My harddrive is dying so I'm replacing it with a 128 GB SSD and a 500 GB HDD. The SSD is where the operating systems will live. I'd like to boot a few different distros:

One that "just works" for getting work done,

Arch and/or Slackware for learning,

and a *BSD, also for learning on. Maybe FreeBSD.

Whenever I install a 2nd linux distro, I lose the ability to boot from the first one anymore, so what's a simple way to set up for booting multiple distros?

Do I install Lilo or Grub to the MBR or to a dedicated /boot partition, or to /boot inside the distro?

Where does the boot information go for the second and third distros so the bootloader can find it?

Can someone give me a sample of what the bootloader instructions would look like to boot multiple distros?

I've been trying to find these answers for days, but have only gotten more confused. I am not a natural at this kind of stuff. This simple mind needs simple instructions. (RTFM is usually way over my dumb head.)

Your help is much appreciated!

On my system (a single 500 GB HDD with 4 Linux distros and Win7), I install each OS's bootloader to that OS's partition. I (manually) maintain a single boot partition that uses grub to chainload each OS's bootloader.

Hi,
From what I know, linux uses different partitions on the hard disk.
I think BSD use 1 partition on the hard drive and build his own partitions within this single partition.
Maybe this website can help : http://www.geodsoft.com/howto/dualboot/grub.htm.
Regards

If I remember right, BSD will only install to a primary partition. Some one else might a know work around to install BSD to an extended partition.

Thanks, y'all; this is very helpful. I'll cross my fingers and mark this as Solved.