I want to multiboot Xp, Redhat 9, and Solaris 9.

Do I make partitions with Window's fdisk for all 3?

What would be the sequence? XP ... Redhat .. then Solaris??

thx

Hi andyoye

The first thing I strongly suggest you to do is taking a close look at:
http://multiboot.solaris-x86.org/

They have got very good documntation and even a complete free e-book dealing with "Solaris 9" for download at
http://solaris-x86.org

If I had to do the partioning I would use *Linux fdisk* because I think it is most flexible and knows *all* partition IDs, in contrast to "Windows fdisk" and "Solaris fdisk" (if that is its name).

The most reasonable order of installing seems to be
1. Windows
2. Linux
3. Solaris

I strongly suggest to install Solaris *before* Linux, because the Solaris partition uses the same partition ID as Linux Swap Partition and will be *destroyed* if the Linux installer (I do not not know Red Hat installation procedure) makes Solaris a Linux-Swap-Partition! 8-(

Furthermore you have to realise that Windows (even XP or 2000) needs an *primary partition* on the first hard disk *to boot*, while the rest of it can be installed on any partition you like.
Solaris, too, needs an *active* primary partition to boot from. This partition holds all data and all "slices" (?), the partitions whithin Solaris partion.
Linux can be installed in *any* partition you like, so I suggest to install it to a logical partion inside an extended one.

The bootmanagers of Solaris and Windows claim to own the only *active* partition on the hard disk, so I think it would be a wise move to let GRUB do the dirty booting work. ;-)
I prefer GRUB over LILO because of its superior handling of *foreign* operating systems and its power to *activate* and *deactivate* partitions during the boot process.
I haven`t tried this myself because with three Windows, two Linux, one Solaris and one BSD on one Machine it gets *awfull* complicated. 8-(

One other thing to take into account is that data exchange can become a oneway if there is no partition that all the operating systems kan *write* on!
Therefore you should create an additional "FAT32" partition.


I hope this was of any help

Pollyanna

installing soralis & how can i get solaries software