Hi:

My PC is currently running windows XP and Fedora 5.

I Like to install Fedora 6 and Ubuntu So I can boot to either one for testing applications. (Getting ride of windows alltogether, or maybe if possible run windows too, since I have a big hard dirve)


How this can be done? Which Os should I install first ?

Thanks

Just add the relevant entries to grub (menu.lst / grub.conf) and you will be able to boot from either of the linuxes.
You can even share the swap drive between the 2 distros and windows....

Basically, you need to install either distro first. During the partitioning step, create a / partition and a swap partition. Also create a partition mounted at /data, which you can use to share documents, music, etc between the different distros. Install the boot loader to the MBR. It should detect Windows if you want to keep it. Leave sufficient space for the other distro (about 10-20GB per distro is plenty).

Then install the other distro, creating a separate / partition. Use your /data partition from previously as /data again. Both distros can share the same swap partition. When you get to the boot loader step, tell it to install Grub to the / partition (not the MBR). Write down the partition that you installed this distro to (eg /dev/hda2).

Reboot your machine, and it should let you boot your first distro. Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst, and add the following entry:
(Assuming that you installed the second distro to /dev/hda2.)

When you reboot your machine, you should get the choice of either Fedora or Ubuntu. Choosing your second distro, and you will be "chainloaded" to the boot loader of the second distro.

I have more information Here.

I know it sounds kind of complex, but it isn't really

I hope this helps
--Ian

If you are going to run Windows as well, it should be installed first as NTLDR doesn't recognise any other operating systems. Then Linux can be installed in either order - they should pick up each other as well as windows, and configure grub accordingly.

If you use a unique username ( and uid ) for the users of each linux distro, you can also share the /home partition without any problem. You might need to manually select a different UID when creating the initial normal user. Also, use a filesystem that all the linux distros understand during the installation. For example, ext3 would be fine, but FC might not recognize reiserfs without adding a kernel boot option at the boot menu.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ht=%3Dreiserfs

The only problem I've had with multi operating systems, is mixing LVM with ordinary partions, in this case it was a shared swap. I'd set core5 up with ordinary partitions, and then installed Mandriva, using the same swap partition. After that core5 could no longer use swap, I didn't realise Mandiva was using LVM and it relabeled/formated swap.

I agree, when installing FC6 and Suse-10.2 as long as I used ext3 partitions everyting worked fine
at bootup.

Jim

HI

Thanks for all the responses. At the moment I am experimenting with the suggestions mentioned here.

I forgot to mention I had purchased a 160G disk for my Toshiba laptop which came with a disclaimer saying some BIOS might not recognize beyond 137G. I understood this as "I have to install all boot loaders on the first parition If I choose to have 4 partition of 40G each".

Can I upgrade/reinstall any of OS's in their respective partitions at a later time if I choose the above scheme without needing to redo the bootloading sector except minor changes to the grub entry names ?

ex. Lets say partition 3 holds fedora 6 and I want to wipe it out and install fedora7 in few months.

Thanks for your thoughts

If you do it how I suggest Here, with a "master" GRUB and then each distro in control of its own GRUB, then you can just install a new distro in the old ones place and change the name in the master GRUB.

AFAIK, this should mean that any BIOS limitation is taken care of.

--Ian

Iball,

Nice Link. I need guys like you to take the newbies by the hand. Haven't got patience myself to explain everything in details but glad the message spreads out.

Thanks for All the replies specially Mr. IBall. I can now boot to 3 Os from a master grub with its own small partition and visible to all the distros.

I have something like following. I have yet to figure out how to call another grub from this master grub, ie in the following under Fedora 6 , instead of the binary location , I call a local grub on that partition. /Fedora6/boot/grub/menu.lst


default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,4)/master_grub/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core 6 (2.6.19-1.2895.fc6)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.19-1.2895.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.19-1.2895.fc6.img
title Windows XP
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1
title Ubuntu.....(Not installed yet )
root (hd0,5)
chainloader +1

Guys

Booting should be a child play in Linux.

In the volekvolek's menu.lst

The next partition after Ubuntu is (hd0,6), right?

If the next Linux is installed there and its boot loader is installed inside the root partition of (hd0,6) then these 3 line in the FC6 menu.lst will fire it up
The above, Gentlemen, is all you need to boot all the way to 100+ systems. In other word, install a Linux in (hd0,7) then add the same 3 lines but change the root statement for the new partition reference to (hd0,7) and so on.

I have been having the same problem, as I am trying to install Mandriva 2007, OpenSuSE 10.2, and DreamLinux (of course with winXP).I have a 60G HD. It is divided as follows: about 4G for windows Recovery (Laptop bought with it), and 7G partition for WinXP.
So in my attempts to achieve my goal, What I did was:
1-create 512M SWAP as a primary partition (which is going to be shared by all linux Os's).
2-create an extended partition with the rest of the HD( since i can't have anymore primary partitions).
3-create a 100M /boot partition within the extended part.
4-create a 19G /home partition within the extended partition which I intend it to be shared, I also prefer to have the same user name.
5-create three partitions that would be the root partition for each distro.
But the problem is with the /boot partition. every distro seems to prefer a different type of file journaling which requires to format the /boot partition.
first, Am I doing the best way of partitioning and multi-booting linux?

I think you can run into problems when more than one Linux wants to use "vmlinuz" as the kernel name or a backup kernel.

I recommend single partition per Linux and a data only partition available for mounting whenever you want.

In a single partition /boot, /home, /usr, /etc ... are just subdirectories to /. Nothing can be mixed up. When you boot, resize or migarte you do it with one partition.

Even if you go with saikee's advice,

Or if you don't, you should not share a common user in a /home partition. Desktop settings can become corrupt between the different versions of desktop managers making your shared user account un-accessible. Even if you use KDE for example for all distributions, the different versions of KDE can render the account un-accessible.