I run Ubuntu 8.04, how would I add another Linux Distro to my hard drive?
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Location: Hecker Settlement, Southwest Louisiana, USA
Distribution: Mainly Ubuntu but several others.
Posts: 50
Rep:
I run Ubuntu 8.04, how would I add another Linux Distro to my hard drive?
I am currently running Hardy Heron on a new custom built desktop and would like to add a couple of more distros to test them out. How would I do this?
P.S. I'm fairly new at this.
You will need to make more partitions for other distros using Qtparted or Gparted or partedmagic cd (by resizing etc). For each new distro you need a separate root partition (mounted at /). Any existing swap partition can be shared.
After this just install from a cd /dvd and you can reinstall grub to mbr or the root partition of the new distro. In the latter scenario you can 'chainload' it too.
Some distros during the installation procedure include the option to resize your main partition to allow room for installing the new distro side by side with your existing one, including giving you the option in the bootloader of booting the new distro or the old one. I believe Fedora does this. In any case, it may be safer to manually resize your partitions (assuming you used the whole disk with Ubuntu) using gparted first.
From my experience, if I remember correctly the following distributions will offer a resize option during installation, and add existing OS's to grub:
OpenSuse
PCLinuxOS
Ubuntu
Mandriva
Fedora
You can't resize a filesystem that is mounted, so you would have to do this from a live cd... or just use the partition tool that comes with the next distribution you want to install to do this.
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