Linux users who have experienced setup issues with their systems, when enabling dual boot between Linux distributions, Ubuntu 10.10 and Fedora 13. You can learn how to overcome the problem.
Basic Requirements
- Fedora 13 CD or DVD that can be downloaded from http://fedoraproject.org
- Ubuntu 10.10 CD or DVD that can be downloaded from http://www.ubuntu.com
Problem Description
When Fedora 13 is installed, it puts the boot loader into a partition of about 524 MB on your hard disk. This partition is normally labelled /boot. After you install Fedora 13, you see the various Operating Systems you can boot into when you start up your system. Fedora 13 is able to recognize the existence of Windows and make changes to the Boot Loader (GRUB) to support dual booting between Windows and Fedora 13.
However, when you install Ubuntu 10.10 after you have installed Fedora 13, it does not recognize Fedora 13. Moreover, Ubuntu uses the GRUB 2 boot loader as against the GRUB boot loader used by Fedora.
Solution
You can dual boot Ubuntu 10.10 and Fedora 13. Follow the steps given below:
| No. | Details |
| 1 | Install Fedora 13 |
| 2 | Install Ubuntu 10.10 |
| 3 | If your Ubuntu installation recognizes Fedora 13, it will automatically give you options when you boot your computer where you can select either Ubuntu 10.10 or Fedora 13. Do not proceed further. If Ubuntu 10.10 does not recognize your Fedora 13 installation, proceed further. In this case, your system will directly boot into Ubuntu 10.10. |
| 4 | We need to restore the /boot partition of Fedora 13.Insert the Fedora DVD / CD into your CD/DVD Drive and restart your computer. From the menu, select Rescue Install System. Click on “Rescue Installed System” as above. |
| 4 | At the next screen, make sure you choose to be dropped into a shell. |
| 5 | At the shell prompt: # chroot /mnt/sysimage # grub-install /dev/sda |
| 6 | That’s it, now boot up, and you will get the Fedora 13 boot menu. Now we need to boot into your Fedora 13 system and set up the GRUB of Fedora 13 to recognize and enable boot into Ubuntu 10.10. |
| 7 | Open a terminal window in Fedora 13. At the command prompt: $ su Enter your root password. # vi /boot/grub/conf |
| 8 | Select Applications → System Tools → Disk Utility. Here you now need to mount the Ubuntu 10.10 /boot partition. You can identify that by the Mount Point being empty. Correspondingly, you will see /boot as the mount point for your Fedora boot partition. Boot partition sizes are about 524 MB. So you should be able to figure out your Ubuntu partition. Mount that partition using the above Disk Utility. It will mount under /media/xxxxx |
| 9 | Read the Ubuntu /boot partition grub.cfg file Open the File Manager, go to the folder in /media/xxx/boot/grub Open the file grub.cfg You will see the lines something like below. menuentry ‘Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic’ –class ubuntu –class gnu-linux –class gnu –class os { recordfail insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(hd0,msdos5)’ search –no-floppy –fs-uuid –set 10f51c78-f3df-4e58-bfa7-7ef4482b8678 linux /vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=2afe7d1318-343d-4048-15e71e9c1a52 ro quiet splash initrd /initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic }Of the above, the red lines are what you need. |
| 10 | Switch to the terminal window you have opened.
In the Fedora file at /boot/grub/grub.conf, insert the following at the end of the file: Change the ‘linux’ to ‘kernel’ as shown above in the red text. Since my Ubuntu /boot partition is /dev/sda5, the device would be root (hd0, 4) Save your grub.conf file. |
| 11 | Now you can reboot and check if you get the option for Ubuntu 10.10 boot. |
askmeaboutlinux 