Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

mojozoox · 2007-11-12 09:45:03

Hi People,

I have installed Mandriva yesterday on my HP500 laptop and I have left 15GB unused for the installing Arch. Could you kindly let me know of any documentation on HowTo install Arch alongside Mandriva

~

Mojo

Last edited by mojozoox (2007-11-17 18:03:04)

mucknert · 2007-11-12 09:49:46

It's actually not very hard. Just leave the mandriva-partition untouched when you are about to partition the unused space with the Arch-Installer and be sure to adjust the bootmanager, either under Mandriva or Arch. The installation isn't very different, you just need to take care that you don't accidently nuke your Mandriva-System or render it unbootable because of a plain grub. The second wouldn't be that bad, though.

mojozoox · 2007-11-12 10:26:49

mucknert wrote:

It's actually not very hard. Just leave the mandriva-partition untouched when you are about to partition the unused space with the Arch-Installer and be sure to adjust the bootmanager, either under Mandriva or Arch. The installation isn't very different, you just need to take care that you don't accidently nuke your Mandriva-System or render it unbootable because of a plain grub. The second wouldn't be that bad, though.

That is fine! Will grub automatically detect the madriva install and list it in its menu? Or should is manually do that?

mucknert · 2007-11-12 10:31:34

You need to do this manually. Arch does not do a lot on its own. It's not that hard though. Just have a look at the default configuration of Arch, copy the entry and adjust it for your Mandriva system.

mojozoox · 2007-11-12 11:39:39

mucknert wrote:

You need to do this manually. Arch does not do a lot on its own. It's not that hard though. Just have a look at the default configuration of Arch, copy the entry and adjust it for your Mandriva system.

Thats a little confusing, could you elobarate? If i wasnt a newbie i wouldnt be posting here.

Thanx

~

mucknert · 2007-11-12 11:44:35

Under /boot/grub/ is the file menu.lst. This holds the bootloader configuration for grub (if you installed grub -- there is also lilo). There you will find the default configuration that boots your Arch-Sytem. If you installed grub from Arch, it will use that file. To boot Mandriva you need to edit this file and add an entry for it. I can't paste an example right now so maybe one other helpfull chap could do that. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub also holds a couple of nice hints for you. Be sure to read it!

mojozoox · 2007-11-12 12:01:31

mucknert wrote:

Under /boot/grub/ is the file menu.lst. This holds the bootloader configuration for grub (if you installed grub -- there is also lilo). There you will find the default configuration that boots your Arch-Sytem. If you installed grub from Arch, it will use that file. To boot Mandriva you need to edit this file and add an entry for it. I can't paste an example right now so maybe one other helpfull chap could do that. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub also holds a couple of nice hints for you. Be sure to read it!

Thanks mucknert! This is turning out to be a really helpful discussion to me. But one more question. Should i install grub to the mbr or on one of the local partitions? Thanks!

mucknert · 2007-11-12 12:06:49

Your safest bet is to install it to the MBR. This will erase the bootmanager from Mandriva but that is not a problem since Mandriva can be booted from this installation, too. So after the installation, you can only boot Arch. But that does not mean that Mandriva is gone. You just need to configure grub according to the hints above. But note that you need to know your mandriva partitions. Where is the root (/)? Is there an extra /boot-partition to it? You will need to know this if you want to make Mandriva bootable from Arch. You could also just leave the MBR alone and configure the bootloader from Mandriva but you will need the same informations from your Arch-Install.

To make a long story short: either install it to the MBR or don't install it at all and use the Mandriva-Bootloader to start Arch for you.

mojozoox · 2007-11-12 12:37:52

Will try it tonite update with my findings. Thanks.

Mojo

dunc · 2007-11-12 17:04:43

You could let Arch install GRUB then use the Mandriva install disc (in "recovery mode", I think it's called) to reinstate its own. It should automatically detect both installations. Free 2006 simply called any other distro it found by the kernel name: kernel26suspend, for example. But that's a lot easier to fix (by editing /boot/grub/menu.lst on your Mandriva partition) than configuring GRUB from scratch. I did that later, once I felt a bit more comfortable with Arch.

mojozoox · 2007-11-17 18:02:26

Super!

I got it to work with #8. Thanks a ton guys!

mucknert · 2007-11-17 18:08:35

I'm glad that it worked out for you. Welcome to Arch!

Arch Linux

#1 2007-11-12 09:45:03

Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#2 2007-11-12 09:49:46

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#3 2007-11-12 10:26:49

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#4 2007-11-12 10:31:34

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#5 2007-11-12 11:39:39

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#6 2007-11-12 11:44:35

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#7 2007-11-12 12:01:31

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#8 2007-11-12 12:06:49

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#9 2007-11-12 12:37:52

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#10 2007-11-12 17:04:43

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#11 2007-11-17 18:02:26

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

#12 2007-11-17 18:08:35

Re: Installing Arch linux alongside Mandriva, How?[SOLVED]

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