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Old 04-15-2005, 02:25 PM   #1
fipeso
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Registered: Apr 2005
Location: Finland, Nurmijärvi.
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Question Multiboot 2 or more Linux distros


Is it possible to have 2 or more Linux distros on the same harddisk?

What would be a practical way to partition the disk?

Maybe swap can be shared?
What about PC limitations of primary partitions?
What if I wish to install my WinXP back later? (there is this one game u.c )
 
Old 04-15-2005, 02:45 PM   #2
TigerOC
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Re: Multiboot 2 or more Linux distros

Quote:
Originally posted by fipeso

Is it possible to have 2 or more Linux distros on the same harddisk?
No problem at all with either lilo or grub. You must know where the partition of each is located. I have 3.

Quote:
What would be a practical way to partition the disk?
Depends on the space available. You can reckon on about 8GB for a base system with archived packages and much less without. Share a single /home for each distro

Quote:
Maybe swap can be shared?
Yes

Quote:
What if I wish to install my WinXP back later? (there is this one game u.c )
Installing any M$ system will erase your boot sector (mbr) and will be be replaced with the M$ one so you'll have to reload the Linux boot loader. Better to install M$ first and then Linux.
 
Old 04-15-2005, 02:58 PM   #3
fipeso
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Thank You for reply

I do have a 200GB disk, but I am not sure how I set it up three weeks ago. I have a short but a bad memory.

I'm sure I did not use the whole 200GB for slack though, and I did set up 4 partitions, that I can remember. Hope I did not make them all primary though

I have allready installed Slak only, so its to late for XP. I just hope I get the hang of this penguin, and don't have to go back to XP. I get enough of M$ at work

So if I understand correctly, one can share HOME and SWAP only?
What about TEMP?

I cant remember the others though.
 
Old 04-15-2005, 03:08 PM   #4
TigerOC
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My experience of sharing /home which makes things easier can also be a problem if you are using the same suites but different versions. A quick example I have Debian Woody and Debian Sarge installed and sharing the the same /home but problems arise because they use differing versions of kde and a finance program called gnucash. The desktop settings are saved in /home so it can be tricky. Temp is not really a factor since linux creates a /tmp itself and it is not very large. Most of the other directories relate to the distro and should be kept separate. This is because different distros use slightly differing routines.
 
  


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