install ES3 dual-boot onto Fedora2 doesn't get grub.conf right

[Rick Stevens]

David Morgan wrote:
> 
> I teach a linux class. We install, dual-boot, Fedora Core 2 and 
> Enterprise ES 3. We installed in that order. (Fedora has / on hda2 with 
> /boot separate on hda1; ES has / on hda4.)
> 
> We ask the anaconda installer, while installing ES, to make the machine 
> dual-boot. It creates its own grub.conf and overwrites the MBR, 
> displacing the grub.conf and MBR code from the earlier Fedora 
> installation. Problem is, for booting the Fedora image, it writes the 
> grub.conf stanza as if it regards Fedora to be a non-linux OS-- by using 
> the "chainloader" etc appropriate for windows. We have to manually fix 
> it by importing the stanza that worked from the old copy of grub.conf in 
> Fedora's partition into the new grub.conf in ES's partition (with 
> kernel= etc).
> 
> Any similar experiences? Anybody got an explanation? Happened to the 
> whole class (20 machines).

There are certain things anaconda does well and things it doesn't.

I think it assumes when you're setting up a dual-boot, that the other
OS is Windows (since that's what 90% of the dual boot environments are 
set up to do).  So it blithely buggers the grub.conf file as if it were
Windows out there.

Could you reverse the process (install ES first, then FC) to see if the
Fedora version of anaconda is smarter and recognizes ES as a Linux
implementation?

If the FC anaconda handles it properly, then I'd file a bugzilla report
with Red Hat so that they use the Fedora anaconda in the next release of
ES/AS/EL/WS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-        God is real...........unless declared integer or long       -
----------------------------------------------------------------------