Dual Boot - Ubuntu and Fedora

I have seen many of the people who wants to know the steps for creating a dual boot system with both Ubuntu and Fedora. Now its better to install Fedora first and Ubuntu second as Ubuntu has a better partition manager.

Installing Ubuntu

1. I installed Ubuntu 8.0.4 as built from the latest images.

2. Booted the Ubuntu install CD and selected “Guided, use entire disk”

3. You need to select a name and password

a. I used the same name and password for both installations.

4. Once the OS was booted I went into system preferences and setup the network proxy to enable network access from within the firewall. This step is necessary if you have a firewall, if you are outside your selections might be different.

5. Using the update manager, I installed updates just to make sure everything was current.

Modifying the Disk Partition information

1. To enable a second OS on the drive we need to make room for it.

2. Boot your system using an Ubuntu “Live” CD which runs Ubuntu from CD and not from your installed setup.

a. This requires your system to be able to boot from a CD.

3. Once the Live version is up, run the GNOME Partition Manager as found in: System – Administration.

4. Select to resize the primary drive

5. Enter values that create two equally sized partitions

a. Do NOT select ok yet as it will fail since the drive is mounted.

6. Bring up a terminal window

7. Type: sudo umount /dev/sda1

a. check to make sure this is the drive you are expecting by looking at the graphical UI

8. Now with the drive unmounted, go back to the GUI and select OK and then APPLY

9. It takes some time to resize and then gives a few errors as it’s unable to auto mount the drive since it was unmounted without the GUI app knowing.

10. The result is you should have your partition ½ full and ½ unallocated now.

Installing Fedora

1. Boot your system with the Fedora install DVD

a. Select Install or upgrade an existing system

b. Skip the media test

2. GUI comes up now

a. Select Next (to continue installing)

b. Select English as the language

c. Select US English as the keyboard

d. Hostname – select Auto via DHCP

e. Root password – I used the same as I had for Ubuntu

i. Select OK if it’s a “weak” password

f. @ the dropdown box at the top, select

i. Use free space on selected drives and create default layout

g. Check the box that says you want to review and modify partitioning layout

h. I took the defaults and when clicking next was warned to write the changes to disk.

i. Accept the changes

i. You get a “Formatting file/system” message and it’s there for several minutes

j. Selecte to install a boot loader on /dev/sda

k. Add Ubuntu as /Dev/sda1 then NEXT to keep going

i. This will need some serious changes later on because Fedora doesn’t know enough about Ubuntu

l. Select to add software dev tools since you’ll be using this as a development system.

m. You can select to add a web server to your system too

n. If you want to add additional Fedora software, it requires a connection and there wasn’t a way to setup a proxy in this dialog, so I skipped that since it can be done through the software management application once the install is complete.

o. Start the actual install.

i. It goes through 1149 packages with the v9 DVD

p. Says congrats install is complete, press reboot

3. At this point when you reboot you get the Boot Manager and it shows 2 options. 1 for Fedora and 2 for Ubuntu. The Fedora option will work but the Ubuntu option needs some serious changes.

Modifying Fedora to support dual boot

As unlikely as it seems, Fedora doesn’t know how to run Ubuntu, in fact you can’t even see the Ubuntu hard drives from Fedora. So, when the Boot Manager installed to run Ubuntu, it didn’t get things right. The Ubuntu strings need to be added to the Fedora Boot Manager, here’s instructions for doing that.

1. Put the Ubuntu Live Boot CD in the system and boot it

2. Open the file /boot/grub/menu.lst

3. Once you have the file look for the section near the bottom that shows how to boot Ubuntu. It looks about like these 4 lines… YOURS will be different because the UUID info is different for each drive. You need to write it down exactly, all 4 lines (double check it too).

a. Title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19.generic

b. Root (hd0,0)

c. Kernel /boor/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19.generic root=UUID=63766a10-f196-47b2-b2be-2a057b4be170 ro quiet splash

d. Initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

4. Re-boot your system and select Fedora from the boot manager

5. Inside of Fedora, bring up a terminal by selecting: System Tools Terminal

6. In the terminal change to root by typing SU

7. Then enter the root password as requested

8. Now type: gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

9. Modify the Ubuntu entry to match what you just wrote down above

10. Save the changes

11. Reboot and check that both OS’s work now. If your Ubuntu doesn’t boot, check VERY carefully for typos as everything needs to be exactly right for this to work.

Now you have a dual boot Ubuntu-Fedora system for all your Linux development needs.

Source: Intel

The Linux Battle: Ubuntu vs. Fedora

The userbase of Linux operating systems is growing rapidly. More and more people are venturing away from Microsoft Windows and finding their way to open source operating systems. Just as more people are using them, more and more Linux distributions are available. According to DistroWatch, there are more than 400 Linux distributions available and active, with many versions for each, which in turn gives you thousands of options. With large PC manufacturers starting to offer Linux based operating systems as an option for a new computer, which operating system will come out on top and dominate this industry? Among the open source operating system crowd, there are 2 main contenders: Ubuntu and Fedora.

Ubuntu

First things first, the installation of Ubuntu was very simple and straightforward. No tricky, unfamiliar feats you must overcome. For the first time Linux user, Ubuntu is by far the easiest to start learning and also includes the most basic options which keep things simple. As you learn the operating system and desire additional features and options, they can be added separately which is great for those who are just new to the Linux scene. Most Ubuntu users are probably a little more computer literate than the average user but with a single disc install, anyone could set this operating system up. The set up process detects your hardware very well and things run smoothly. One of the driving forces to a Linux operating system is the unstable and hacker friendly Microsoft Windows. The biggest downside of Ubuntu is that there is no firewall on the system. There are solutions to work around this but this is one feature that should’ve been included. Another disappointment was the limited multimedia resources. You will probably have to look outside Ubuntu to find what you need in the multimedia department.

Fedora

This open source operating system has a strong history and has been a strong contender for awhile. Fedora has been the most consistent with stability issues which have plagued other open source operating systems. The recently added network tools are a great addition to this product and actually include eight tools into one easy to use interface. Your multimedia options are expanded somewhat but Fedora doesn’t provide any support for non open source programs that are really common among other users. The included Helix Player is fairly simple and provides a satisfactory replacement for the average multimedia user. Fedora also lacks some of the bells and whistles and human friendliness of other open source operating systems. The security options exceed those of Ubuntu, which is a strong point for Fedora.

Up to this point, Ubuntu appears to be taking the lead in the open source operating system world with a strong backing from Dell Computers. Both operating systems are fully functional and have surprisingly strong features. If you are new to Linux operating systems, Ubuntu is probably the way to go but Fedora users have no reason to jump ship quite yet.