Multiple linux distros on one system?
 

I was wondering if it is possible to have multiple linux distros on one hard drive/computer system.

I would like to have Suse, fdc, redhat, debian, and what ever else on my computer.

Is this possible? Is this safe? I dont see why not. But I am a newb.

I also would have xp loaded first.

sure, if your HD space just can do it...you'll need quite a lot of it :)

Sure is possible. Depending on how good you
are with linux you could have them share a home
and var partition, or just the swapper.



Cheers,
Tink

yeah I got an 80 gig so Im all good.

I was thinking about having them all share the home folder but im not sure how to go about doing all this right. Can you give me a link or explain?

Otherwise, I will just make a bunch of partitions or something...and install each linux on them.

But whats the best way to do this that efficintly utalizes hd space and provents errors?

I hate to do a ¨me too¨ post, but I was wondering specifically about any caveats of having multiple distros share a /home partition. It seems pretty trivial to just do it. It´s possible that the same user might have different passwords for each installed distribution. Just have to keep that straight.

For a hsared /home all you need to do is keep the
numerical user-id in all distro's in sync ...
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow

They do differ. Some distro's will start counting
at 500, other's at 1000, bear that in mind when
setting the users up.



Cheers,
Tink

I dont fully understand.

/etc/password seems straight forward but I´m not so sure about shadow. I know we´re supposed to RTFM but I haven´t quite got to that part yet

Well, the numerical user-id's are what matters in the
file-system, not the names you give a user. Therefore,
if you have a user johndoe in one distro be 500, and
1000 in the next, the poor thing won't have permissions
to use /home/johndoe in one of them. And as for
passwd and shadow - they need to be in sync. passwd
stores the basic user information, shadow the password
and expiration information and such ...
man 5 passwd
man 5 shadow


Cheers,
Tink

Can you give me a guide that explains what all this means and how to do it?

If we were in the south-east of Germany I'd say
"Do faits vom Boa weg" :}

Read this one:
http://tille.soti.org/training/tldp/

And probably this one as well:
http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/index.html.gz


Cheers,
Tink

i went to babblefish and that translated means: "DO faits away from the Boa"

whatever that means...*chuckles*

thanks for the links yo!

okay I know most of that stuff. Where specifically do I need to look for the info on installing multiple Linux distros and haveing them share a home folder?

Mate, if you know all of rute and Machtelt's stuff
you should be able to understand
man 5 passwd
man 5 shadow
as well, and I don't need to elaborate on that ;)


Cheers,
Tink