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Old 10-03-2005, 10:12 AM   #1
Micro420
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How to have multiple Linux distros on a hard drive?


I have a 160GB hard drive and I would like to put Windows, Mandriva, and SUSE onto it. How would I partition my hard drive to fit all 3 distros on it?

Is this the right idea?

hda1 = windows
hda2 = "/" for Mandriva
hda3 = swap for Mandriva/SUSE
hda4 = /home for Mandriva
hda5 = "/" for SUSE
hda6 = /home for SUSE

Or, could I just consolidate hda4+hda6 and just create one /home partition for both distros?
 
Old 10-03-2005, 12:10 PM   #2
free_ouyo
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How to have multiple Linux distros on a hard drive?

Hello,

I think you need to create a extend partition to do it.

hda1 = windows
hda2 = "/" for Mandriva
hda3 = swap for Mandriva/SUSE
hda4 = extended
hda5 = /home for Mandriva
hda6 = "/" for SUSE
hda7 = /home for SUSE

I think that 2 install of Linux on the same drive may give systems some corruption or problems.
I suggest to install only one of the linux and run the second one (less used) from qemu.
I think a other solution is Xen (included in SuSE 9.3) but I don't used it yet so I can't help you in that way.
--
free_ouyo
 
Old 10-03-2005, 12:54 PM   #3
b0nd
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Re: How to have multiple Linux distros on a hard drive?

Quote:
Originally posted by Micro420
I have a 160GB hard drive and I would like to put Windows, Mandriva, and SUSE onto it. How would I partition my hard drive to fit all 3 distros on it?

Is this the right idea?

hda1 = windows
hda2 = "/" for Mandriva
hda3 = swap for Mandriva/SUSE
hda4 = /home for Mandriva
hda5 = "/" for SUSE
hda6 = /home for SUSE

Or, could I just consolidate hda4+hda6 and just create one /home partition for both distros?

ya, u shud merge hda4 and hda6.
what i would have done is

hda1 = windows
hda2 = small linux partitons for software backups ( 5 GB is enough )
hda3 = extended
hda5 = swap for Mandriva/SUSE
hda6 = /home for Mandriva/SUSE ( a big one )
hda7 = "/" for SUSE
hda8 = /" for Mandriva

first install windows
then Mandriva
then at laste SuSE

b'coz SuSE will detect yr other linux distro too........so will keep track to it too
other wise some other linux distro, while writing the MBR, don't keep track of the already installed linux...
follow
this
for having more than two linux distros on system

regards
 
Old 10-03-2005, 03:21 PM   #4
Micro420
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Thanks for the suggestions to the both of you. Much appreciated and it makes sense!

I have heard of Xen, but I can't find anyone on the SUSE forum who has tried it.

Has anyone actually done multi linux distros installations? I would also like some input from people who have actually done multi Linux distros on one system.

Last edited by Micro420; 10-03-2005 at 03:41 PM.
 
Old 10-03-2005, 04:24 PM   #5
foo_bar_foo
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hi,
you really only need / partition for each Linux install
no need for others like /home
you might want the first one to contain a dedicated small /boot patrition that holds grub configs for the others
no problems with having alot of them
remember and read about primary and logical partitions
if you want to use more than four i think it is the fourth one becomes a big one that contains within it smaller logical ones
 
Old 10-03-2005, 04:30 PM   #6
XavierP
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Pro-Tip: If you are sharing /home, make sure that the user account created in each distro not only has the same name, but the same UserID (default is, I believe, 500, but check it). Otherwise only one of the users will see the partition.
 
Old 10-03-2005, 06:05 PM   #7
stimpsonjcat
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Quote:
Originally posted by XavierP
Pro-Tip: If you are sharing /home, make sure that the user account created in each distro not only has the same name, but the same UserID (default is, I believe, 500, but check it). Otherwise only one of the users will see the partition.
won't sharing the /home directory mess up the configuration files in there? i.e. if program A on distro 1 uses the same .* files like program A on distro 2 but with different settings?
stimpy
 
Old 10-03-2005, 06:42 PM   #8
bulliver
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Quote:
Has anyone actually done multi linux distros installations? I would also like some input from people who have actually done multi Linux distros on one system.
I multi-boot 3 different gentoos, slackware, Suse, and FreeBSD on the same system. It is just a matter of installing each, and setting up your bootloader to boot them. I prefer grub, as it has advanced features that make troubleshooting a breeze. Grub could probably boot your toaster if it was networked

However, just use the bootloader from one install, for all of them, that is, when installing subsequent distros, do not reinstall grub or lilo. Just edit the grub.conf from your first install to boot everything.

I have never bothered sharing a /home partition, but if you follow XavierP's advice you should be all right. I can say that sharing swapspace is no problem at all.

Quote:
won't sharing the /home directory mess up the configuration files in there? i.e. if program A on distro 1 uses the same .* files like program A on distro 2 but with different settings?
It is possible, but it stands to reason that the same user would probably want the same settings on both distros...
 
Old 10-03-2005, 06:52 PM   #9
DaveQB
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I boot Mandriva, Gentoo and WinXP from my Mandriva LILO.conf

Sharing Swap is fine as mentioned. Sharing /home would not be recommended because as mentioned the dot files for configuration may not be compatible. The problem here is different versions of the software they may use different config options can cause programs to fail to load.

Say for eg you had KDE 3.2 on one and KDE 3.4 on the other distro, sharing ~/.kde would cause some problems.

Just have a main /home partition and then a small one for other distro's just for the configs. Then just mount your main /home/$USER in the smaller /home's so its easy to get to all your files.

But having said that, i have never shared /home across distro's and may be ok
 
Old 10-03-2005, 08:18 PM   #10
jschiwal
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The /home partition can be shared between the distros. However, Mandriva and SuSE linux use different ranges for user UIDs and system UIDs. You should use separate home directories for each distro. Choosing a separate user name for each distro would do the trick. If you tweaked one of the systems, you could have the same gid (and/or uid) for both users. That would allow you to use a common Documents or Downloads directory.

Last edited by jschiwal; 10-06-2005 at 05:56 PM.
 
  


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