help with quad-boot setup

[TheCollegeGuy]

Hello everybody, not trying to hijack the post, but in the similar lines I am trying to get four operating systems running on my Laptop: Windows 7, Fedora, FreeBSD, OpenSolaris. I am have them on my hard-disk( because I can see them when I boot my computer from GParted CD), but I am not able to boot them.

At any point of time, I am able to boot either two or three operatins systems:
Two:
Windows 7, OpenSolaris; through OpenSolaris Grub ( NO Fedora, FreeBSD)
Windows 7, Fedora; through Fedora Grub ( NO OpenSolaris, FreeBSD)
Three:
Windows 7, OpenSolaris, FreeBSD; through FreeBSD bootloader ( N0 Fedora)
Windows 7, OpenSolaris, FreeBSD; through GAG bootloader ( NO Fedora, again)

I think there is something in the way that Fedora installs itself: it automatically converts any partition that is given to it into extended partition and then divides the extended partition further.

I am writing the grub information from OpenSolaris that might help:


splashimage /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
background 215ECA
timeout 30
default 0
#---------- ADDED BY BOOTADM - DO NOT EDIT ----------
title OpenSolaris 2009.06
findroot (pool_rpool,1,a)
bootfs rpool/ROOT/opensolaris
splashimage /boot/solaris.xpm
foreground d25f00
background 115d93
kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B $ZFS-BOOTFS,console=graphics
module$ /platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/boot_archive
#---------------------END BOOTADM--------------------

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title Fedora (2.6.35.6-45.fc14.i686)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.i686 ro root=/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=VolGroup/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=VolGroup/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
initrd /initramfs-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.i686.img

# Unknown partition of type 131 found on /dev/rdsk/c10t0d0p0 partition: 3
# It maps to the GRUB device: (hd0,2) .

# Unknown partition of type 5 found on /dev/rdsk/c10t0d0p0 partition: 4
# It maps to the GRUB device: (hd0,3) .

# Unknown partition of type 101 found on /dev/rdsk/c8t0d0p0 partition: 2
# It maps to the GRUB device: (hd0,1) .

[yancek]

I believe the standard Fedora install will create a boot partition and uses LVM (logical Volume management) for system files. It would be helpful if you posted partition information. You can do that if you boot Fedora, log in to a terminal and type the command: fdisk -l (Lower case Letter L in command) and post it here.

Which bootloader do you plan to use?

[gogalthorp]

You can have only 4 primary partitions. Any more must go into an extended partition. Linux generally requires at lest 2 but the swap partition can be shared with other others. Often a third partition may be set up as home which can with some restriction also be shared with other Linux distros

showing us fdisk - l ( note lowercase L not a one)
may help

Notice you posted to the Suse group which you did not mention

[TheCollegeGuy]

Sorry, for posting Suse Linux...Actually I posted the problem in earlier thread of person having identical problem...

I will move to Fedora Forum if I can...

Okay, right now I cannot boot into Fedora becaue OpenSolaris bootloader won't allow me to..I had even tried GAG bootloader, but there also I could boot into other three operating systems but not Fedora..

But I am hoping that I am posting the disk information needed that I got from OpenSolaris:

selecting c10t0d0
Total disk size is 30401 cylinders
Cylinder size is 16065 (512 byte) blocks

Cylinders
Partition Status Type Start End Length %
========= ====== ============ ===== === ====== ===
1 IFS: NTFS 0 18484 18485 61
2 Active Solaris2 18485 20397 1913 6
3 EXT-DOS 20397 25368 4972 16
4 BSD OS 25369 30401 5033 17


SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. Create a partition
2. Specify the active partition
3. Delete a partition
4. Change between Solaris and Solaris2 Partition IDs
5. Exit (update disk configuration and exit)
6. Cancel (exit without updating disk configuration)
Enter Selection:

[oz]

Sorry, for posting Suse Linux...Actually I posted the problem in earlier thread of person having identical problem...

I will move to Fedora Forum if I can...

Hello and welcome!

I've moved it there for you.

[TheCollegeGuy]

@Ozar: Thanks

[TheCollegeGuy]

I am now able to boot FreeBSD as well from OpenSolaris grub: so essentially right now I am not able to boot just Fedora from OpenSolaris grub. Again, right now there are four partitions: The first, second and fourth are primary partitions; the third is extended partition.

On the first partition I have Windows 7, on second I have OpenSolaris, on fourth I have FreeBSD. The third partition which is extended parition is divided into two parts: the first part has ext4 filesystem and second part is LVM. The third partition is where I have Fedora installed.

I am planning to use grub of OpenSolaris to get Fedora.

[TheCollegeGuy]

This is what I see, when I used fdisk -l from Fedora live CD,

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 296962047 148480000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 296962048 327682047 15360000 bf Solaris
/dev/sda3 327682048 407554047 39936000 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 407554048 488396159 40421056 a5 FreeBSD
/dev/sda5 327684096 328708095 512000 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 328710144 407554047 39421952 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/dm-0: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders, total 6291456 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders, total 6291456 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-2: 35.1 GB, 35064381440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4263 cylinders, total 68485120 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-3: 5301 MB, 5301600256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 644 cylinders, total 10354688 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000