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On Installing Multiple Linux Distros on a Computer

Guys, I was planning to install Ubuntu, Fedora and Backtrack on the same computer (along with Windows 7). My Specifications are:

2.67 Core i5
4GB DDR3 RAM
500 GB HDD

I have a system running Windows 7 with 3 partitions (240, 130, 130) GBs. And I was planning on freeing out 30GB of space and dividing it into 3 new partitions. And, then, installing one linux-distro on each. Will the idea work ?

I've been running Ubuntu on vmware for some time but I'm quite not happy with it. So, I was planning to install it along with Windows. And, then, the idea came to have Fedora and Backtrack too. But, then, came the fear of conflict between these distros...

So, are there any chances of conflict between these distros when installed side-by-side ?

What makes you unhappy about Ubuntu? I guess you may want to try using a different Linux distro in Vmware first before messing with your hard disk partitioning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SandsOfArrakis (Post 4665899)

What makes you unhappy about Ubuntu?

Sorry for the confusion. It's not that I'm unhappy with Ubuntu, it's just that I'm unhappy using it on vmware.

I'm seeking its true potential.

I think having a multiboot system is a good idea, if done well though. Otherwise you can end up with an unusable system.
My advise will be read some guides first. I meant before you dive into changing settings and partitions on your hard drive find some documentation.
Another thing is Make a back up of all your data. once you have formated your disk there is no way to recover it.
Also make a recovery W7 disk. Otherwise it will cost you money if you want it back, no that you need W7 but lots of people tent to think they need it in their computers for some reason.

Actually if you could just get a different Hard Drive and do all your changes in it while your original hard drive is put away in a bubble wrap bag in a safe in case you need it back in the future.

Good luck to you!

Checkout this discussion, http://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-...oning-question, it could help you.

Hello hMeU, welcome to LQ,

Quote:

Originally Posted by hMeU (Post 4665881)

...
500 GB HDD

I have a system running Windows 7 with 3 partitions (240, 130, 130) GBs. And I was planning on freeing out 30GB of space and diving it into 3 new partitions. And, then, installing one linux-distro on each. Will the idea work ?

this is no problem. I would recommend to use more than 30GB of Space for the three distributions. I would use about 50GB or 60GB, this leads to more flexibility.

I've often used such systems. You should create one extended partition in the free space and then divide this extended partition into several logical ones. One Partition for the swap-space (which can be used for all of the distributions). With 4GB of RAM you don't need swapspace, but if you want to suspend your system to RAM, you'll need at least 4GB of swapspace. Otherwise I would create about 256 or 512 MB of swapspace. Then you will need at least two partitons for each distribution, one / and one /home. And I would additionally recommend to create a large partition which can be used from all of the distributions for shared data. I have such a partition on all my computers and mount it in /usr/local/public.

It is very useful to have a separate /home partition for any of the distributions because one cannot mix config-files for different program-versions.

Here as an example the output of "df -h" of my server which runs three distributions but no Windows

Code:

srv-zuhause:~# df -h

Dateisystem    Größe Benutzt Verf. Verw% Eingehängt auf

/dev/root        30G    18G  11G  63% /

/dev/sda5        20G    11G  8,5G  56% /home

/dev/sda6        60G    46G  11G  82% /usr/local/public

/dev/sda7        50G    42G  4,9G  90% /usr/local/music

/dev/sda2        30G    7,7G  21G  27% /usr/local/gentoo

/dev/sda9        35G    21G  13G  63% /usr/local/arch

tmpfs          1,9G      0  1,9G    0% /dev/shm

and from my laptop, which yet has Win 7 and one Linux-distribution

Code:

samsung:~# df -h

Dateisystem    Größe Benutzt Verf. Verw% Eingehängt auf

/dev/root        25G    21G  2,8G  89% /

/dev/sda7        15G    8,1G  6,2G  57% /usr/local

/dev/sda8        20G    8,3G  11G  44% /home

/dev/sda9        60G    54G  3,4G  95% /usr/local/public

/dev/sda10      61G    41G  17G  71% /usr/local/vm

tmpfs          2,0G    940K  2,0G    1% /dev/shm

/dev/sda3        98G    53G  46G  54% /usr/local/win7

and here the partition-scheme:

Code:

samsung:~# fdisk -l



Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes

255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spur, 38913 Zylinder, zusammen 625142448 Sektoren

Einheiten = Sektoren von 1 × 512 = 512 Bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x096716b2



  Gerät  boot.    Anfang        Ende    Blöcke  Id  System

/dev/sda1            2048    31459327    15728640  27  Hidden NTFS WinRE

/dev/sda2  *    31459328    31664127      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda3        31664128  236791807  102563840    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda4      236791808  625137344  194172768+  5  Erweiterte

/dev/sda5      236791871  289234259    26221194+  83  Linux

/dev/sda6      289234323  299740769    5253223+  82  Linux Swap

/dev/sda7      299740833  331212104    15735636  83  Linux

/dev/sda8      331212168  373173884    20980858+  83  Linux

/dev/sda9      373173948  499027094    62926573+  83  Linux

/dev/sda10      499027158  625137344    63055093+  83  Linux

Markus

Installing those three distributions in and of itself won't be any conflict but it is easy for a user with limited knowledge to create problems. You might glance through the article below on booting multiple systems.

