SEO

hello. I would like to install gentoo but the installation procedure isn't
that friendly. I already have winXP and FC2 in my computer with Grub as boot
loader. Can anyone provide some guidance to remove FC2 and get gentoo in?
The installation guide for Gentoo isn't helpful as it seems (to me) that it
only guide to install an OS into a fresh system. I want to keep Winxp for my
current work.


pls help.

--
Jen Ngew

Mini Mani Mini Mo wrote:

> hello. I would like to install gentoo but the installation procedure
> isn't that friendly. I already have winXP and FC2 in my computer with
> Grub as boot loader. Can anyone provide some guidance to remove FC2
> and get gentoo in? The installation guide for Gentoo isn't helpful as
> it seems (to me) that it only guide to install an OS into a fresh
> system. I want to keep Winxp for my current work.

Removing FC2 should be relatively easy once you're in fdisk, and
provided you have installed it on a separate partition from Windoze.
Just delete the partition(s) it resides on.

The most important part you need to care about throughout the Gentoo
installation and maintenance is the partition scheme. Assuming you have
Windoze on /dev/hda1, you can just add 1 to the /dev/hda numbers listed
in the Gentoo handbook when you are in fdisk or /etc/fstab. Thus, /boot
might be located on /dev/hda2, /swap on /dev/hda3, and / on /dev/hda4.
That's how I do it, anyway.

And for the sake of your own mental health, write down your partition
scheme in big, friendly letters, and keep this sheet in front of you
whenever you want to mess around with anything related to /dev/hdxx.
--
Leif Biberg Kristensen
http://solumslekt.org/
defenestrare necesse est

hello Leif

thank you for your comments. Removing the partition will be relatively easy,
but I am more concerns about Grub. If i remove the partition, will the
computer still boots into Windoze?


"Leif B. Kristensen" <junkmail@solumslekt.org> wrote in message
news:2piqr4Fli9cnU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Mini Mani Mini Mo wrote:
>
> > hello. I would like to install gentoo but the installation procedure
> > isn't that friendly. I already have winXP and FC2 in my computer with
> > Grub as boot loader. Can anyone provide some guidance to remove FC2
> > and get gentoo in? The installation guide for Gentoo isn't helpful as
> > it seems (to me) that it only guide to install an OS into a fresh
> > system. I want to keep Winxp for my current work.
>
> Removing FC2 should be relatively easy once you're in fdisk, and
> provided you have installed it on a separate partition from Windoze.
> Just delete the partition(s) it resides on.
>
> The most important part you need to care about throughout the Gentoo
> installation and maintenance is the partition scheme. Assuming you have
> Windoze on /dev/hda1, you can just add 1 to the /dev/hda numbers listed
> in the Gentoo handbook when you are in fdisk or /etc/fstab. Thus, /boot
> might be located on /dev/hda2, /swap on /dev/hda3, and / on /dev/hda4.
> That's how I do it, anyway.
>
> And for the sake of your own mental health, write down your partition
> scheme in big, friendly letters, and keep this sheet in front of you
> whenever you want to mess around with anything related to /dev/hdxx.
> --
> Leif Biberg Kristensen
> http://solumslekt.org/
> defenestrare necesse est
>

Jen Ngew enlightened us with:
> thank you for your comments. Removing the partition will be
> relatively easy, but I am more concerns about Grub. If i remove the
> partition, will the computer still boots into Windoze?

Nope, it won't. But once you have Gentoo on there, you can install
Grub or Lilo, whatevery you like, and boot windoze again.

Sybren
--
The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a
capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the
safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

Mini Mani Mini Mo wrote:
> hello. I would like to install gentoo but the installation procedure isn't
> that friendly. I already have winXP and FC2 in my computer with Grub as boot
> loader. Can anyone provide some guidance to remove FC2 and get gentoo in?
> The installation guide for Gentoo isn't helpful as it seems (to me) that it
> only guide to install an OS into a fresh system. I want to keep Winxp for my
> current work.

I didn't have a problem with installing Gentoo along side WinXP, and
also leaving some space left over on my drive to trail other distributions.

If you've got a partition of WinXP and you've got no intentions of
resizing or deleting the WinXP portion, then it should be pretty smooth
sailing foward. Just tell grub (either in your FC2 or your fresh Gentoo
install) to load WinXP as usual.

