Installing fedora - what to do with /boot partition ?

[Rick Stevens]

On Thu, 2005-12-08 at 09:44 +0200, Mark Ryden wrote:
> Hello list,
> 
> I want to install a Fedora Core 4 on a machine with Fedora Core 3,
> while keeping the FC3 and it's partitions on that machine.
> (There are things which I must be able to run on FC3 and not FC4,
> for various reasons).
> 
> I have an empty, free partition for it. (/dev/hda3)

Peachy. Is it big enough to handle ALL of FC4?

> I started the Fedora Core 4 installer.
> 
> I had reached "Partitioning with Disk Druid" and choose the
> free partition (and defined / as a mounting point).

Terrific.  You're opening a can of worms here.

> Now, when I pressed OK it continued to the next dialogs.

Yeah.  We'd expect it to.

> I assume that it will use the existing swap partition
> as a shared swap partition.

Yes, that's fine.

> But I **did not** defined a /boot partition.

That's OK, since /boot only contains the actual kernel image and any
potential ramdisk images you may need.

> What will happen ? is it OK ?

Uh, not really.

> Will it destroy my FC3 /boot partition ?

No.

> Will I be able to boot into both FC3 and FC4 if I will
> continue ?

Yes, but the system will be mostly FC4.

> Or will it create the files for the bootstrap process under the
> free partition I am installing ( (namely /dev/hda3)) ??
> 
> I decided to stop the installation process here and post this
> question.

Good call.

Ok, here's the problem.  If all you've done is specify /dev/hda3 as
"/" for FC4, the stuff that lives under / is PURE FC4.

HOWEVER, "/usr/bin", "/usr/sbin", and "/var" are generally already
defined as other filesystems on other partitions and will be overwritten
by FC4's files.  The only way you can really run FC4 and FC3 in parallel
is to divvy up the space you have as /dev/hda3 in to multiple
partitions, name them such (e.g. "/usrfc4" and such) and install to
those.  Linux isn't like Windows, where everything is in "c:\".

What I'm trying to say here is, what you want to do is doable, but not
in the way you're trying to do it and you're going to shoot yourself
in the foot if you continue.  If you can give us details (such as the
amount of free space on your hard drive, we can offer some help  I'm
out on a business trip right now, but I'll be back in more comfortable
environs Monday or Tuesday and be in a better position to help.  Can
you wait until then?

will be overwritten by 
> 
> --MR
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Redhat-install-list mailing list
> Redhat-install-list at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-install-list
> To Unsubscribe Go To ABOVE URL or send a message to:
> redhat-install-list-request at redhat.com
> Subject: unsubscribe
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-                Huked on foniks reely wurked for me!                -
----------------------------------------------------------------------