Boot device

[isadora]

My laptop contains two disks, sda and sdb.
Mandriva is installed at sdb, at sda is Vi$ta.
Boot system setup, in MCC, shows as boot device: sda.

My target is to install Mageia at sda. This means i want to get rid of Vi$ta.
So only Mandriva and Mageia will be left.

Can anyone please give me some advise, how to handle.

[John66]

Hi isadora

Do you really want to get rid of the "alternative operating system"? (Format sda). Or you think you should do that in order to install mageia? You could have a triple-boot configuration (if you have the space in your hard drives).
But if you want to have only installed Mandriva (sdb) and mageia (sda), you could do that (wise decision!).
In mageia installation process, when you 'll be asked where you want to install your bootloader, choose what you want:

1. If you select sda for the bootloader, it means the grub will be installed outside your first mageia partition (sda1, that should be root partition ( / ), right?). So when you boot your laptop you see your "mageia grub" and from there you boot in mageia or choose to boot in Mandriva.

2. If you select sda1 ( mageia root partition) for the bootloader to be installed, it means that you have a grub allready installed in sdb (Mandriva), so from the Mandriva grub you choose which distro you want to boot. (That is what you did until now, isn't it?). That means also that in your BIOS, sdb is your primary boot device. Am I correct?

Answer me, until here, and I'll come back.

Bye
John

[isadora]

Hello John,

First many thanks for your reply.

Yes, i really want to clean out Vista, have no more reasons to keep it.
So, it is going to be only Mageia and Mandriva, each one on it's own hard-disk.
In Mandriva the device.map shows:

Code: Select all

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb

The menu.lst shows up the following:

Code: Select all

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd1,0)/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd1,0)/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux
root=UUID=0c3ae8e1-a147-47e8-9263-d081a59e4078
resume=UUID=b46815a1-19bd-40fd-af76-78e6ce9ea20b splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd1,0)/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd1,0)/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb
root=UUID=0c3ae8e1-a147-47e8-9263-d081a59e4078 splash=silent
resume=UUID=b46815a1-19bd-40fd-af76-78e6ce9ea20b
initrd (hd1,0)/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,0)/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe
root=UUID=0c3ae8e1-a147-47e8-9263-d081a59e4078 failsafe splash=silent
initrd (hd1,0)/initrd.img

title 2.6.38.2-desktop-nrj.69mib
kernel (hd1,0)/vmlinuz-2.6.38.2-desktop-nrj.69mib
BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.38.2-desktop-nrj.69mib
root=UUID=0c3ae8e1-a147-47e8-9263-d081a59e4078
resume=UUID=b46815a1-19bd-40fd-af76-78e6ce9ea20b splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd1,0)/initrd-2.6.38.2-desktop-nrj.69mib.img

title 2.6.38.6-desktop-nrj.69mib
kernel (hd1,0)/vmlinuz-2.6.38.6-desktop-nrj.69mib
BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.38.6-desktop-nrj.69mib
root=UUID=0c3ae8e1-a147-47e8-9263-d081a59e4078
resume=UUID=b46815a1-19bd-40fd-af76-78e6ce9ea20b splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd1,0)/initrd-2.6.38.6-desktop-nrj.69mib.img

My only concern is, that after installing Mageia, Mandriva can't be found
anymore. Of course, everything can be solved after installation, but i am just
wondering. Do i need to have special attention during installation of Mageia
about where to place the bootloader? Especially because the boot device now is:
/dev/sda, which will be formatted in the installation-process.

Or, am i just seeing problems, that don't exist?

[John66]

Ooops, just saw your answer. I'm reading and I'll came back

It seems my second post didn't make it through, so I write again

In your Mandriva Control Center > Set up boot system > in "Bootloader" section, in "Boot device" selection, if you see: /dev/sda (and your hard drive's make-model),

THEN YOU ARE OK !!!

Just install your mageia bootloader in /dev/sda1. You just need to edit (even now before mageia installation) your mandriva menu.lst:

title mageia
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Even if you can't find Mandriva (which I'm certain won't be the case), if you kept a copy of Mandriva 2010 spring free dvd (not Mandriva 2010.2 free dvd) you can always reinstall the bootloader.

The most important thing is, if what I wrote above is true (your Mandriva bootloader is on /dev/sda).

Bye
John

[juergen_harms]

No need for windows? happiness is ...

I still need a windows partition, just (and exclusively) for

- being able to update the bios of my machine
- configure and update my TomTom GPS
- configure my Logitech Harmony TV control gadget

Ridiculous, but I cant do without those. Question: how will you update the bios on your windowless machine? (new kernels happen all at sudden to require an up-to-date bios, for instance for correctly shutting down / restarting your system).

[Ken-Bergen]

My laptop contains two disks, sda and sdb.
Mandriva is installed at sdb, at sda is Vi$ta.
Boot system setup, in MCC, shows as boot device: sda.

My target is to install Mageia at sda. This means i want to get rid of Vi$ta.
So only Mandriva and Mageia will be left.

Can anyone please give me some advise, how to handle.

It should just work but if you're worried use MCC in Mandriva to write the boot loader to /dev/sdb.
If for some reason the Mageia installer doesn't find the Mandriva installation you can then use the bios to boot /dev/sdb.

Ken

[isadora]

Thank you all for the clear suggestions.

Juergen,

Code: Select all

I still need a windows partition, just (and exclusively) for
    - being able to update the bios of my machine

This is something what didn't came upon my mind, thank you for this hint.
On the other hand, i just recently checked for BIOS-updates for my Acer.
There hasn't been any since years.
I think i take the risk, and have a new adventure whenever a BIOS-update should be necessary.

[juergen_harms]

Statistics: I am managing 2 old Dell desktops and 1 old Dell Laptop, average age 4 years: 1 bios needed to be changed once, the others 2 or 3 times.

If you have the place, you might - as a precaution - configure your new system with an empty partition where you could install a windows system once that really becomes necessary - but you would need at least 10 Gbytes for that, 15 would be on the safe side (must not even be left empty, could be used for Linux data - e.g. photos) to be saved while you really need the place for doing a spell with windows.

[ahmad]

I can update/flash the BIOS on my MOBO using the quick flash utility which can be selected when booting, press End starts the QFlash, from there I can save the current BIOS, and flash the new one, it has an option to save/update from a Floppy or a HDD (only FAT32/16/12 are supported); aka done sans-windows :)

This a Gigabyte 945GCM-S2 MOBO.

[juergen_harms]

How did you find that out? - would be interesting to find whether this feature exists on the bios of a machine and is just well-hidden.

[isadora]

Creating a Flash Drive through Unetbootin, reboot and select in BIOS the
Flash-drive to boot from.
That could be the workaround in my case, and thus no need to have Windows on
board.

[juergen_harms]

This is a candidate for the "Tips" forum - if ever such a forum will exist

[ahmad]

How did you find that out? - would be interesting to find whether this feature exists on the bios of a machine and is just well-hidden.

From the MOBO's manual (a .pdf file).

[John66]

Hi all

ahmad is correct
My Gigabyte motherboard (GA-M720-US3) also can update BIOS, using QFlash utility. You can use also a USB flash drive (except floppy disk or HDD) to do that. No need to keep "the alternative operating system" in my hard drives. It seems most of (maybe all?) newer Gigabyte motherboards (mine is 2 years old) have this ability. Very "Linux-friendly". It should be a sticky tutorial, especially if other users have in their systems other manufacturer's motherboards with a similar utility.