dual instances of linux
 

is it possible to install two different versions of linux at the same time? i tried not realizing that they are both dependant on the "/" folder. i want to boot windows xp, ubuntu, and mandriva, i have the first 2 installed already

Yes of course you can have two (or more) distributions installed. They should each have their own partition(s).

you can have grub as a loader for that. search google for 'grub howto' for more info.

Yes. Probably the best way would be to put each OS on its own hard drive. However, most people (including myself) put each OS on its own partition. If you don't have a "spare" partition laying around on your hard drive, you need to repartition or install a second drive.

I have no experience with installing Mandriva, but I'll assume there is a step in the installation where the hard drive is partitioned. Choose to do this manually and select your new partition for the Mandriva /. You can use the same swap space as Ubuntu. Sharing /home, /boot, and other things is possible too, but a little trickier.

so it's completely fine that both partitions are called "/"

Your root partition for, say Mandriva won't be mounted on / in Ubuntu. Both distros will have their own root (/) partition, but if you want to access the files from one distro in the other, that partition will be mounted somewhere else.

Yes. When you use Ubuntu, it won't mount the Mandriva partition and vice versa. Therefore, there will only be one / that each distro "sees."

Edit: Nylex beats me to the punch again!

everyone thanks for your help, now i am at the screen where it asks me to choose a boot device, do i chose the partition that i wrote monandriva on? here are the options

/dev/hda (windows xp)
/dev/hda5 (ubuntu)
/dev/hda6 (linux swap)
/dev/hda7(now mandriva)xp

I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you in the middle of the Mandriva installation and it is asking you where you want to install it? If so, then choose /dev/hda7.

Or have you already installed Mandriva and you are at a menu asking which OS you want to boot? From what you've posted, this is the impression I get.

well i am at the part where it has already copied the cd content to the harddrive partition. it asked me to choose a boot manager and i chose grub but now it's asking to choose a boot device

It sounds like it's asking you where you want to install the boot loader (GRUB). Does the installer say something like "Where do want to install the bootloader?" And does it give you choice like the first sector of the drive, Master Boot Record, or MBR?

If that's where you're at, I would pick the MBR which is probably the first choice in the list you provided. If not, I would you to clarify exactly where you are.

thats that worked but when i reboot my pc, ubuntu isn't on the grub boot options anymore, i then tried reinstalling ubuntu but after doing this Mandriva isn't on the Grub boot list

Mandriva generally uses lilo as the boot manager, ubuntu uses grub.
This can be a PITA.

The solution is to find out which partitions your different distros are on, then modify the grub.lst file or lilo.conf (depending on which you have ended up with) to add a section to make the other distro known to the boot manager.

Oh, and please make sure you are not installing the different distros to the same partition! You can only have one distro per partition, and then whichever partition gets mounted on / runs the distro that is on that partition.
You can list your partitions with the fdisk -l command (and that is minus-ell, not minus-one)

HTH

thanks, i am installing them on different partitions, how do i edit the grub.lst, where would it generally be located

It is found at /boot/grub/menu.lst.Look at the other Linux distro entry in this file as a guide. You'll have to edit this as root. Here is the manual for GRUB that you can use as a reference. Here is an example of my menu.lst.