Install 2 Linux OSs (FC4 and Mandrake) with Solaris and windows
 

I am familiar with installing 3 OSs (Windows+Linux+Solaris),,,but if I want to install another Linux (say Manadrake),,,what should I do ,,do I need to put a new linux (Mandrake )in extended partition to be saperated form first installed linux (say it is FC4) ?

I am looking form some websites to do I bit of reading about this issue

What should I do with a new bootloader for Mandrake ?

Providing that you have free space on your drive, all you need to do is install mandrake in an extended partition, and during install select to install the bootloader at the root of the partition '/' (not MBR - as this will overwrite your existing bootloader). Then to boot to the new install from your current bootloader (e.g. if grub) just add an entry like this in grub.conf:

title Mandrake
root (hd0,?) #where ? is the partition you have installed to
chainloader +1

Should it be an extended partition only ? or it can be primary as well ? or it denpends how many partition currently I have got on the one HD ?


Can it be (/boot) if it is seperate form root (/) ?

No, it can be either primary or extended, but remember you can only have 4 primary partitions on a drive, so if you have already used 3, then partition 4 becomes the extended partition.

e.g.
/dev/hda1 primary
/dev/hda2 primary
/dev/hda3 primary
/dev/hda4 extended
/dev/hda5 logical
/dev/hda6 logical

Yes, I think that is ok. Mandrake should set all this up for you during install anyway. As far as I can remember Grub installs to /boot and it finds the root partition to pass to init using the 'root = /dev/hdaX' option in the config file.

A post by the "bootmeister":
http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...hreadid=143973

For instance if FC4 use /dev/hda5 to house its boot directory, can Mandrake house its boot directory on /dev/hda6 as well ?
or if FC4 uses /dev/hda7 to house its /usr directory, can Mandrake house its /usr direcotry on /dev/hda8 ?(i.e. won't be any conflict ? )

No, no problems at all. You can even share the same /home and swap partitions if you wanted to.

I had already installed FC4 within an extended partition of my second hard disk (hdb or primary slave),,,I have got free space about 20 GB within the same extended partition .

For FC4 , I created these directories within the extended partition:
A- /boot-- 200 MB (hdb5)
B- /-----10 GB (hdb6)
C- swap---260 MB---(hdb8)

I want to install manadrake within the 20 GB space.

1- Now If I want to install Manadrake,,,if I want to share swap with FC4,,,what pre-cuation do I have to consider ?

2- If I do not want to share the sawp,,,Is there any precuation ?

3- Can Manadrake share root with FC4 or /boot with FC4 ? or it should sperate partition in the extended area ?

1. no

2. no

3. no

Why would you want to do that?????

Normally a different distro means a different kernel--with everything else tweaked up so it all works together.

In a similar thread, someone pointed out that it is POSSIBLE to share kernels between distros but, again, WHY??


As for swap---"swap is swap". There is a thread here somewhere which includes the insight that swap can be several different small partitions all adding up to a maximum that the kernel can utilize (I dont recall the exact number)

Do you have precuation about sharing of swap only ? (i.e. there are no precuation to share other filesystems ?)


I did not this very well, could you please explain more, if you are aware of it

Dudydoo
Correct my understanding please....by answering "No" you meant Manadrake can share root with FC4 or /boot with FC4 and it does not need to be in the sperate partition in the extended area ?