FOLLOWUP;
This is how I resolved it
I deleted the swap drive.
shrank the larger ext4 drive to about half.
made the unallocated space left over into an extended drive.
created a logical drive (large) ext4 for the next linux distro
created a logical swap drive
installed Ubuntu on new ext4 drive
Now grub shows three possible boots
1.) SolydK
2.) Ubuntu
3.) Windows 7
but wait, windows 7 won't boot from grub.
so I got this link form a forum moderator in the ubutnu forum
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
following this fixed it. NOTE: this must be done from live DVD, not booted from HDD
I am good to go with windows and 2 linux distros.
ow if I could ust get the curser to keep moving when holding down a button in Solydk or get Draftsight to install in Ubuntu and get my wirless printer to print form Ubuntu.
Yay!
Because I had to delete the original swap partiton in order to bring the number of "primary" partitions down to less tan 4 in order to create the extended drive then logical drives, I had to "tell" my first distro (SolydK) where to find the new location of the swap partition.
After I deleted the swap partition, created the extended partition, created the logical partitions (one ext4, one swap [the new swap]), intalled the new distro (ubuntu), then fixed the grub by following the instructions found here
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
I booted up in SolydK (my first linux distro) and used to terminal to perform the following;
If and when a swap partition is moved (or obsorbed, and a new one created to take it's place), you have to "tell" your distors where it is. You have to "tell" the distros what it's UUID is.
This is so the other distributions can find it.
If the swap partition was deleted and re-made somewhere else in order to accomidate the insatallation of a new distro, as it was in my case, then the newest distro installation will more than likely already know where it is because you "pointed" to it durng the installation.
In order to "show" the other, older distro installations where the swap now resides, do this with each older distro.
While booted in the other/older distro(s), open the terminal and enter
find (copy) the UUID for the "swap" partition.
"fstab" is a text document in a folder named "etc" in "root". Use a text editor to paste the UUID given for "swap", after running sudo blkid, into the fstab text document. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is;
Enter the following
Code:
gksu gedit /etc/fstab
this will open a text editor with the contents of the "fstab" document which is located in the "etc" folder
gedit may not be available in all distros so this command may not work, so open your favorite text editor, and open the "fstab" document located in "etc" in root. In either case, once you are looking at the contents of "fstab" in your text editor
replace the UUID of the one listed there for "swap" with the one you copied after running
and save.
You have to do this while in the terminal window while booted in each distro, so repeat this for each of the older distros (not the newest one that already knows where the swap partition is)
Sorry I did not mention this earlier.
So that was my full adventure with moving partitions around and adding more than one linux distro to my HDD which already had, and still has Windows.
I am pretty sure that you won't have to do all of this if you have not touched the swap partition during the creation of a new partitions....