Blank Computer
 

I have a new computer with no OS's on it. I want to put Windows
XP, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Suse, Slackware and DSL (I want to have a src, rpm, deb and tgz operating system). I was going to use cfdisk, fdisk, qtparted and grub. How do I go about doing this?

I forgott I have a computer with a 160gb hard drive, 512mb of ram and a Sempron 64 bit processor. I was going to use Slackware i486, Gentoo i686, Ubuntu i386, Suse i386 and DSL i386.

First install XP and set what ever size partition you want for it. While your there make a comman vfat partition for sharing purposes. Then install each OS from there and use a common boot loader either lilo or grub. Make each OS independent of each other. You can use common swap partition (recomended size 256meg), /boot, and the vfat partition. I would keep each Linux OS with thier own /home directory. You can make them a parition of thier own but I recommend not using a common /home partition.
20 gig windows
20 gig vfat
20 gig slack
20 gig gentoo
20 gig ubuntu
20 gig suse
20 gig dsl
256 meg swap
200 meg /boot

Very size as perferred. Might be best to a have a common linux filesystem partition for file attributes to remain.

Brian1

How do I set up the partitions?

I'm a computer geek but have never worked with partitions.

In my second link of the signature I show nearly all distros were accommodated in a 5Gb partition each. 20Gb partition is an overkill as the average distro installed size ranges between 2.5 to 3.5Gb. No standard distro I know exceeds 6Gb after an installation.

Partitions are necessary if you want multi systems in one computer. Just use cfdisk program to partition the disk. My suggested scheme would be
hda1 25 to 40Gb for XP, Type 7 for NTFS
hda2 10Gb to 15Gb for may be another OS needing to reside in a primary partition, can temporary assigned type 7 and change it later.
hda3 5Gb as above

All the above as primary partitions and the balance as logical partitions. The first partition you create will be hda5 and hda4 will automatically assigned as the extended partition, which itself has no space inside except a record of the beginning and finshing point of your logical partition set.

As hda5 is at the boundary with the primary partition it is the best position to be a swap, say 1Gb size will do 99% of the cases. It should have Type 82.

hda6 onward shall be 5 or 10Gb per partition. I strongly recommend standard size so that you can rebuild the partition table if it ever get damaged. Partition type shall be 83, stands for native Linux.

Just tell an installer install any Linux in a partition, from hda6 onward, specified by you. ALl Linux will know what to do with the swap partition. No need to format any partition because no installer will trust you as they all want to format the partition before an installation. Just let the distro chooses the default filing type it prefers or use Ext3 throughout.

For booting specify the Linux you want to control booting in the MBR and all the rest to have boot loader inside each own partition. Just edit the Lilo or Grub in the MBR to boot all the rest, including XP or any BSD or Solaris if you want to throw them in.

I do not recommend multi partition for installation of a distro and do not use /boot independently. It can only confuse in a multi booting environment. By installing a Linux in a single partition it is a lot easier to maintain because each will have /boot as a subdirectory and you know exactly where to fetch its kernel. It is no fun to install several distros' kernels in a common /boot partition because you will never know which kernel belongs to which Linux.

Pop in one of your linux install disks (like the Slackware one) instead of running setup, run cfdisk to set up all your partitions
20 gig windows
20 gig vfat
20 gig slack
20 gig gentoo
20 gig ubuntu
20 gig suse
20 gig dsl
512 meg swap (in cfdisk set it's type to 82)

don't try to set the type in any other partition the respective installers will do it for you.

then.... start with XP on the first Partition
Slack on the third, gentoo on 4th Ubunto on 5th... etc.


Then will come the fun of configuring the Bootloader!

When you install you'r last linux install it's Bootloader to the MBR. if it's any good it'll detect all your other installs right away. if not at least you should be able to boot you'r last Linux. at withch point you can edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/lilo.conf as nescessary.

Or just listen to saikee, who posted while I was typing.

So I just create a partition of only 5gb for each OS and use the rest for data?

I am not sure anyone here wants to tell you EXACTLY what to do. Saikee was pointing out that a linux distro does not **need** to take more than 5 GB.

My suggestion: get started with XP --plus ONE Linux distro

These steps may not be ideal, but will get you started:

1. Install XP. When it gets to partitioning, tell it to install on a 15GB partition---leaving the rest of the drive empty (no partitions, no formatting)
2. Install Ubuntu. At the partitioning step, choose the option to partition manually. Set up one 15GB partition mounted at root, and a 1GB swap partition. Again, leave the rest of the drive empty.
When it gets to the bootloader on the HD, say no. It will then ask you about installing it on a floppy (Yes)

3. Learn your way around Linux and dual-boot before you start installing more distros. At some point, get one of the boot CDs---eg the "Ultimate Boot CD". These have lots of tools for getting out of trouble---especially when playing with multiboot.

Ask your next question after you have actually done something--either my approach or someone else's. You cant break your new computer by installing OSes....;)