[RULE] Dual-boot with Mandrake Linux

[C David Rigby]

On Mon, 2003-03-03 at 21:23, Martin Wolters wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> due to a move I am somewhat challenged by my current computing setup (a 
> Toshiba Satellite Pro 435CDS, 100MHz Pentium with 48MB RAM) and I am happy 
> that I got a Mandrake 8.2 system up and running a few months ago. I just 
> learned about RULE and I am wondering if I can setup a RULE system in 
> parrallel to the Mandrake system (since I can not afford to loose the current 
> running system until I know for sure the RULE system works (incl. email ...))
> 
> Since I am not a Linux guru I am wondering if that is possible. Can Mandrake 
> and Rule co-exist on the same partition? (I have a home and a root 
> partition). In case I need a separate RULE partition, can I create one 
> without loosing my Mandrake system? 
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help. 
> 
> -Martin
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Rule Project HOME PAGE:  http://www.rule-project.org/en/
> Rule Development Site:   http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/rule/
> Rule-list at nongnu.org
> http://mail.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rule-list

Hi Mr. Wolters,
	I just thought that I would chime in on this question, since I have
done this sort of thing a few times.
	It is possible to non-destructively repartition your current hard drive
to create space for a RULE installation, and there are two routes that I
know of that will let you do so without losing your current Mandrake 8.2
installation.  Both involve using a software tool to shrink your
Mandrake partition(s) to create free space for a RULE installation.  Be
aware, as always, that manipulating your drive's partition table and
Master Boot Record is RISKY BUSINESS and you should have both current
backups of critical data as well as a bootable floppy disk that will let
you access the system to straighten things out should it go poorly. 
Michael Fratoni is correct (see his follow-up in the mailing list) -
this is not something one wishes to work on via email.  Still, I can
give you references to how I have done it in the past, and you can
decide for yourself if it is something you wish to do.

	First,from a shell prompt, type the command

df -k

This will report how much unused storage you have available on the disk,
and in which partitions it is located.  A workable, minimal RULE
installation can be done in about 200 or 250 MB.  500 MB should be
enough for XWindow and a window manager.  Less than this, and you should
probably not start the process.  NOTE:  Somebody please correct me if
these numbers are inaccurate!!

Next, perform your backups if you have not done so, and either create a
boot floppy from your current Mandrake installation, or acquire one of
the numerous pre-made boot/root rescue disks that various people have
made available on the 'Net.  The one I currently use is ramf, which is
available from
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery/!INDEX.html (note that
there are a LOT of rescue disks here - take your time and decide what
you like).

Now, you are ready for a repartitioning of the drive.  Here is where you
have the aforementioned two choices.  You can use a commercial product,
or a free/open source one.  The two that I have previously used are
Partition Magic by a company called PowerQuest
(http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/) or parted, by the GNU
Project (http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/parted.html).  Either one of
these can do the job nicely.  Use it to shrink your current partition(s)
in order to create sufficient free space for your RULE installation. 
Note that parted CANNOT move the beginning of an ext2 or ext3 partition,
so again, you may not be able to create enough continuous free space for
a basic RULE installation.  Ideally, you would like to have all of the
free space available at the end of the drive, otherwise you will need to
make adjustments to the Mandrake installation to allow for the new
partitions that have appeared on the hard drive.  This may be something
you would like to avoid.

You can now proceed to perform the RULE installation.  One important
note is that toward the end of the RULE installation process, you will
be asked where to write the LILO bootloader.  It will be best if you do
not write it to the Master Boot Record of your hard drive.  Rather,
leave your current bootloader alone.  Once you have booted back into
Mandrake, you can mount the newly-created RULE partition using the mount
command, examine it to determine the name of the kernel, and edit your
/etc/lilo.conf or /etc/grub.conf file to add a new boot menu item that
will allow you to multiboot the system between mandrake and RULE.

I have left out some details here to keep this mail from becoming too
long.  Feel free to write back if you have more questions.  What you
would like to do is feasible, but does carry with it the risk of data
loss, so you should definitely do some reading if you are not yet
comfortable with what I have outlined here.

Regards,
C David Rigby



_______________________________________________
Rule Project HOME PAGE:  http://www.rule-project.org/en/
Rule Development Site:   http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/rule/
Rule-list at nongnu.org
http://mail.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rule-list