Topic: e-smith Install

[imarchak]

Can e-smith be installed on a deidicated partiton alongside other OS's?

I am interested in trying e-smith, but do not as yet have a machine I can dedicate fully to it, and the info in the website sounds as though it formats and sets the HD up itself and would nuke my existing Win & Linux partitions.

[Mike Stoddart]

No, when you install E-smith, it wipes the hard disk. It cannot co-exist with another OS.

[imarchak]

Mike,

Thanks for the info.  Not the answer I wanted, but much better to find out this way

[Eddy Maksa]

Hi to both of you,
The "Nondestructve" install is simple.

a. Make sure there is enough space for e-smith (for linux partition).
    If not, create some (e.g. by FIPS).

b. Edit ks.cfg file on Install floppy:

   # partitioning parameters
   zerombr yes
   clearpart --all

change to

   # partitioning parameters
   zerombr no
   clearpart --linux

and

   # boot loader
   lilo --append "ether=0,0,eth1" --location mbr

to

  # boot loader
  lilo --append "ether=0,0,eth1" --location partition

Above implies use of boot floppy (created during install) to  boot e-smith
and leave unchanged your normal boot to gatesware.

Happy experiments!!
eddy

[stephen]

or install in a vmware session

>Hi to both of you,
>The "Nondestructve" install is simple.
>a.  ...
>b.  ...

[imarchak]

OK, that seems reasonably simple enough.  Here's the situation I have:

/dev/hda-mbr = XOSL GUI Boot Loader (for my command line illiterate fiancee)
/dev/hda1 = Windows98-FAT32 (all of 4.3GB HD)

/dev/hda-mbr = Lilo (pointed at by /hda-mbr Boot loader)
/dev/hdb1 = Caldera OpenLinux-ext2 (1.5GB)
/dev/hdb2 = Storage etc.-ext2 (2GB)

Leaving 6.5GB free for whatever, I seem to remember seeing that e-smith is about 200MB, would it be heinously tricky to create a 200MB /dev/hdb3 and install e-smith there?  That would be the perfect solution until I was happy with my knowledge of e-smith and the config at which point I would just install the HD of the destination machine and 'find / -print | cpio -dumpv' to the new HD.

Is this crazy?

By the way thanks for the help so far!