[SOLVED] Acronis Disk Director and OS Selector

[Nazgulled]

As I have this application, I intend to use it, but I have some questions about it.

1) While doing some searching on this forum I read that if I had some unallocated space, I should leave it like that and use fdisk to create my linux partitions. But why? Why can't I create them with Acronis Disk Director? I don't happen to ahve any unallocated space, but, do you think I should create some unallocated space width Acronis Disk Director and then use fdisk to create my partitions or I can freely and manually create the partitions with Acronis Disk Director? I would prefer using acronis, but if there's some kind of problem with that I would like to be aware.

I also use Acronis OS Selector, I find it to be very good, I once had mandrake installed with Os selector and I liked it very much, it worked jsut the way I wanted and it has a nice interface. However, I don't use mandrke (nor any other distro) for some time now and I didn't have OS Selector installed yet but at the time of writing this, it's installed and I would like to use it.

So my questions about this are:

2) Can I skip step 10 on the gentoo 2005.0 handbook? (I mean, this one: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/2005.0/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10)

3) I didn't quite understood what is the /boot partition for. Do I still need it using OS Selector or I don't need to create a boot partition? My instint tells me that I still need it, but I just want to make sure.

[adaptr]

[Nazgulled]

[adaptr]

Did you manually instruct Mandrake not to install a bootloader ?
If not, then yes you did have one.

As for the rest: as I explained above, you don't need to use fdisk - nobody is forcing you.

But Acronis is a DOS/Windows program - not a Unix/Linux one.
_________________
>>> emerge (3 of 7) mcse/70-293 to /
Essential tools: gentoolkit eix profuse screen

[Nazgulled]

[adaptr]

[Nazgulled]

I don't know the technical stuff about acronis, but it sure did load mandrake... All I want to know is if I could skip step 10 cuz that step is to install lilo or grub, but since I do have an alternative to load gentoo, I don't really need lilo or grub, so I can simply skip them... That's what I think but I just need to know I'm not making something I shouldn't...

[adaptr]

Then use your Acronis program to boot and find out, no ?
_________________
>>> emerge (3 of 7) mcse/70-293 to /
Essential tools: gentoolkit eix profuse screen

[Nazgulled]

that's what I will do

[crazycat]

Actually you dont need /boot directory . You just need a kernel anywhere where grub/lilo/syslinux can read it. It's just some unix conventions about having /boot and to have it on separate partition. The great thing about linux is that you can customize it in any way you like so you can boot for example from usb drive whith syslinux bootloader using kernel on the same drive and just point it to the correct root. You can even start something else instead of /sbin/init and the system will still work. I still use boot directory cause if you compile kernel with "make install" new kernel will automatically be copied to /boot/vmlinuz and the old one will be backed up. Still i keep one safe kernel on my usb stick just in case.
[edit]
Try to switch to grub/lilo cause noone uses that acronis thingie except windows-switchers and most expirienced users (who can help you) use grub/lilo because it is the right tool for the job - "to boot your os".
[/edit]

[Nazgulled]

grub/lilo sucks, os selector has a nice interface and I like to use it. what do I care if noone uses the acronis os selector? just because noone uses it, it doesn't mean I should'nt use it... I'm using it, and it's working fine.

[revertex]