Maybe my setup will seem strange but let me explain.
I have had XP on drive 1 and Ubuntu on drive 2 of a dual boot old Dell. But I never use XP anymore and decided to remove it and put Knoppmyth in its place. This is my first kick at trying MythTV and if it works out well, I will likely configure a dedicated computer for it. How do I manage this without disturbing my workhorse Ubuntu installation?

Hi

It is relatively easy although I have not done across drives. I usually do triple boot as I still need the machine at work.

How large is drive 1as it may not be worth the effort.

Mike

Thanks for some encouragement! Drive 1 is 160GB; Drive 2 is 200GB. My intention was to trial Myth (having never used it before) & if all goes well, eventually dedicate this somewhat older machine to that purpose.
By the way though, others on another forum have suggested that Knoppmyth doesn't really 'like' working in a dual boot config. and I sure don't want to lose my Ubuntu installl & associated data so I have some trepidation about continuing this path. Have you been successful with a similar manipulation?

Hi,

Rather a wasteful combination of drive space.... I have posted some fairly detailed information about this topic awhile back also but was for single drive.

All the usual disclamers go here!!

Get gparted live, google will dig it up.

There is no need to kill your XP as sometime in life you may actually have to use it. If you can still boot into it, then do some prep work. I kill virtual memory, then reboot. When it comes back do checkdisk followed with defrag. Re-enable ~512 of virtual (min & max) and reboot. Do a check and take notes as to how much space is used, then try and figure what you might want to have for future projects.. suggest ~10 gig for windows.

Lay out a plan, assuming hda as drive 1, windows uses either one or two partitions.
Suggest either two or one 2 gig partition(s) to be formatted fat32. This makes content shareable between the two os. Skip this if XP is already fat32

As you may be getting the idea that there are a lot of if's and with the information available can't be helped.

Use up 3 primary partitions, make 4th partition extended, divide it to 5~6 gig for myth / and all except ~1gig. make last gig as swap which you won't use much of.

Assuming ubuntu is on hdb and uses whole drive for os and swap you can just leave it alone.

Check your layout at least twice and when you think it is right, boot gparted. You RESIZE the XP partition (takes a little while) When done, make the partition plan real. FORMAT ONLY the new partitions as ext3 and swap. Watch what is check and unchecked!

You should have:
*hda1 ~100 meg
hda2 ~ 10gig
hda3 ~ 2gig fat32
hda4 > extended
hda5 ~ 6gig / ext3
hda6 ~ 130gig /myth ext3
hda7 ~ 1gig swap

*If hda1 is XP then add a second fat32f ready boot the live cd 2 gig partition

If ready, boot live gparted cd and do it...

Reboot into KM installer. Do manual install,
select hda5 (space bar to put in a X)
critical point... make sure there is an X in boot loader into PARTITION! (I wish default were
partition for safety)

When it finishes install and you press enter on the OK it will drop to a prompt.
do ls /boot and write down vmlinuz____________________ information.
You should be back to normal looking exactly as before installing KM.

That concludes phase one KM is installed but you can't get to it, yet.

If this is confusing, practice on a different system first!!

Mike

I'm not sure what they mean by that. I currently have a WinXP/Ubuntu/Knoppmyth (front-end) and all three play nicely. I'd hesitate to multiboot a myth back-end, but only because I don't want to risk missing a scheduled recording not because of multi-boot.
The one caveat about KM is that auto install/upgrade wants KM's '/' to be hda1 and swap to be hda2. Manual install, as mjl shows, lets you do anything.

I don't see why it would make a difference but I am also using Ubuntu's GRUB install as my boot loader; KM installs LILO. Once the OS takes over the boot loader gets out of the way. I see GRUB versus LILO as a matter of preference. I am only using GRUB because Ubuntu got there last. Maybe the "doesn't really like" people don't like LILO?

The one suggestion I have when going "off the beaten path" like this. keep a journal: note your partitioning, selected options, and anything you change in files. Not only will it come in handy if you have to ask for help, it will also be nice to have when you eventually want to upgrade. I always try to do this, and even still end up wishing I had recorded more detail. For KM I usually print out the guide, use it as a checklist and take notes directly on the print-out.

BTW: I use the same swap partition for KM and Ubuntu. I got the idea from Knoppix which uses any swap partition it finds on disk when running live off CD/DVD.

Most important of all; have fun.

Hi,

jmckeown2 gave some good hints.
Very important..
BE SURE to press the space bar to mark "install boot loader to PARTITION" You then edit the ubuntu /boot/grub/menu.lst to enable a menu item for KM. I put in twice, once on top for default and once on the bottom of the list as a spare. Some Ubuntu updates modify menu.lst and you loose the top choice so that is reason for double entry. Lilo will destroy the mbr and I don't know how to make it a menu selection.

Mike