François Patte wrote:
I have an fc6 install with LVM and want install f8.
I don't see any problem.
I have 3 hdd: sda, sdb, sdc.
sda has 1 partition: sda1 LVM
sdb has 2 partitions: sdb1 ext3 sdb2 LVM
sdc has 1 partition: sdc1 LVM
sdc1 and sdb2 are in the same volume group.
System in living in sdb and sdc and sda is practically free.
The root partition / is on sdb1 and all other vital partitions (/usr, swap, /var, /opt, /tmp and /home) are logical volumes on sdc1.
My idea is to perform the new install on sda: sda1 will be the root partition /, and build a volume group sda2 for /usr, swap, /opt /tmp and /var; /home will be left where it is.
Here begins my problem: I would like, after install retrieve (almost) all files from fc6 install. For /home, there is no problem, I think that, at install time, I will be be asked if I want to keep my /home volume wherever it is. But for other volumes (/var where my dns config is...) or /opt (where my texmf and some other out of standard are) I don't know how to get them once the new system will be installed.
How could I access to these partitions for, now, they are mounted on /dev/mapper/.... but these devices are created at boot time in the /dev which is on sdb1 and, even if I mount /dev/sdb1 from the fresh install, I will be unable to access them because the new system is mounted on sda.....
I haven't understood the details of your setup. But couldn't you run Knoppix (or one of the other Linux-on-a-CD's) and activate your LVM partitions with "vgchange -a y" (as root)? Won't "lvdisplay" then tell you the names of the corresponding devices? Then you could mount the partitions as you wish, and copy whatever you want from one to the other.
Another (related) question: is it possible, through grub, to have the 2 systems (f8 and fc6) working? I mean, not at the same time but possibly choosen at boot time? what are the magic command to give before installing the bootloader, during the installation of f8, in order to get this possibility.
Again, I'm not sure of your exact question, but it is certainly possible to have grub stanzas corresponding to different versions of Fedora.
Personally, I would not rely on the Fedora installation to setup things as I desire. I would install F8, and then re-write grub.conf to contain one or more entries for FC-6. You shouldn't need to re-install grub, as far as I can see.