system set up.( expert knowledge required)
 

i have severall problems

problem 1.
i am currently going to set up a brand new hard drive with several flavours of linux.
i am going to use arch linux initially.
i have read some documentation and apparently to set up arch linux i need to first partition my hard drive.

i have looked into partitioning my hard drive and apparently...a good tool to use from scratch is gdisk and cgdisk.

i have looked at these products but they create something called GPT
i have an old motherboard and will clearly need MBR
apparently i have been told that gdisk and cgdisk are still fine to use as partition tools.
ok

now i have read some literature about partitioning my hard drive and it says i may need to create a swap partition.

do i have to set this up manually or does gdisk do it for me ?
will i need to set up a swap partition for each version of linux i install
i have 1 gig ram and 1 terrabyte hard drive

the next problem is i read about using something called grub...this is meant to help me organise my boot process...but someone else said no ...........use syslinux its easier...

i read the documentation on sys linux and appparently it appears that syslinux can only boot an operating system that is contatined on the same partition....so question is

is this sys linux a waste of time for me...and should i stick with grub...as i want to install several systems on several partitions..
ps i know i can only have a maximum of 4.primary partitions.

the last thing is in setting up arch you create filing systems like /bin or /lib.
now these contain library files etc.

when i install other systems...should they reference this library set up in order to run or should i load up a duplicate copy of these libraries on the partition that the new linx operating system is going to be using.

and lastly...it appears that linux uses a file system in order to partition...
the thing i am concerned about is that on my first installation of arch....i will have a root directory on my first partition...
when i install slackware on the next partition ...do i need another root directory which i know as '/' or what will i need.

i know there is a lot of confusion im going through...but if someone cares to take time to stop my confusion i will be totally grateful.

thank you

swap and /home partition can be shared across distros.
/ cannot be shared.
get parted magic live cd/usb and make partitions with gparted.
use dos/gpt table

gdisk/cgdisk/fdisk/cfdisk are programs for manually partitioning a device. If you have an older system I would recommend to go for MBR instead of GPT, so rather use fdisk or better cfdisk. To set up a swap partition (you need only one, 1GB should be sufficient for your system) at first create the partition, then change its type to 82 (Linux swap).

If you intend to boot several systems it will be easier to go for Grub in the beginning. It is no problem at all to change the bootloader later, if you feel you need to do that.

True. I would recommend to set up your first partition for your primary OS (I assume that it is Arch), the second as swap partition and the third as extra partition for data that you want to share with all systems. Then set up the fourth partition as extended partition with the rest of the space. The extended partition acts as a container in which you can create logical partitions for the other OSes you want to install.

Every distribution you install will need its own /-partition. Every Linux distro comes with its own set of libraries and program files, you don't have to take care of that and you shouldn't do that. Linking the library-directories of one distro into a different distro will break the system. The distros are independent, no distro needs files from a different distro.

Seeing your current state of Linux knowledge I would recommend to stay with Arch in the beginning and learn the basic concepts (the ArchWiki is a very good source of Linux knowledge), then go to install different distros. Otherwise the different systems may overwhelm you. Even if you are willing to learn it will take quite some time to grasp the basics.

thanks for all that information tobiSGD... i am going to take your advice and get familiar with arch before being too adveturous.i can see its all quite new and complex..but i am clearly trying to grasp too much too soon...and arch seems like a good system to get to know the linux OS.

thanks again for some solid advice.