how to install two new linux versions on hdb

[Rick Stevens]

Ralph E. Kenyon, Jr. wrote:
> I have a dedicated Redhat 9 system running as my development server on 
> a  home LAN.
> I use it mostly with tux, apache, and samba mounts.
> I just added a second hard drive - 60 Gig.
> I would like to install Fedora Core 3 - I have the cd's and Mandrake 
> 10.1,  both on the new drive, but I can't afford to risk anything 
> happening to  the functionality of the Redhat 9 system, at least not 
> until I can  reproduce its setup.
> Right now the second hard drive has not even been partitioned. I'm  
> reluctant to take any risks that might interfere with Redhat 9 on hda.
> 
> All my searching has only yielded dual boot setup that presumes that 
> one  of the operating systems is windows. So far I have found nothing 
> on  setting up two or three different linux systems on one machine.
> 
> My experience is limited. My original system was a pre-loaded Redhat 
> 6.2.   Later I did a "wipe-out everything" clean install of redhat 9, 
> with mostly  everything, so it could be both a server and a workstation.
> 
> Do I need to create partitions before trying to install?
> Do I need two new boot partitions, one for each version, on hdb?  Do 
> they  both need to be near the beginning of the drive?
> Can the fc3 installation be told to "not mess with" hda? How about  
> Mandrake 10.1? Can it co-exist with redhat?
> 
> I still want to be able to run the Redhat 9 system, shutting it down 
> only  for temporary periods while I learn FC3 and Mandrake, and 
> configure them  to perform the same function that Redhat 9 does now.

It is certainly possible to install FC3 on the second hard drive.
Simply boot the first FC3 CD (or DVD) and select a "New Installation".
When you get to the disk partitioning screen, make SURE you specify
"hdb" as the installation target.  If you do manual partitioning, make
doubly sure you always specify "hdb" for the new partitions.

The installation is easy.  There is a danger here, however.  Both RH9
and FC3 by default use disk labels in their /etc/fstab files.  The
danger comes in the idea that you will now possibly have two partitions
labeled, for example, "/usr"--one for RH9 on hda, one for FC3 on hdb.
When the system boots, which one of those will get used?  It is
impossible to predict.  I have a way around it however.  Read on.

<soap>
Installer authors, if you're listening...how about setting up the labels 
with the OS version included?  E.g. "/usr-fc3"  Sure would make
life easier for the tyros out there.
</soap>

Here's my suggestion: Before you install FC3, boot up RH9 and modify the 
/etc/fstab file to use the actual partition names instead of the labels
(e.g. replace "LABEL=/" with "/dev/hda1", etc.)  You can get a list of
what partitions are mounted where by using the "mount" command.  Once
you've fixed up RH9's /etc/fstab, you can then install FC3.

When FC3 is installed, reboot RH9, mount the FC3 root partition
somewhere and edit FC3's /etc/fstab file to use _its_ partition names
and not labels.  When that's done, unmount the FC3 root partition and
reboot into FC3. They should both live happily together at that point.

If that isn't clear, let me know and I'll give you some examples.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-             To iterate is human, to recurse, divine.               -
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