Linux Installation

Hi

I have got 2 hdd's. One 40 Gb with a 30 gb primary partition with win 98 and 10 gb logical partition with win xp installed.

The other HDD is a 20 gb with no partitions.

both 98 and xp give different drive letters to my 2nd hdd but it works fine as i have got no installed softwares on it.

I wish to install red hat linux 9 on the second hdd which is my slave drive.

Is it possible and will the dualboot of linux and windows work fine or do i have to install linux on the first hdd.

Please reply soon its urgent.

Yes you can install linux on second hard disk, and i assume you know all about installation too, you have to load GRUB in MBR of master drive and have it configured for this arrangement ( it is easy in latest versions of linux)

RH9 will find your other OS's during the automatic bootloader configuration and should add it all in for you. If you do have issues keep an XP cd handy, use its "recovery console" to do the following commands:

Fixboot
Fixmbr

This will re-write the windows boot loader giving you access to Windows XP (and possibly your other windows systems). From here you should be able to do any fixes you need.

rider_royal you are wrong, he doesn't HAVE to install GRUB to the primary MBR.

MM the suggestion from aCk is valid, be prepared to run an fdisk /mbr from your recovery console.

If you want to continue to use NTLDR on the primary drive, and have GRUB (or lilo, your choice) only launch Linux, check this out. I've used jaeger's stuff quite often, very good How-To:

http://jaeger.morpheus.net/linux/ntldr.php

I accept my mistake for saying that he 'has' to install GRUB to primary MBR, but this was considering the situation that it is automatic bootloader configuration, then placing it in primary MBR saves lots of configuration options.

I believe the "safest" option, as most modern BIOSes support this, is to set the BIOS to boot from the second HD. Then install Linux on it. Have it install a bootmanager (lilo/grub) too..

That way, if you screw things up with lilo/grub/linux you can go back into the BIOS to boot from your first disk..

Wow, i didnt think in that way, that is really safest option. gonna use that on my new linuz installation. thnks SirDice

Hi

My touble is that i have phonix bios and bought my pc in 2001 which can set preferences to only one hdd so the preference of the other hdd booting first is out of the question.

is there a way to update my bios ??

thanx for the replies
do send in more

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Mystery Man
is there a way to update my bios ??

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Maybe.. Have a look on the site of your board manufacturer..

Will the GRUB automatically take up the other OS in my other hard drive.

Is 4 Gb enough for the linux installation.