I currently have Fedora installed on /dev/hda and Gentoo running on /dev/hdb. I don't use Fedora anymore but I've become very fond of Suse on my test machine. So I'd like to wipe out Fedora and install Suse on /dev/hda.

Since Fedora currently handles the bootloader on /dev/hda1 I know Suse will wipe it clean and make its own bootloader. I noticed during the Suse install on my test machine that it does not create a seperate boot partition by default. I guess that really doesn't matter but I'm worried about not being able to boot to Gentoo. Would the proper strategy be to save the Gentoo bzImage off the current Fedora boot loader somewhere, install Suse on /dev/hda, boot to Suse and add an entry for Gentoo? All I need is the bzImage for the current Gentoo kernel correct? I just need a sanity check here before I go and blow away Gentoo.

Wait for confirmation (just incase) but I'd say that as long as you don't allow SuSE to mess with your partitioning (=do auto install) there shouldn't be any need for a back-up of Gentoo. What I'd do is check your curent partition table and write down size and type of the Gentoo /boot partition (or / if you didn't make a seperate /boot) just in case you decide to alter the partitioning for SuSE so you know where to point GRUB to after SuSE installes it.

Just to let you know I got everything working. I did get a little freaked out because Suse handles the grub configuration files much differently. I eventually figured out I had to edit menu.lst to add an entry for Gentoo.

Should have told you, but then again, I haven't enough experience with different distros to have noticed much difference in the way grub works. Anyway, every time you manage to take one of these hurdles you're one step closer to being in control of your linux 8)