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Sorry if the topic title was a bit cryptic, but let me explain the best I can. This is how I plan on setting up the hard drive on my computer partition-wise (an asterisk means planned but not yet implemented):
Windows = 130 GB
Fedora = 25 GB
Linux Test = 5 GB *
I will be taking space from my Fedora partition and leaving it empty for use as a Linux test partition. I can install various distros on there as needed to test them out and get a proper feel for them.
What I want to know is: 1) is there anything special I should know before running two Linux distros on the same drive, and 2) how can I go about properly configuring a bootloader to recognize all three OSes?
1) Not as far as I'm aware. As long as each distro has it's own root partition there should be no problems.
2) The way I did this, before I threw Windows into the bin altogether was to first partition the drive. Then I would install windows. Then I would install Linux. I havn't used Fedora but I have used Red Hat and when you install Linux it usually asks you which partition to install onto. It should give you a nice graphical view of the partitions on the hard disk and show you clearly which one has windows already installed and which ones are free. You will need to format the free partition. In fact usually Linux is installed onto several partitions so you might want to think about that first. I think the minimum would be 2 or 3 partitions. Usually you would have a 'root' partition, a 'boot' partition, a 'home' partition and a 'swap' partition. The 'boot' partition only needs to be quite small (it contains the linux kernel and the boot loader gubbins), the 'root' partition holds the rest of the Operating System (The GNU tools etc...) and the rest of the software you installl from the distribution. it needs to be large enough to accomodate all the software you might install. The 'home' partition is where the user account directories go. This is where you will store all your files and data so it needs to be big enough for your personal needs. The 'swap' partition is like the windows swap file. I think the general recomendation is that it is double the size of your RAM. Having writen all this down it's starting to sound quite complex. Your best bet is to read carefully the Fedora installation guide so that you really understand all of the steps. The chances are however that the installer will make it all much easier than I have made it sound. It will probably offer to automatically allocate all the relevant partitions for you for instance.
I have Win98 on my first drive, and then Mdk 10.0 and 9.2 on my second. Basically you:
Partition. Give each linux install at least a / and you can share 1 swap partition between them. I also give each a seperate /usr partition.
Install Windows on primary master drive
Install linux, ensure windows is a bootloader option
On subsequent linux testing, ensure your stable linux install is a working boot option so you can get back to it to fix anything (including bootloader options) via mounting other drives.
Thanks for your help, guys. So can I just use PartitionMagic (or better yet, something in Linux - is there any good partition management software for Linux?), change the partition sizes, and then fire away without having to worry about bootloaders as long as I have all my options configured right?
Well I know the Mandrake cds have the great visual partitioning installer which you can use before&without installing the OS packages. I've never used PartitionMagic.
You just have to ensure that your other linux partition is mounted and the paths to the kernels in its /boot are correct in your bootloader config, and then you can reboot your testing install without fear of being stuck with only that to boot.
...as in yes, you can multiboot. Here's my config to show how it can be done. What you're seeing is a quad-boot. I have WinXP, Gentoo, Slackware, and Debian on my drive right now. The Gentoo install has actually 6 kernels in /boot (I'll get around to deleting 4 of them soon). I can boot to Win, Slack, Deb, or any of 3 kernels in Gentoo all from Grub. You can do the same things with lilo, but I don't.lol
If you have one hard drive and it's entirely partitioned for windows then I recomment using Partition Magic to make it smaller to create room for the Linux partitions. Last time I used Mandrake I don't think it lets you resize partitions, just delete and recreate. It may have changed since then though. But as long as you have room for the linux partitions on the drive, mandrakes tool is really very good and quite easy to use.
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was to first partition the drive. Then I would install windows. Then I would install Linux. I havn't used Fedora but I have used Red Hat and when you install Linux it usually asks you which partition to install onto. It should give you a nice graphical view of the partitions on the hard disk and show you clearly which one has windows already installed and which ones are free. You will need to format the free partition. In fact usually Linux is installed onto several partitions so you might want to think about that first. I think the minimum would be 2 or 3 partitions. Usually you would have a 'root' partition, a 'boot' partition, a 'home' partition and a 'swap' partition. The 'boot' partition only needs to be quite small (it contains the linux kernel and the boot loader gubbins), the 'root' partition holds the rest of the Operating System (The GNU tools etc...) and the rest of the software you installl from the distribution. it needs to be large enough to accomodate all the software you might install. The 'home' partition is where the user account directories go. This is where you will store all your files and data so it needs to be big enough for your personal needs. The 'swap' partition is like the windows swap file. I think the general recomendation is that it is double the size of your RAM. Having writen all this down it's starting to sound quite complex. Your best bet is to read carefully the Fedora installation guide so that you really understand all of the steps. The chances are however that the installer will make it all much easier than I have made it sound. It will probably offer to automatically allocate all the relevant partitions for you for instance.
