about twice the size of my RAM.
Also, which bootloader will Feisty install and will that bootloader notice the other two Linux's on the second HD, along with the Windows on the 1st one, and add the appropriate changes to the bootloader config? Or, can I ditch the Feisty bootloader and change the one I'm using now (GRUB)? If so, what changes do I need to make to that bootloader's config?
I might ditch the KDE 3.1, if and/or when Feisty can do what that OS does, in terms of multimedia. As for ditching 9.2 (my main OS), any (other) Linux distribution is going to have a hard time making me do that, as I've grown so accustomed to it, and made ample changes to it to suit my taste.

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

Have a look at this. It will get you started.

How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0

[copycat]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

I'm curious. In your HOWTO, where it says you want to keep your existing GRUB (which I'm inclined to do, as I've had my fair share with GRUB problems in the past), you need to copy the entry in menu.lst from Linux 2 to Linux 1. Makes sense, but how do you get to Linux2's menu.lst?
Please note that I'm not very familiar with mounting disks/partitions.

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

Hi copycat,

That’s a good question. I’m new at this too and it’s one of the first things that comes up, and it is still not my strong point in Linux (and now along comes the UUID stuff . . .).

If you keep reading the tutorial down to “The boot menu: /boot/grub/menu.lst How to access, back up, and edit,” you’ll see some tips. We always hope that when working in one Linux OS, it automatically mounts your other Linux partitions, and sometimes it does, sometimes not.

There’s nothing like an elegant solution to things, but I’m not above using old-fashioned ways, too: Access the Linux2 OS and menu.lst (even by using Live CD), print or save to a thumb drive, then modify Linux1 menu.lst by typing in the new boot entry (for Linux2). Whenever you modify any menu.lst you need to edit it as sudo.

One kind of related note: The tutorial shows ways to get into Linux2, eg by using configfile, even when Linux2 isn’t included yet in the main Linux1 menu.lst. So you turn on your PC, up comes your familiar Linux1 menu.lst, of course Linux2 isn’t there yet, press the “c” key to get a grub> prompt, and if Linux2 is on (hdx,y), type configfile (hdx,y)/boot/grub/menu.lst (Remember, when counting drives x and partitions y, counting starts from zero.) And press Enter. That will give you Linux2 boot menu (menu.lst) with Linux2 kernel highlighted by default, press Enter to accept it, and you’ll end up in Linux2.

Of course, Super Grub Disk will also get you into any of your Linux OS, too, and it’s good to have on hand (that’s in the references to the How-To).

Hope this helps.

Mike

[copycat]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

That’s a good question.

Of course that's a good question, if it wasn't I wouldn't be asking it. I'm the intelligent one, I don't ask bad questions. 8) Okay, that's enough ego tripping, back to the matter at hand.
I'm going on the assumption my main Linux will not mount Feisty Fawn's OS-partition by default. It's failed before, so I'm not counting on it happening now. I've been looking at my current menu.lst, in particular the hd(x,y)-stuff.
You say:

Note: in (hdx,y), x = 0,1,2, … is the HD and y = 0, 1, 2, … is the partition on HD x.

Right, according to this, Windoze is on hd(0,0), that's right, it's on sda, and there's only one partition there. No problem there. Note: I've accidentally mistyped the KDE-version by one, I've got KDE 3.2 and 3.3. 3.3 has the GRUB. KDE 3.2 is on hd(1,1) and kde 3.3 is on hd(1,2). So, the swap is on hd(1,0) aka sdb1, KDE 3.2 is on hd (1,1) aka sdb2 and KDE 3.3 is on hd(1,2) aka sdb3.
I have absolutely no idea on which hd Feisty Fawn is going to end up on. I'm not even sure which sdb it'll choose. However, I'll notice that when I'm partitioning. So, after I've gone through the installing, I start up the livecd, sudo a mkdir, sudo a mount. I do this in the Konsole. Is it possible to mount on the Konsole, but then go back to KDE, and access that partition using Konqueror? If not, I have no idea how to copy that to a thumb drive.
Of course, mounting manually won't make the mounts persistent. To do that, I'm guessing it's going to have to be in the /etc/fstab-file. If I can access /boot, Il can access /etc too, so I'll go and copy that file to my thumb drive too, assuming the mount trick in KDE is possible. Then I'll do crossovers, mounting each KDE's /home in each KDE.
What do you think?

