I'd like to dual boot Fedora with Debian...

[Jim Cornette]

Redefined Horizons wrote:
> I'm a relatively new Linux User. I've been running Debian Etch for a
> few months. I recently decided to try dual-booting a RPM Based Linux
> Distro with Debian. Someone from my LUG recommended OpenSuSE, which
> choked on my hardware.
> 
> I've repartitioned my Debian box with a EXT3 partition of about 60
> Gigs. Will it be possible to install Fedora in that partition?

If you want to have a swap partition or seperate /boot partition for the 
  Fedora installation planned or want to use LVM you could choose a 
different scheme.

> 
> Or do I need to delete the partition so that it is just empty and
> unpartitioned space? If that is the case, how do I make sure that
> Fedora installs in the empty space and doesn't overwrite my Debian OS?

There are choices on install to select customize a partition scheme. The 
default is to remove all Linux partitions so you ask a very wise 
question. Letting Fedora select the partitioning scheme might be 
troublesome.

There are several pull-down choices like removing all partitions, 
customize your own schemes and a few other options. For dual-boot Linux 
setups, I would rather customize the partition schemes since it is 
better than allowing a program to go wild with what it thinks is best. I 
dual boot Fedora 6 and devel and customized both to desire during the 
installation of each.
The installer is flexible but you still must be careful as to your 
choices. There are advanced bootloader options that you might want to 
investigate when you install. You can add entries for booting off of 
partitions depending upon where you installed grub as chainloaded access 
much like Windows OS are chainloaded. This feature might work well for 
you with multiple Linux distributions as you plan.

> 
> I'm downloading the Fedora 6 DVD, which should be ready by tomorrow
> afternoon. :]

Good luck and welcome to the Fedora distribution. Of course you know the 
saying about breaking stuff and keeping all the pieces. I take it the 
saying is universal among distros.

> 
> I appreciate any assistance with these questions, and I am eager to
> give Fedora a try.
> 
> Scott Huey
> 

Jim

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