Triple Boot (Win/Linux/Linux)
 

Hi! I'm relatively new to Linux, so please bear with me as I try and figure this out...
Right now I have WinXP and Ubuntu running on my laptop using GRUB to dual boot--no problem. I'd now like to install Gentoo, but the last time I tried setting up a triple boot everything got messed up. Right now I'm at the point in the Gentoo install where I have to set up the partitions, and considering that this is where I probably messed up last time, I'd really appreciate some guidance.
-Are there any good guides for w/l/l booting? I've been searching for a while, but haven't found anything helpful/applicable to my situation.
-What do I have to be careful about while partitioning? What do OS's share (swaps? if anything) Do I have to place the partitions in any specific order (tangent to one another, etc)?
-How do I reconfigure GRUB to include Gentoo?

Here's my current disk setup:
Disk /dev/hda: 20.0 GB 20003880960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2432 cylinders
units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
/dev/hda1 (boot) start(1) end(765) blocks(6144831) id(7) system(HPFS/NTFS)
/dev/hda2 start(766) end(1373) blocks(4883760) id(83) system(linux)
/dev/hda3 start(1374) end(1422) blocks(393592+) id(5) system(extended)
/dev/hda4 start(1423) end(1485) blocks(506047+) id(83) system(linux)
/dev/hda5 start(1374) end(1422) blocks(393561) id(82) system(linux swap / solaris)

Thank you in advance!
Lyss

I don't think there's anything exceptional in that configuration..some people run even more distros on a single computer.

You can share basically all the partitions you want to, except for root where the distribution is installed (hmm..by chrooting you just might to be able to do that too? just a thought..not that I'd know if it works at all). But swap, yes, you can share that, and if you wish, you could create your /home for example so that the two linuxes share that..but that's not the point now.

Just see that they both do have their own partitions (the ones you want them to have), and that they do not format Windows in any place. When you install Gentoo, just leave the bootloader out and add it later in Ubuntu (simply see how the Gentoo kernel is named and where it's located, and remember to set the correct partition as the "root" for that section in grub).

I really can't think of how you can mess the setup. When you have Windows and Ubuntu installed, just make sure you have free space and that you only use it..I don't think the partitions have to be in any precise order, as you can freely define during the setup on which partition you wish to mount your swap and so on..

So, to cut it short: install gentoo as usually, but don't install bootloader with it (you already have one). Create the partitions and pay attention on which partitions you make the mountpoints - so you don't accidentally try to mount the Gentoo root filesystem on Ubuntu's root fs or so..Gentoo's installation should not, after all, do anything to the data you have already on your harddisk if you don't explicitly ask it to..

EDIT: oh, and if you plan to share partitions - don't format them during the installation then :) sharing a swap partition is easy, like sharing a /tmp, since it shouldn't contain any data when the computer is shut down..so it's just a matter of mounting it from the distro you wish. I'd probably share swap, /tmp and probably /home..but I don't have that many OSes so not my problem :) also, as a tip: I'd buy another HD for the other linux..really.

maybe this helps: http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...ing_a_Computer
@swap: yes you can share a swap, the rest i'm not sure about.

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