[CC'ing the list with the OP's permission. Please include the list in any replies.]
On 1/2/06, Zhao Peng <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thank you for still paying attention to my partition problem. Sure thing. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. :) > 1 What release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are you running? > It's Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.6.9-22.EL) I'm most interested in the release of the whole distribution. RHEL 2.1, 3, 4...? If you're not sure, you should be able to find out by taking a look at the /etc/redhat-release file. 2.6.9-22.EL is the kernel version. I suppose kernel 2.6 implies RHEL 4, but I'd like to be sure. Once I know what distribution and release you have, I can look up what tools it ships with, and what features it enables, that we might have to worry about. > 2 What are your partitions used for? > > "df" output: > > Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on > /dev/hda5 5036284 1130792 3649660 24% / > /dev/hda1 101086 8508 87359 9% /boot > none 241772 0 241772 0% /dev/shm > /dev/hda7 6192896 42204 5961952 1% /home > /dev/hda2 5036316 3299548 1480936 70% /usr > /dev/hda3 5036316 105340 4675144 3% /var Okay, it looks like you're in good shape. Particular things I note from the above: - You're using plain partitions (not LVM or RAID or whatever) - You have a separate boot partition (hda1) - You have a big home partition (hda7), with plenty of space free, at the end of the disk The easiest way to tackle a dual-boot would then be: - Shrink your home partition down to make room - Install the new system in an additional partition (hda8) - Share the same swap partition (hda6) for both installs - Share the same boot partition (hda1) for both installs - Possibly share the home partition (but one thing at a time) First, before proceeding, the obligatory warning: *BACK UP EVERYTHING*. If you don't have proper backups, you're gonna loose data. Maybe not for this adventure, but eventually. Even if you decide not to try this, you should still back up everything. It's the one rule that applies regardless of hardware or OS. You have been warned. The kernel boot files (vmlinuz and initrd) have unique names across Red Hat distributions, so you have use the same boot partition for both distros. This actually works out in your favor. Each can install it's own kernel files in the boot partition, update the grub config file, and generally be happy. GRUB will let you choose between installs at boot. I'm pretty sure the Red Hat installer, anaconda, will handle it all for you. The swap partition isn't used between boots, so you can use the same one for both installs. The exact commands you'll need to use to resize your home partition will depend on the release of RHEL, as well as the file system type. I expect you have an EXT3 filesystem, but again, best to be sure. Use the "mount" command to see what is currently mounted. You should see a line that looks something like this: /dev/hda7 on /home type ext3 (rw) Just report the type -- in the above, "ext3". Once we've got the details established, we should be well on our way. > "swapon -s" output: > Nothing showed in terminal. Odd. "swapon -s" should show you the status (currently active) swap spaces. From your "df" output, it's a pretty good bet that hda6 is your swap partition, and you reported the same in a previous post. I would expect it to be there. Well, it's probabbly not worth worrying about. Cheers! -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss