Two installer "custom install" issues

[Bill Davidsen]

First question, just for curiosity, what is the software which runs the 
partitioning, raid creation, LVM, etc, during an install? Is it something I 
know, run with options to look different or only available at install time?

In any case, here's the problem: I have a system I want to use for a dual boot 
install. It's partitioned as thus:
   sda1	application reserved
   sda2	was VISTA
   sda3	boot
   sda4	extended
   sda5	 swap
   sda6	 root
   sda7	 home

I want to install a new release on sda2, but I can't put the boot in an lv, so I 
need a boot and then sda2 can be a pv som I can have my root, home, and 
application pieces.

What I tried was to shrink the partition sda7 by 100MB (lots of free room), but 
that doesn't seem to free any space of a boot sda8 at the end of the extended. 
The current install, FC10, is production 32 bit, and I can't mess that up.

Is there some secret way to tell the installer that shrinking the sda7 makes 
room for sda8? I can install on a USB key, but that's not the object, not is 
making the whole sda2 ext3 instead of ext4, which will make performance 
comparisons meaningless.

Ideas?
-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot