On Thu, Feb 26, 2004 at 11:38:44AM +0930, Ben Minton wrote: > I have an 80 GB HDD that I wish to install Debian 3r1 onto. As I > originally learnt howto Linux via RedHat I do not want to make this an > exclusive Debian system (sorry, not yet).
No problem. Or rather ... your problem -- see below. > Current partition table is: > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/hda1 * 1 510 4096543+ 83 Linux > /dev/hda2 511 1507 8008402+ 83 Linux > /dev/hda3 1508 1586 634567+ 82 Linux swap Share this one among the distributions (you won't be able to swsusp, & the like.) > /dev/hda4 1587 9729 65408647+ 5 Extended > /dev/hda5 1587 2209 5004216 83 Linux > /dev/hda6 2210 2832 5004216 83 Linux > /dev/hda1 contains a stripped down install of RH 9.0 > /dev/hda2 contains a full install of RH 9.0 > /dev/hda5 & 6 are 8GB partitions made using fdisk under RH 9.0 > > >From URL: > http://www.au.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch-preparing.en.html [...] > partitioning programs. We recommend that you do not attempt to create > Debian Linux partitions using another operating system's tools. Instead, [...] I attempted to install RH twice. The first time it asked whether I want to fdisk manually, and it overwrote a partition after I answered that of course I do. The installed system didn't even boot. Digging in the logs revealed the zlib package could not be installed. Needless to say, there was no warning about this during the installation. The second time it happily mounted all the partitions it found without asking, replaying journals &c. I had suspended to disk playing dual-booting... You'll be saved these horrors here -- Debian is never going to access your disk without your consent. And it shall scream in your face upon an error, before proceeding any further. As far as your fdisk was sane enough, and you back up the MBR and all the other partition tables. If you know how trivial it is to restore a partition table after the things get f*** up, you don't need to bother. If you don't, take the warnings seriously. > Reading through all the documentation, I get the feeling that I should > either trash the sys, reinstall Debian first, then repartition and > reinstall the RedHat partitions or maintain the exisiting partitions > that contain data, delete all the other ones and make them as required > using the Debian partitoning tool? Just do a just in case and proceed boldly. :-) Fire up the install CD, and just double check before you instruct Debian to access particular partition, that it is really the partition you want. Writing down which partitions are supposed to contain what is a good idea. HTH. HAND. -- ``You know those mail clients: MS Outlook, mail(1), or even telnet(1). All of them suck. This one just sucks less.''
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