Installing two distros on one HD
I have one 20GB hard disk that I divided into 2 of 10GB partitions.
In one partitions I installed MDK9.2 with /swap, / , /boot, /usr and /home linux partitions. If I want to install another distro into the 2nd 10GB partition, do I have to make /swap, / , /boot , /usr and /home partitions or can I just leave the distro to prepare itself ? Does the second distro also use /swap partition of MDK9.2 or have to own its /swap? |
In increasing issues, you can definitely share swap, and also boot and even home. Home can be an issue with config files - screw up one, you screw up all, and if there are incompatibilities from version to version that could be an issue. Not really sure why boot would be a problem but I have heard people express reservations. And swap's a slam dunk. /, /usr, and so on, need to be separate.
One of those 'what I say, not what I do' things - don't look at my box - I've got several systems but it's all a mess. :) |
Thanks for advice digiot.
Thought that I will try to make a separate linux partitions for each distro and cross my fingers not to mess up the box :) |
for what's it worth to you.
I have a 20gig drive. I have installed 3 distros with no problems mandrake 9.1--mandrake 9.2--libranet 2.7 *each*has a 200mb swapfile..nb: swap gets barely used. have 512mb ram Hadn't one problem with booting . |
Thanks Ajarn for your advice.
BTW, do you also have root , /usr , /home partitions for each distro ? What about lilo ? TIA |
No, I have **choosen**. to take the default settings
/ (root) swap home. This is good enough to learn whats going on. your temp--usr--dev--etc will al be in the root directory. Once you know what you are doing, you always can change it , if you have a good reason for it. separate partitions certainly have their uses, but for home use, I personally don't think it is necessary About lilo : I hadn't a problem, ans also didn't lift a finger to configure it. everything happened automatic. |
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another suggestion for the thread started, if this is all linux, you can use /home as one partition and all distros can share that as well.
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Hi Ajarn and wldkos,
Thanks for all advices that I got. They help me understand how linux uses the partitions. Like I try to let the installation to arrange for default setting. ( But can I be assured the my already installed system does not go haywire ? ) TIA. |
widkos
Yes, I am well aware of the possibility of only one swap for diff installs. I choose this because *right now* I don't care about space-waste Thanks BUT, your idee about one /home I like that. What are the difficulties in doing so ? thanks |
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its very simple use other = /hada_old_linux/boot/boot_img labe = "My old Linux" make sure you store your bootloader in the native partition and not MBR... If you're installing mandrake, you'll be asked for the option ... |
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What would I have to do to dual boot with lilo? Thanks. |
'cos linux treats every device as a file, there shouldn't be any pbm...
having said that, I would suggest you to try and catch somebody who's tried that before if you really don't want to mess up with it... or do a bit of experimentation... |
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with the /home partition, you can use any distro to mount that /home and everyone can have their /home/user files just on a diff distro. |
i've put 2 different distros on the same computer. i put mandrake 9.2 on one hdd and suse on my second. i told suse to use the swap file on the 1st hard drive and it seems to work fine. i tried to tell it to use my /home partition on the other drive but it wouldn't do it cause the /home partition was ext3 and it said that the kernel wouldn't support it or something. i didn't try to fix it cause i was just messin around. but like i said it seemed to use the swap file (even one on a different hdd) just fine.
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