Fedora vs. Ubuntu (hijacked: can I dual boot FC and Kubuntu?)

[Tod Merley]

Replies interwoven:

On 9/21/06, anthony baldwin <anthonybaldwin at optonline.net> wrote:
> Would I be able to install FC5 as my default OS, but install Kubuntu on
> a slave drive and add it
> to Grub, and thus have access to both?

Yes, and this may keep you from some interesting problems that can
crop up.  When you install say FC5 and then Ubuntu on the same drive
the last one in will tend to "take over" GRUB, that is the Master Boot
Record (technically GRUB stage 1) will point to stage 1.5 (or
sometimes 2) on the /boot menu of the partition containing the "second
in" OS.  Making GRUB "point" back to the original partition means
re-installing GRUB (or doing some interesting bit surgery).

Anyway, what you are proposing is probably a very good idea.  I would
load each disk as Master, single on the bus, and then change one to
slave.

Then, in the menu.lst (or if FC5 grub.conf) you would add a chainload
pointing to the second drive (the one you change thus will need to be
the master and so the one booted).  Best to determine what to call it
using the autocomplete feature when at a grub prompt.  If you type
"root (" and then press tab you can see the drives available (should
be 0 and 1 when you add in the slave drive) and then after you choose
one of those the tab key pressed again (after the comma) will yield
the  potential partitions which often provides a few good clues as to
which is which.

> Or, would it be better to install both OS on the first drive, and keep
> all my data on the other, or
> some such configuration?
> I´ve got a 15gb drive I could install the OS on, and a 200gb I could use
> for data,

If I wanted an easy day (and since the 15gb is only about 13 percent
of the 200gb) I think I would simply load the big drive and be happy.
I believe you have already loaded FC5 there?  FC5 has a pretty boot
menu but tends to not include other OSs when it constructs the boot
environment.  Remember, .last loaded controls grub.

My tendency (I recently constructed this machine doing Ubuntu, FC5,
Suse and Solaris from a separate SCSI drive) is to say Install and
partition with Ubuntu, load FC5 second, then edit the grub.conf in the
FC5 partition (/boot/grub/grub.conf) while looking at the
/boot/grub/menu.lst of the Ubuntu partition.  Remember that while you
cannot use the usual ctl+c to copy and ctl+v to paste in a terminal
most in the gnome or other Linux GUI environments do have an edit>copy
and edit>paste available which work fine on anything marked with a
drag.

I found that simply copying and pasting the boot stanzas in the Ubuntu
menu.lst into the grub.conf of the Fedora partition works fine.

> although I´ve never done such a thing, and am not even sure how to
> install in such a fashion
> that the OS (or in this case, both OSs) would recognize the home
> directory on another drive.

I did, as I mentioned install Solaris onto a separate SCSI drive.
This is kind of nice since I can select it in the BIOS CMOS setup but
most of the time having it as an option in the Fedora boot menu is
best,  I did this with a "chainload" which basically says to the
bootloader "start over there as if you never started here at all".  I
find myself in the Solaris boot menu when I choose Solarus from the
Fedora boot menu.  I like the way it works.

Ok as I look at the paragraph above you are actually talking about a
home directory share - yes - quite possible however I agree with
others - miles under the belt and then do it.

> I´ve also just installed and kept everything on the same drive.  I´m
> wondering if two
> linux os can use the same home directory, or if I will have permissions
> trouble accessing what
> the first installation calls /home from the second install.
> Any suggestions?  This is just all speculation and such, but I am
> interested in trying something new.
> I have been using RH/FC for about 7 years, and am interested in trying
> Kubuntu out for a while.
> There is much I love about FC, but there are also certain consistent
> issues that annoy me,
> thus my willingness to try another.
> I have solely used RH/FC since about RH8, but in the past have tried a
> few other distros,
> Corel Linux (gone and forgotten) which was also deb based, BlueLinux
> (was Caldera based, I think, edu oriented),
> Lycoris (pretty but annoying),  let me think....
> That´s about it except for fiddling with a Knoppix, and Gentoo Live on
> ppc, and several unsuccessful
> attempts to install Debian (could never get the Xserver up, even when
> giving XConfig the same
> parameters that worked on the same hardware with RH...??).  Oh, no...I
> also, when I was teaching public
> school, built some boxes out of ancient donated parts and loaded Vector
> or DamnSmallLinux on a few
> that were just too darned old and slow to handle RH.  For a while I was
> using K12Linux (as a desktop,
> not as a LTSP), but that was really just RH/FC with a few extra
> educational and edutainment pkgs.
> I had a Suse 9.1 boxset once, but never even tried it.  Gave it to my
> nephew a year ago,
> who now uses only Suse, and, at 14yrs age, is already contributing to
> FOSS projects (mostly amarok).
>
Oh!  It is sooo nice when they run with it!!!
>
> tony

Have a lot of fun!

Tod
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