Using 2 distros, 1 /home...need some tips..
 

Hi all,
I have the following setup:
-ubuntu installed on one partition
- a seperate partition for /home
-1 gig /swap
- mandrake 10 on another partition
I have them both using /home together
I am doing this to try out and compare the two different systems, rpm vs apt-get, gnome vs kde, etc...
The only glitch i see is that they each show each others desktop items, but certain parts do not function.
Is there a cleaner way to share /home without the icon discrepnacies??
Will programs like firefox and thunderbird autiomatically share settings??
Any tips in this new (and somewhat fooolhardy) endeavor will be appreciated...
Thanks

You can have more than one distro sharing the same swap, because only one distro is running at a time. But, to try to share /home, you run into problems. Different distros may (probably will) have files with the same name (including hidden files). They will overwrite one another, and things get screwy. The only solution I can think of is to give each distro it's own /home in order to keep things separate.

Thanks, will do,, better now than latter when it gets hairy.

Try different usernames for different distros. ;)

This will lead to problems with user and group permissions. Better to use the same username, and ensure the UID is the same in both distros.

Not if you only access a users home directory in only one distro. If someone wants to share files, make a shared partition or a shared directory in /home.