[SWLUG] Ubuntu 64 bit and 32 bit installations

[Neil Greenwood]

2010/1/15 Marcus Davage <marcus.davage at googlemail.com>:
> I've just got a new PC (AMD Quad core 12GHz, 8GB mem, 1TB hd) and
> partitioned it with LVM, thus:
>
> $ df -h
>
> Filesystem                  Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/mapper/vgrp000-boot64   46G  5.1G   39G  12% <not used>
> /dev/mapper/vgrp000-boot32   46G  5.1G   39G  12% / <ubuntu 9.10 32bit>
> /dev/mapper/vgrp000-var      46G   16G   29G  35% /var
> /dev/mapper/vgrp000-home    724G   93G  595G  14% /home
> /dev/sda2                    92M   37M   51M  42% /boot
> /dev/sda1                    49G   13G   37G  26% <Windows XP>
>
> I'd like to be able to install Ubuntu Server 64-bit onto the boot64 LVM
> partition, but when I try and install and *not* use /var or /boot, it
> says it's going to overwrite everything in them.
>
> Now, I *could* back them up and restore them afterwards, but Jaunty uses
> Grub2 (which is as yet black magic to me, not using menu.lst), and I'm
> afraid I'll lose my Ubuntu 32 (which is the default OS) or overwrite the
> new Ubuntu 64's grub entry.
>
> Any suggestions, anyone?
>

Hi Marcus,

I take it you're using the manual partitioner in the installer, in
order to choose the partition.

I'm not sure you'll be able to share the /var and /boot partitions
between the two installations, in case you're trying. If you're not
trying to share them, they shouldn't have a mountpoint specified. One
of the options against each partition in the list should allow you to
specify "do not use" or something similar.

Sorry I'm a bit vague, it's a while since I ran the installer...
You'll probably also need to make sure that the 'format' flag is set
to false, although this might only apply if you select a mountpoint
for the partition.

HTH.
Cofion,
Neil.