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

Some notes (from the How-To), using Konsole:

- - Note: At a terminal (Konsole), you can open menu.lst as root:
(Kubuntu): kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.lst (press Enter; give PW)

- - Note: At Konsole, you can open Konqueror as root:
Type at a command prompt: sudo konqueror, or: kdesu konqueror

- - Note: At a Konsole, you can open a terminal as root: sudo konsole

[Fintan]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

I have a similar setup, although I can't figure out how you can have two "/home"s. But that apart.
My main linux (feisty kubuntu) is on hda9 (for eas and laziness I'll use hda instaed of sda)
I have three other linuxes (edgy: hda6, sabayon: hada10, pclinuxos. hda11) my home is on hda7 with all my users in there

So when I Install a new linux I just copy That menu.lst into /home/usermainlinux.

Then you have two possibilities:
1) In feisty go to K->systemconfig (or whatever it is called in english) ->advanced->Harddrives->administration mode. Now you can mount/activate any partition you wish. Having done that do Alt+F2 type kdesu kate and give your password at promt. Now you can navigate to your /home/usermainlinux/menu.list(linux3), copy the pertaining lines and paste them into the bottom (but before the windows part) in your main /boot/grub/menu.list. Save, reboot.

2) You can login to your main linux and edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst in the same fashion.

Of course if your feisty is on a different HD than you linuxes you will have to edit the feisty lines appropriatly.

I hope this helps and welcome to feisty kubuntu

[copycat]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

So when I Install a new linux I just copy That menu.lst into /home/usermainlinux.

That will all depend on how well Feisty's GRUB is going to find my current setup. Furthermore, I don't know how well Feisty's GRUB lines are going to agree with my current GRUB version and lastly, the order of my GRUB seriously diffenrs from the one that's explianed in the HOWTO.

1) In feisty go to K->systemconfig (or whatever it is called in english) ->advanced->Harddrives->administration mode. Now you can mount/activate any partition you wish. Having done that do Alt+F2 type kdesu kate and give your password at promt. Now you can navigate to your /home/usermainlinux/menu.list(linux3), copy the pertaining lines and paste them into the bottom (but before the windows part) in your main /boot/grub/menu.list. Save, reboot.

In Feisty on the livecd you must mean, because I won't be able to get into Feisty on the hd before I change my current GRUB's menu.lst.

I hope this helps and welcome to feisty kubuntu

Okay, I'll see how far I can go into telling Feisty's install what I want to do.

[Fintan]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

That will all depend on how well Feisty's GRUB is going to find my current setup. Furthermore, I don't know how well Feisty's GRUB lines are going to agree with my current GRUB version and lastly, the order of my GRUB seriously diffenrs from the one that's explianed in the HOWTO.

Well yes and no. I have done this with suse as well. Feisty won't see your suse. All you have to do is copy the Feisty pertenant lines of it'smenu.lst. and paste them at the bottom before the win lines into your main grub. Conversely you can also try using suse's grub gui to edit your menu.list. You will have to know the kernal, etc.
Mine looks like this:
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root (hd0,8)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=/dev/hda9 ro splash cpi=force
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet
savedefault

Have fun

[copycat]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

Okay, I've managed to empty one of my partitions, so I can use that as Feisty's root mount point. So, I've told the partitioner to use the swap as swap, wasn't difficult, it seemed to know that by default. Then I mounted the empty partition as root ('/'). Now, how do I tell GRUB it has to stay put into Feisty's partition?
I'm not sure as to the partion number. Feisty is going to get on sdb7, but, of course, that's on an extended partition. So if the extended partion also counts as a separate number, that's partition 8, if it's not, it's partion seven. So, in step 6 of the install, under 'advanced', I suppose that's where it's going to put the GRUB. So, do I change that to (hd1,7), or (hd1,8)?

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

sdb7, in all the configuring I’ve done on my two HDDs with several Linux OSs, should be (hd1,6) (second HDD, the 7th partition).

Before you do this, get a grub prompt (Konsole (Live CD or whatever), then type sudo grub), then:
grub> geometry (hd1)
and see what that tells you about what’s on hd1 and where.

[copycat]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

sdb7, in all the configuring I’ve done on my two HDDs with several Linux OSs, should be (hd1,6) (second HDD, the 7th partition).

