Articles, Reports & Tips

Part 2: Linux hard drive installation

This article/tutorial will show you how to install Linux directly to your hard drive without disturbing your Windows master boot record (MBR).

The most important part of this method is the simple to use, absolutely spectacular boot manager GAG. GAG is an open source graphical boot manager which supports up to 9 operating systems. It can be installed on the first track of the hard disk. It can also be installed on a floppy and this is the method we will be using here in this demonstration. This will allow us to install the Linux boot loader GRUB in the Linux Root partition. For future reference remember – I said Linux Root partition, NOT Linux Boot partition. We will NOT be creating a boot partition.

When we want to boot Windows normally, we will leave the GAG floppy out of the floppy drive. When we want to boot Linux, we will insert the GAG floppy into the floppy drive; GAG will turn the boot process over to Grub, which we installed in the Linux Root partition and Linux will boot like a charm. There are several methods of accomplishing the same thing, but this is by far the easiest.

Very Important!

I do not recommend using this method for Linux distributions that use portage for updates as I believe you need a small boot partition to compile new/updated kernels. In this case you could simply install Grub or Lillo to floppy and get the same result. GAG just makes it easier to use one floppy for more than one OS as it takes much less time to configure and nothing ever goes wrong. If I install Grub or Lillo to floppy, I always use separate floppies for each Linux operating system. GAG likes to be installed on the Root partition rather than the Boot partition, and once you make a Boot partition most Linux installers do not give you the option to install Grub or Lillo on any other partition.

NOTE: Although there are some installation tips in this tutorial, and a quite simple openSUSE 10.2 installation is used as an example, this article is intended for semi-advanced users and assumes you already know something about partitioning hard drives (outside and/or inside a Linux environment) and installing Linux in general. This article/tutorial is offered as is and I take no responsibly for any mishaps. With that said – You can do it!

In all reality there is no way to mess up your Windows installations, because (so to speak) Windows will never know what you are doing as it is left out of the entire procedure; unless of course, you decide to change the size of your Windows system partition to make room for Linux. This can be done if you know what you are doing. If you don’t know what you are doing, I would recommend using a second hard drive for your Linux installs. These days they are quite affordable.

If you have not used this method before now, I would recommend going over all three parts below before you attempt an install.

Part 2a: Installation & Partitioning For Gag Boot Manager

The link below will open a description page with images in a separate window.
Installation & Partitioning For Gag Boot Manager

Part 2b: Installing The Linux Boot Loader For Gag Boot Manager

The link below will open a description page with images in a separate window.
Installing The Linux Boot Loader For Gag Boot Manager

Part 2c: Installing Gag Boot Manager

The link below will open a description page with images in a separate window.
Installing Gag Boot Manager

Recap and Tips:

1. Know your hard drive layout so when you get into the installation you know exactly what you have to work with. See Part 2a.

2. When you first try this method, stick to Linux distributions with GUI installation interfaces that offer advanced partitioning and boot options (most do). openSUSE 10.2 is a good distribution to start with and is used in this tutorial.

3. Once you have a custom partition scheme you like, go over the advanced partition settings and make sure that any Linux default partition recommendations you don’t need are deleted. Read and study the images in Part 2a thoroughly and you should not have and problems.

4. GAG also comes in handy if you choose to install GRUB boot loader on your hard drive MBR when you do not want to over write GRUB after installing a second Linux OS. You would install GRUB in the second Linux disto’s /root partition and use GAG to access your second installations ‘first boot’. This would allow you to get info. needed from your /boot/grub/menu.lst file so you can copy it to your first Linux installations menu.lst file (the one with GRUB installed on your drives MBR) and let you boot both installations from your MBR.

5. GAG will not recognize partitions within LVM. So with this method, Logical Volume Management is out.

6. Backup your hard drive data before proceeding with this or any other major change or installation.

Resources

GAG Boot Manager
http://gag.sourceforge.net

GParted Gnome Partition Editor
If you ask me, the new live cd needs work. Use the gparted 0.3.3-0.iso if you can find it.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net

Linux Distributions
http://distrowatch.com

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

Tim Valentine
Access Website Design
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This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Software.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.