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...hreadid=143973

10GB is a pretty small space for a current operating system. Ubuntu once installed will be 4-5GB. Depends upon what you plan to do. How were you going to create this space and where on the hard drive? If you plan on installing it on the end of the drive you may have problems booting due to BIOS limitations.

If your hard drive is 500 GB allowing only 30 GB for tree operating system is a little bit limiting.
Installations are very personal but you should create a 3 GB partition for swap and have it share it among the tree of them, Then you should at least allow each OS to reside in 20 GB each. that will give you room to install more applications in each and download some data in each one of them.

Good luck to you

1. Thanks to Everyone! :)

2. Yeah, I have to stick with Windows until I get familiar with the other OSes.

3. Of course, I'm no expert at using these OSes and my only purpose for installing them is to get to know to use them (as of now).

4. As far as giving "10GB" to every OS (while I have 500GBs) is concerned, I only want to know with what minimum requirements should a learner begin with. I may later use Ubuntu/Fedora as my main OS with maybe 200GBs of space or maybe more.

5. As of now, I don't have sufficient resources to back up my data, so I guess first of all I should arrange for an External HDD and backup my data and then proceed.

My plan is to proceed as follows:

a. Backup the data
(or should I rather expriment with the OSes on the external HDD instead of using it for backup ? But then, the disk read/write might be slow as compared to the internal HDD...)

b. Free around 60-90GBs (as recommended by you people) of space on using Windows Partition Manager and leave it as unallocated memory.
c. Boot with a bootable Ubuntu Disk (which I happen to have) and proceed the installation as per step by step instructions given in a technology mag that I have.
d. Then, I guess I'm gonna go through this tutorial --> http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html
e. And, then, try and install Fedora and BackTrack.

Lastly, as far as I know about partitions it's something like this -->
Every physical HDD can have atmost 4 primary partitions
In a multiboot system, every OS needs it's own primary partition

So, I guess 4 primary partitions can hold upto 4 separate OSes but my Windows Disk Management shows two Primary Partitions being used at the time. One by C: and the other is named as RECOVERY. Should I care ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by markush (Post 4666034)

You should create one extended partition in the free space and then divide this extended partition into several logical ones. One Partition for the swap-space (which can be used for all of the distributions). With 4GB of RAM you don't need swapspace, but if you want to suspend your system to RAM, you'll need at least 4GB of swapspace. Otherwise I would create about 256 or 512 MB of swapspace.

I guess having sum fair amount of swap-space won't harm, rather would be better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by markush (Post 4666034)

Then you will need at least two partitons for each distribution, one / and one /home. And I would additionally recommend to create a large partition which can be used from all of the distributions for shared data. I have such a partition on all my computers and mount it in /usr/local/public.

Yeah, I was hoping for something of this kind so that I can share all my data without having to copy here and there.
One silly question, would it be possible to access this 'large' partition from Windows too ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by hMeU (Post 4666943)

...
Yeah, I was hoping for something of this kind so that I can share all my data without having to copy here and there.
One silly question, would it be possible to access this 'large' partition from Windows too ?

Well, theoretically yes. There are programs for Windows which can read Linux-filesystems, but I've never tried that.

It is also possible to format the shared partition with fat32, but then you don't have any filepermissions on the partition which means, that the permissions are lost once a file is stored on there. I've tried this once, but it was very unconvenient.

Markus

I am dual booting OpenSuSE 12.1 & Windows 7. I basically have a /home directory under OpenSuSE with 100GB, another 100GB for Windows 7 and I have another partition of 100GB to throw inthere files that I would want access from Linux or Windows, these files are mainly data, by that I mean Mp3, Avi, PDFs and photos. Nothing executable nor anything to do with any OS.

I have another installation in an old Pentium IV with 80GB hard drive. I am triple booting Slackware, OpenSuse, & FreeBSD. I installed FreeBSD in its own 25GB partition for the rest I created a 2GB swap which is shared. Then 10GB for Root of Slackware and 10 GB root for OpenSuSE
They both share /home which is the rest of the disk.

Now in your case you wont be able to access your Linux data from windows but from Linux you can go into windows partitions just fine.

I am facing similar situation with FreeBSD.
Good luck to you!