Dual boot with fedora

JoeKer1086 · 2010-01-19 14:41:50

Ok, can anyone walk me through installing fedora next to arch? I'm sure there is an easy way but I can't find a wiki entry about it. Any help would be appriciated.

ZaQ · 2010-01-19 18:02:56

Insert the Fedora-CD and follow the installation. Be careful, that you don't install select one of the arch-partitions when you have to select the partitions for fedora.

You have to choose grub from arch (then don't install it=>You'll have to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst later) or from fedora (so install it).

i think, thats it...

Or do you have special wishes (like 1 /home folder or so).

n0dix · 2010-01-20 17:56:52

Or you can install the grub in arch again, then add to menu.lst the fedora partitions.

JoeKer1086 · 2010-01-22 00:26:52

well, the problem is that i want to use the same /boot /root swap and /home partitions that i already have. I know it is possible to do this i just dont know how.

JoeKer1086 · 2010-01-22 21:46:59

ok, running into another problem. Tried resizing my /home to put the root files for fedora on another partition but it says out of space. I know that this is not correct. Could it be because I have 4 primary partitions? I thought I could have up to 4 primary before I had to start getting into extended partitions. Any ideas on this one?

Ber · 2010-01-26 16:13:02

I can't really help with the limitations of the disk partitioning. However, while you're at it, I think Fedora will require you to have a separate boot partition, ext4-formatted. This partition might be wiped out dureing installation process. This is why I hate "too simple" installers...

JoeKer1086 · 2010-02-01 03:17:16

ok, I have fedora installed, but now i cannot boot into arch. I am pretty sure it is just a problem with grub. i tried pointing it to arch through the fedora installer and that failed. i know that i didnt blow away any of my partitions so it is prolly just the /boot that got messed up. can anyone help me? i saw someone post that i need to add the menu.lst but dont know how to do this....

n0dix · 2010-02-01 05:27:59

Yes, you need to know what is the number of your arch partition and add to the menu.lst in fedora.
Post your:

fdisk -l

And your menu.lst file.

JoeKer1086 · 2010-02-06 18:03:15

OK, so i have everything labeled (uuid) and it is set up like this

root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz26 ro root=UUID=6850ec41-bcf5-4930-a78b-4e95919145b2
initrd /kernel26.img

but when I boot it says error 15: file not found...... Im not sure what im doing wrong. i have a separate /boot partition and my / partition is sda3. following the wiki to a t......any help would be appriciated.

n0dix · 2010-02-09 23:14:40

Post your blkid. And i think the 'ro' must be at the end of the line.

JoeKer1086 · 2010-02-10 18:53:12

blkid output

/dev/sda5: TYPE="swap" UUID="10d029f2-8509-4ddd-a56c-cff175f7b4e6"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="/boot" UUID="88f70880-f23b-4111-a04b-dc36ca6a07b6" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sda3: UUID="6850ec41-bcf5-4930-a78b-4e95919145b2" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda4: UUID="f06ac0ec-98f4-4533-ac7c-b378dc6b805f" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda6: LABEL="F12-Beta-i686-Li" UUID="c7bab44c-0236-4c13-9b5f-ee02066f2c6c" TYPE="ext3" SEC_TYPE="ext2"

n0dix · 2010-02-10 18:56:11

Put in this way:

kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/6850ec41-bcf5-4930-a78b-4e95919145b2 ro

Last edited by n0dix (2010-02-10 18:56:38)

JoeKer1086 · 2010-02-10 19:12:13

ok, added that under root (hd0,2)

bottom line is initrd /kernel26.img

going to reboot and try, ill let you know

JoeKer1086 · 2010-02-10 19:20:25

ok, rebooted and tired again with same results..... i think my /boot partition got formatted at some point....so i tried navigating to /media/disk/usr/src/linux-2.6.32-ARCH/ within fedora then tried runninsg make menuconfig to recompile the kernal and copy it over to /boot but when i run make menuconfig it gives the output make: *** No rule to make target `menuconfig'. Stop.

any ideas?

JoeKer1086 · 2010-02-11 17:02:20

ok, I think im going to give up......i have been wanting to try chakra anyway but didnt want to get rid of my current arch install but i guess this is a good excuse to do it lol......i do have another question though, I want to run both fedora and arch so would it make more sense to install arch or install fedora first???? dont wanna run into this problem again

n0dix · 2010-02-11 21:18:56

Try install Arch, first, and then Fedora, I think Fedora will create the Arch boot in menu.lst file.
About the home partition try to associate the /home partition in Arch to the one in Fedora without format it.

arch0r · 2010-02-15 12:35:48

bump

which is propably the best way to install fedora and arch? which one should i install first?
i would like to install them both on one hd, each of them in a seperated encrypted lvm. is there any need to create two boot partitions, which grub should i install?

i would love to run those two systems along each other

Ber · 2010-02-19 16:33:10

I won't say it is the easiest way, but I always do things this way and it works pretty well :

* Backup any data you might have on your disk
* Start Archlinux installation
* Manually partition your drive in Arch installer : 1 root partition for arch (/dev/sda1), 1 root partition for Fedora (/dev/sda2), 1 shared data partition (/dev/sda3), 1 swap partition (/dev/sda4). /dev/sda[i] are examples of course. If you want to you can play with separate /boot or /home partitions but it's absolutely not mandatory. You'd have to use logical partitions then.
* Step through Arch installation
* Install grub on MBR
* Add an entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst for your future Fedora installation :

title Fedora
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

* reboot
* Start installing fedora
* Manually specify partitioning : use /dev/sda2 as /, /dev/sda3 (data partition) as /mnt/data for example (no need to partition it if you did it in Arch). Use /dev/sda4 as swap. Do NOT format or even use for now /dev/sda1 of course.
* Install grub to /dev/sda2. This is not the default behaviour (which is to install it to /dev/sda), so you have to actually tell the installer to do it. Installing the bootloader to PBR allows your distribution's auto-update to update the bootloader's configuration without wiping out your Arch bootloader (as "user-friendly distributions" tend to do quite annoyingly).
* reboot

Your Fedora entry in Arch's grub menu should redirect you to Fedora's grub menu, and your 2 distros can coexist happily.

Hope this helps

Arch Linux

#1 2010-01-19 14:41:50

Dual boot with fedora

#2 2010-01-19 18:02:56

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#3 2010-01-20 17:56:52

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#4 2010-01-22 00:26:52

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#5 2010-01-22 21:46:59

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#6 2010-01-26 16:13:02

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#7 2010-02-01 03:17:16

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#8 2010-02-01 05:27:59

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#9 2010-02-06 18:03:15

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#10 2010-02-09 23:14:40

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#11 2010-02-10 18:53:12

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#12 2010-02-10 18:56:11

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#13 2010-02-10 19:12:13

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#14 2010-02-10 19:20:25

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#15 2010-02-11 17:02:20

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#16 2010-02-11 21:18:56

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#17 2010-02-15 12:35:48

Re: Dual boot with fedora

#18 2010-02-19 16:33:10

Re: Dual boot with fedora

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