Re: Grub install question?
On Tuesday 31 January 2006 18:25, Ishwar Rattan wrote:
>On Tue, 31 Jan 2006, Tiago Pedrosa wrote:
>> On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 23:10:09 +0100
>>
>> Ishwar Rattan <ishwar@pali.cps.cmich.edu> wrote:
>> > a debian derivative with / on hda5
>> > that bots using grub (and is working). I
>> > want to install another distribution on hda3,
>> > it also asks if bootmanager (Grub) be installed
>> > in MBR or root partition. So, will an install on
>> > MBR destroy the boot info for the exisiting system?
>>
>> You can install the new grub and put the entry to the linux on hda5
>> (as is in the menu.lst on the system on that partion) in menu.lst.
>> Or you don't install the grub in the new system and put a new entry
>> on the menu.lst of the older install for the new one.
>
>I am confused by your answer. Does the new ditro grub install go
>in MBR or in partition hda3?
>
You can, if grub is already installed in the mbr of /dev/hda, simply add
the new boot info to the existing /boot/grub/menu.lst as a second or
higher verse. I have 24 such entries in mine, numbered in a comment
line above each one so that I can reset the default and fallback
numbers in the top of the file as required. It does not require a
re-install if thats what you are asking.
Each 'stanza or verse' of the menu.lst needs two specs, the location of
the vmlinuz and initrd files, usually /boot, /dev/hda1, stated as:
root (hd0,0)
on a line by itself, then the location of the / partition stated in this
style:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.10-1.771_FC2 ro root=/dev/hda7 elevator=cfq
initrd /initrd-2.6.10-1.771_FC2.img
Where the root=is the partition dedicated as the / partition for that
particular bootup/installation.
There is nothing to prevent you from running a seperate install entirely
if everything but /boot is on the / partition of that install, and this
is done like this:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.16-rc1 ro root=/dev/hdd5 elevator=cfq
initrd /initrd-2.6.16-rc1.img
Note the change to the location of the / partition specified in the
root= portion of the vmlinuz line.
It might even be possible to reuse the swap partition for both installs,
but practically, I've found that different distros use different perms
and such, making the swaps incompatible with each other. Ditto for
seperate /boot partitions, the filesystem attributes are not 100%
compatible between Fedora core 4 and debian 30-r1, I tried that
already. So when its time for that partition to be fscked, its best to
hit the reset and boot the other install, let it do the fsck, and then
reboot to the install you want.
>-ishwar
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