....Ric

--
If you want to email Ric, use: rdefrance--NO_SPAM@gmail.com
Just remove the "--NO_SPAM"
== Do you, uh... Gentoo? Gentoooo-hooo!! ==

Jen Ngew wrote:
> thank you for your comments. Removing the partition will be relatively easy,
> but I am more concerns about Grub. If i remove the partition, will the
> computer still boots into Windoze?

If you blow away the partition that houses your grub files, then you
won't be able to boot into WinXP again until you either re-install grub
or (to my understanding) use "fdisk.exe /mbr" (under DOS) to replace the
master boot record for Windows.

If you want to see a step by step of what I did, e-mail me off list and
I'll point you to a page I wrote on installing Linux on my PC. It lists
the majority of the steps (but you've got to read it in conjunction to
the install manual of Gentoo), and has some of my .conf files and some
screenshots. I cover Knoppix, SUSE, and Mandrakelinux as well, but not
as indepth as Gentoo.

....Ric

--
If you want to email Ric, use: rdefrance--NO_SPAM@gmail.com
Just remove the "--NO_SPAM"
== Do you, uh... Gentoo? Gentoooo-hooo!! ==

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 21:01:58 +1000, Jen Ngew wrote:

> hello Leif
>
> thank you for your comments. Removing the partition will be relatively easy,
> but I am more concerns about Grub. If i remove the partition, will the
> computer still boots into Windoze?

Grub will still be there when you remove FC2. You will install a brand new
grub on the mbr during the Gentoo install anyway.

--
Jafar Calley
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
d+ s-:+ a C++++ L++ E--- W++ N++ w-- PE- t* 5++ R+ !tv D+ G e* h---- x?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Registered Linux User #359623
http://fatcatftp.homelinux.org

jafar wrote:
> Jen Ngew wrote:
>
>>Removing the partition will be relatively easy,
>>but I am more concerns about Grub. If i remove the partition, will the
>>computer still boots into Windoze?
>
> Grub will still be there when you remove FC2. You will install a brand new
> grub on the mbr during the Gentoo install anyway.

Grub may take issue with not finding grub.conf and the stage2 file if
the /boot/ partition is removed. This will lead to a non-booting system
(which will need a bootable CD to fix).

--
Ben M.

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 03:08:17 +0000, Ben Measures wrote:

> jafar wrote:
>> Jen Ngew wrote:
>>
>>>Removing the partition will be relatively easy,
>>>but I am more concerns about Grub. If i remove the partition, will the
>>>computer still boots into Windoze?
>>
>> Grub will still be there when you remove FC2. You will install a brand new
>> grub on the mbr during the Gentoo install anyway.
>
> Grub may take issue with not finding grub.conf and the stage2 file if
> the /boot/ partition is removed. This will lead to a non-booting system
> (which will need a bootable CD to fix).

Lol. I assumed that a new /boot partition would be created during the
Gentoo install and a new Grub on the mbr. Isn't that the normal way?

--
Jafar Calley
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
d+ s-:+ a C++++ L++ E--- W++ N++ w-- PE- t* 5++ R+ !tv D+ G e* h---- x?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Registered Linux User #359623
http://fatcatftp.homelinux.org

jafar wrote:
> Ben Measures wrote:
>>jafar wrote:
>>>Jen Ngew wrote:
>>>
>>>>Removing the partition will be relatively easy,
>>>>but I am more concerns about Grub. If i remove the partition, will the
>>>>computer still boots into Windoze?
>>>
>>>Grub will still be there when you remove FC2. You will install a brand new
>>>grub on the mbr during the Gentoo install anyway.
>>
>>Grub may take issue with not finding grub.conf and the stage2 file if
>>the /boot/ partition is removed. This will lead to a non-booting system
>>(which will need a bootable CD to fix).
>
> Lol. I assumed that a new /boot partition would be created during the
> Gentoo install and a new Grub on the mbr. Isn't that the normal way?

I added my comments because I thought this sequence was a little misleading:

> jafar wrote:
>> Jen Ngew wrote:
>> If i remove the partition, will the computer still boots into Windoze?
> Grub will still be there when you remove FC2.

If Jen removes the FC2 partitions, the computer will not boot into
Windows, and grub will not be all there.

For a newbie who is unfortunate enough to come across problems
installing Gentoo it could be a couple of days before they reach the
point where they can reinstall Grub. Until then, the computer will need
a bootable CD or floppy, or the OP could get Windows to rewrite the MBR
(temporarily) as ric_man suggests.

--
Ben M.