Pls help me to instal a multiboot system with win-xp, ubuntu, opensuse, open solaris,fedora 11,madriva. My hard dsk is of 160 gb. Pls tell me how to partition 4 such a system n then the order in which these os must b installed ?

WinXP should be the primary partition; I think this is required. For every OS to have the same amount of GB's, you will have to partition each to about 23 GB's. You only need one swap file, and you only will want 1 boot loader, so in each installer choose to not create a swap or install the boot loader (except the last one). What I would do is install each in any order you want; with Windows the primary partition, and Ubuntu the last one installed, since it has the easiest partitioner. 160 GB is AWFUL small for ALL those.

160 GB will do for OS x 10,
if you don't have a lot of data.

Better setup a boot loader on each superblock,
then they are easy to boot from "Smart Boot Manager"
or a rescue cd, if something goes wrong.

Some Linux's installs grub in MBR by default.
.....

Here is an article that explains a way that I used and the reasons.

145 Distros

The reason I like it is you can change or update distros with minumum problems with the boot process. They say it will also will work mixing grub 1 and grub 2.


Larry

I recommend several smaller partitions for the operating systems, and then one larger one for shared data.

One way to go---but certainly not the oNLY way:

#1 (primary): Windows ~15GB

#2 (primary): Linux swap ~2GB, at the end of the drive

#3 (primary): Linux #1, ~10GB

#4 (extended): Fill the disk, if your partitioning tools allows it--otherwise, just let it grow as you add logical partitions

#5----N: (Logical partitions, as needed), ~10GB per OS (all share the same swap space)
+ 1 logical partition for shared data
The logical partitions can be in any order, but leave some empty (unpartioned) space for future growth.