[HLUG] Partition problem with multiple distros

[tom_poole at tiscali.co.uk]

Hi Paul,
I don't know if it will help, but have you seen the April 2011 
issue of LinuxFormat (LX143)? There's an article on installing two 
distros. Admittedly they installed on a virtual drive using virtualbox, 
butr I assume that the principle would be same for a real hard disk.

I've had trouble installing Ubuntu onto a drive that had FAT32 and ext3 
partitions. I found the answer was to remove the ext3 partition so that 
there was only FAT and unassigned space. Ubuntu installer ignored the 
FAT partition and created a new ext3 partition in the unused area.

Needless to say, back-up the HDD before trying it, just in case it 
doesn't work.
Hope this helps.

One day I will get to a meeting.


Regards
Tom Poole

>----Original Message----
>From: paul at sp-tech.co.uk

>Date: 13/03/2011 23:52 
>To: "Herefordshire Linux Users Group."
<herefordshire at mailman.lug.org.uk>
>Subj: [HLUG] Partition problem with 
multiple distros
>
>Hi all,
>
>I am trying to install several different 
distros on one PC for our 
>document freedom day event at the end of 
the month and have encountered 
>a serious problem.
>
>So far I have 
installed OpenSUSE, Fedora and PCLinuxOS, giving each a 
>10GB ext4 
partition as well as having a shared 2GB swap partition.  All 
>works 
fine and the initial PCLinuxOS GRUB menu shows the three available 

>distros, and they all run OK.
>
>However if I try to install Mint or 
Ubuntu the partitioner thinks the 
>hard disk is all unallocated and 
does not show any of the existing 
>partitions.  Gparted in both 
distros is the same.
>
>What has gone wrong and what can I do to make 
the partitions visible to 
>Mint and Ubuntu installers without breaking 
what I already have?
>
>Thanks,
>Paul
>
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