I need my linux

[Giarc86]

I have been using Linux for a short time now and love it.
I installed it under windows, as you can do with latest ubuntu version.
Recently i bought another hard drive, so now i have a 320GB SATA and a 250 GB IDE. I want to dual boot the two now.
XP is on the 320GB and now i want to partition about 100 GB of the 250GB for Ubuntu.

When I install ubuntu will i be able to select the IDE drive and partition it or will it only find the SATA drive?
Does anyone have any pointers of how I can go about this?
I want the SATA drive with XP on untouched.

Thanks in advance

 

[slayerza]

The installer should identify the hard drives correctly regardless of SATA/IDE electronics. Only thing I found is that Grub is configured on the MBR of the primary HDD so just look out for that. If you are really paranoid unplug the windows drive, install linux and manually configure your windows drive for use with grub and linux itself.

 

[Giarc86]

That is an idea, will most probably do that then..
So I unplug the SATA, install linux on the IDE, grub will then be loaded onto the IDE. Then connect the SATA again, but change bios to boot IDE 1st? then just configure grub if i want windows or linux to boot 1st?

Another thing: is the 64 bit recommended, I do have AMD 64 bit.. or should i just stick with i386?

Thanks

 

[hawker]

If you are a relative newbie to Linux I would reccomend you stick with i386. Getting some drivers and software to work on 64bit might be a bit dicey. 64bit Flash is also a bit of a biatch I've heard. SOOO if you aren't into the whole compiling from source thing, then stick with the i386. Will probably save you a lot of headaches later!

Good luck man!

 

[Giarc86]

Thanks
will install i386 later on today then

 

[Swift-wp]

If you are a relative newbie to Linux I would reccomend you stick with i386. Getting some drivers and software to work on 64bit might be a bit dicey. 64bit Flash is also a bit of a biatch I've heard.

I´m running 64bit Hardy and it works well, never had a problem with software, not even flash. With hardy it installs ndiswrapper automatically and then installs flash, no hiccups.

 

[slayerza]

If you're still new to linux 64bit may rovied you with some serious headaches. Even though Hardy does install flash / java etc I found that these packages does not always work and thus requires some subsequent tweaking to get them working. If you are wondering about 64bit advantages you probably don't need 64bit and as such stay with i386 for now.

 

[milomak]

newer version distros generally handle the whole 64-bit issue quite well. but i would advise cutting your teeth on a i386 version just to lessen any possible frustrations while you are finding your feet.

 

[Giarc86]

Thank all
I installed linux i386 on the IDE with grub, then reconnected the SATA with xp.
But now the problem is i forgot how to edit the grub to change to boot orders, i can access grub but dont have root access to edit it, how would i go about doing this?

Thanks Again

Edit: OK i found out how, lol its coming back to me slowly

Now how do i find out which drive and partition xp is on
This is what i have, SATA is entire drive for xp, IDE is partitioned half for ubuntu other half for extra windows space

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1

title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
chainloader +1

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=4d21446c-d55c-4879-9432-20ba9c6d9dbc ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=4d21446c-d55c-4879-9432-20ba9c6d9dbc ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04, memtest86+
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

Thanks again, will be much appreciated

 

[milomak]

Post the output of the following

sudo fdisk -l
sudo cat /boot/grub/device.map

I suspect that the following might work

title Windows XP
root [b](hd1,0)[/b]
savedefault
chainloader +1

 

[Giarc86]

I tried (hd1,0) but it didn't work


fdisk

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x146e146d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 17165 137877831 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 17166 30401 106318170 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 17166 30024 103289886 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 30025 30401 3028221 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfb48fb48

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 38912 312560608+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

device.map

(hd0) /dev/sda

 

[Giarc86]

lol anyone?

 

[milomak]

have you tried adding

(hd1) /dev/sdb

to the device.map file?

 

[Giarc86]

Nope still not working I've tried everything.
I added (hd1) /dev/sdb to device map but still not working.

This is the menu.lst at the moment

## ## End Default Options ##

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Windows XP
root (hd1,0)
savedefault


title Ubuntu 8.04
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=4d21446c-d55c-4879-9432-20ba9c6d9dbc ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=4d21446c-d55c-4879-9432-20ba9c6d9dbc ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04 memtest86+
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

and this is the device map

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

When i do try boot into XP with grub is says can't find NTLDR but when i change the boot order of the drives it boots into XP fine