Let's see:
1: swap
2: my 9.1 OS
3: my 9.2 POS
4: extended partition (not counted)
4b: a /home (forgot which one)
5: another /home
6: empty partition
I see, I got it all wrong. I though you had to add one to the 7 in sdb7, but that 7 already had the extented partition number in it, so I had to go down instead of up, my bad.

Before you do this, get a grub prompt (Konsole (Live CD or whatever), then type sudo grub), then:
grub> geometry (hd1)
and see what that tells you about what’s on hd1 and where.

drive 0x81: C/H/S = 14596/255/63, The number of sectors = 234493056, /dev/sdb
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
Partition num: 1, Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 2, Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 4, Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 5, Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 6, Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83

So, under 'Advanced' in the 6th step of the installation I put (hd1,6), and GRUB gets put on sdb7?

PS: sudo didn't work, it said 'Sorry, sudo must be setuid root.'

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

"So, under 'Advanced' in the 6th step of the installation I put (hd1,6), and GRUB gets put on sdb7?"

Yes, that's what it looks like to me from here.
That's the empty partition that will get the Kubuntu.
So put GRUB at the very same location as the Kubuntu root files, namely at (hd1,6).

That will NOT hurt anything at all. It will not touch any MBR.

In fact, it just puts GRUB there so you can use it anyway you wish at anytime, or not use it at all. You can later install GRUB from there to any MBR or to any partition, for example. It's just a bunch of files that sit there in the /boot directory (/boot/grub). I think, in fact, by doing this, if you ever need to chainload that Kubuntu OS on (hd1,6), it's ready to go with root (hd1,6), chainloader+1, boot. (Worst case: you must first do a root (hd1,6), setup (hd1,6), quit before doing the chainloading).

Anyway, I'm sure you get me here. Good luck.

[copycat]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

"So, under 'Advanced' in the 6th step of the installation I put (hd1,6), and GRUB gets put on sdb7?"

Yes, that's what it looks like to me from here.
That's the empty partition that will get the Kubuntu.
So put GRUB at the very same location as the Kubuntu root files, namely at (hd1,6).

That will NOT hurt anything at all. It will not touch any MBR.

In fact, it just puts GRUB there so you can use it anyway you wish at anytime, or not use it at all. You can later install GRUB from there to any MBR or to any partition, for example. It's just a bunch of files that sit there in the /boot directory (/boot/grub).

Disaster struck! After waiting three quarters of an hour (the DVD-drive was doing strange things) I finally got to 94%, GRUB-install was being installed to (hd1,6) and then... (Mind you, I translated from Dutch, so sorry if it's not quite the same error in English as I put it here)
'Execution of 'grub-install(hd1,6)' failed.
This is a fatal error.'
And we all know what happens after a fatal error. Yes, the installation breaks off completely. So, what happened, why can't it put grub on the same partition as the rest of the installation files?
By the way, I can see loads of files on my Kubuntu-partition of 20 Gigabyte, totalling 1,8 GB, apparently. I don't think that's all of it, since I'm missing its GRUB-menu.

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing Feisty on a disk as a 3rd Linux OS

Well, as the saying goes, YMMV – Your mileage may vary.

Actually, I do this all the time, even recklessly, with abandon, and never had that problem or any problems at Step 6, Advanced, GRUB. But stuff happens, and who knows why.

As I recall, you don't need that GRUB anyway, right? You can configure your existing GRUB menu list to include a boot entry for your new Feisty on (hd1,6). The How-To I mentioned tells you how (in the second post), but I have a feeling you've already had experinece with it

(You can always try using Super Grub Disk Live CD to install GRUB to the boot sector of (hd1,6), should you ever need some GRUB files there. But I wouldn't worry about that now.)

Here's my boot entries for a recent install of 7.04, in case you need to copy/paste this into a menu list (since you don't have a menu.lst in Feisty). Mine is on (hd1,4). Yours in on (hd1,6). And your UUIDs are different. You need to get that from your /etc/fstab file for (hd1,6) = sdb6. ***EDIT: (hd1,6) = sdb7 !!! ***
Just curious – check and be sure you do have a boot directory that looks ok, which you should with no issues: /boot (even though you may have no /boot/grub).

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=4ead32ce-5c61-49c3-babb-f0e17831afd4 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
quiet
savedefault

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=4ead32ce-5c61-49c3-babb-f0e17831afd4 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=4ead32ce-5c61-49c3-babb-f0e17831afd4 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet
savedefault

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=4ead32ce-5c61-49c3-babb-f0e17831afd4 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic