Hello All

I am learning to partition but still have more questions.
I have a Linux only (no windows or gates) machine originally bought as a Linspire machine and works just fine with 5.0.347. I have a clean 80gb hd and I want to put four different distros on it.
I started by installing Ubuntu 5.1.0 according to the below link.
http://www.pcmech.com/show/os/903/

I then tried to install another Linspire 5.0.347 but Linspire wanted the rest of the free space so I stopped the install.

I then had the mistaken idea that I could install Kubuntu as the second distro just like I installed Ubuntu. Kubuntu took the rest of the free space like Linspire wanted to. I thought I could use the same install procedure. Not.
I can select either distro at boot time just fine but my goal is to install four different distros so I can compare them. I know it can be done but right now I am at a stand still (only two distros) until I understand more about partitioning.

I have Partition Magic 8.0 and I have attempted to use it to install four partitions without success. I have read numerous times of people doing this but I have never seen any details to speak of. Quite often the techie talk confuses me but I am slowly learning.
I know there is a max of four primary partitions and I want to have a different distro in each partition. The / partition has to be at the beginning for boot purposes.
In each partition, I want to install a / partition, a swap partition and a /home partition.
Most people seem to want to mix windows and gates with Linux from what I see in most of my searches.

Please do not talk me out of what I am trying to do as I know it can be done with the utilities I have right now.
I need a little more help on using Partition Magic 8.0.

Thank you in advance.

RichGagnon

Maybe you should learn to use fdisk. I tend to install one main distro on a primary partition, then create two more primary partitions and an extended partition using fdisk. I then install non Linux OSes on the primary partitions and create logical partitions on the extended partition to install as many Linux distros as I want.

the ubuntu and kubuntu installers have a disc partitioning utility built in you just have to tell it you want to manually edit the partition table. then go in and create them all one at a time. took me about 4 tries to figure it out and get it right but it's really not too bad once you figure it out. if you want those two distros though you can install ubuntu, then sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop then from the login menu you can choose whether you want to boot into ubuntu (gnome) or kubuntu (kde) since that's the only major difference between the two is that they are different desktop environments. if the text based partitioner gives you problems you might try Suse or some other distro that has a graphical installer and partitioner.

Hello reddazz

Thank you but what you told me is little beyond me. I tried using fdisk from a w98 recovery floppy but I was at a loss. I could not label the partitions and it gets too confusing trying to visualize what is happening.

Hello truoc444

I realize the difference between ubuntu and kubuntu and have used each but only one at a time on a 80gb hd. A lot of wasted space. I would wipe one out and install the other. I then I installed ubuntu using its partitioning method and when I tried to install kubuntu next I did not see the partitioning method and it took the remainder of the hd. This has happend twice. I will just stick with two distros per hd.
I have come to the conclusion that at 65 certain things I will never understand and I have learned to live with that issue.

Thanks all again.

Richard

You can't install 3 partitions inside a partition with Linux (BSD and Solaris can create slices in a partition).
You need to create an extended partition. An extended partition can contain lots of logical partitions. The extended partition containing the logical partitions counts as one primary partition.
All those partition rules do not really "make sense". That's just the way it works.
To install four distributions I would simplify it by installing each distribution to a single partition and have them all using a common swap.
So (for instance):
1. Primary (Linux Swap)
2. Primary (Extended Partition)
3. Logical (Distro 1)
4. Logical (Distro 2)
5. Logical (Distro 3)
6. Logical (Distro 4)
(All the logical partitions fit inside the space of the extended partition.)
To use your scheme of a "/" and "/home" for each you would just divide the partitions differently to allow for more partitions in your available space.

I meant fdsik not FDISK. Its confusing but fdisk is a partitioning tool thats available on every Linux distro and most still use it during installation. FDISK with capitals is the MS DOS tool.

So you could install a Linux distro and then use fdisk, parted or whatever tool you like to create other Linux partitions. You can even do this from a Live CD such Knoppix before you install anything on your hard drive.

richgagnon: Sounds like you need to read through the Partition HowTo: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...Partition.html