Can I have 2 different Linux boot loaders installed in 1 /boot partition?
 

Hi, I have a dual-boot setup with Windows 7 and Kubuntu 11.10, and want to add another Linux distro.

After setting up the partitions, I clicked advanced options, I wanted to install the second distro's boot loader to it's own /boot partition (sdb8), but it would not let me during installation, the 'OK' button is not highlighted, not clickable (possibly because the second /boot partition wasn't a primary, but logical?).

Would it be possible, during installation of the second distro, to install the boot loader to the /boot partition originally made for Kubuntu (sdb3)? It's 1gb so it should be enough.

If not what other options do I have?

The second distro also recognized Kubuntu during the disc setup.

There is no point in installing a second bootloader, just do not install it at all on the second distro and let Kubuntu's bootloader pick it up with

You only need one bootloader, which will load all your operating systems. So if you wanted to overwrite it when installing the second distro, then you could, or you could just update the Kubuntu bootloader so it knows about your new distro :)

Will I still need to make a separate /boot partition for the second distro?

No, there is no need at all to make a separate /boot-partition on any distro, as long as you aren't using a file-system for your /-partition that isn't supported by your bootloader or a software-RAID (with a different RAID-level than 1).

So I should just make the swap partition, / partition, and /home, then choose not to install the boot loader, reboot into Kubuntu, and from there update grub with

Exactly.

Thanks, finally got a triple-boot-system up and running.

Good that you have worked that out. Just keep in mind that you have to manually update Grub when the second distro installs a new kernel.

Thanks for that bit of info.

Suppose I wanted to add a third distro bringing the total number of OS's to 4, would the procedure be the same as the second distro? Ex. swap, /, /home, then upgrade Grub?

Will the number of distros only be limited by the space available on a Hard Drive and the space available in the /boot partition?

Can multiple distros share the same swap?

At first, you only need swap one time, you don't have to have a separate swap partition for every distro.
But yes, the approach would be the same. The only thing that limits your number of installed distributions is disk space and I think to remember that there is a limit in the number of logical partitions, but I don't remember how much it was.
By the way, the space in the /boot partition for that first distro is not affected by the number of distros the bootloader can boot.

OK thanks. I believe that Primary partitions are limited to 4.

User Saikee has an article up at Justlinux.com detailing how he got 145+ distro booting. But, that was before the current limit of 3 primary partitions and 1 extended partition containing 15 logical partitions (the previous limit was 64 logical). And it was using grub legacy instead of grub2. If you really want to, you may be able to reconfigure your kernel to allow the previous limit of 64 logical partitions.

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147959