chroot & slackpkg update different partition
 

I've got my ide hard-drive set up as follows

hda1 Windows Xp ( ntfs )
hda2 fat32
hda3 linux swap
hda4 ( extended )
hda5 linux (Slackware 11)
hda6 linux (Gentoo )
hda7 linux (Slackware - Gnome )
hda8 linux (Slackware - current)

I've only got one computer at my house and when I emerge update world in gentoo it takes hours. I'm still learning so what I wanted to do is be able to do is boot into my favorite partition (hda5 because it has all the family goodies on it) and login to the graphical enviroment and use it as normal. While the family is using slackware be able to go into anther console and chroot into the other partitions and let stuff update like "emerge --update world" in Gentoo or either "slackpkg update-all" if this makes since.

Is this possible?

Thanks for the help in advance.

A new console is not independent from the boot session. chroot would change the file tree for both sessions. Whatever is different from Slackware 11 to Gentoo etc would disappear. Any compiled in file paths in the boot session that are not identical in the chroot tree would break. Dynamic library references in the boot session would not be compatible with updated versions in the new file tree.

Thanks for the information on this. I was hoping that there was someway to keep from being such a computer hog around the house without buying a new machine.

davimint

You can accomplish your objective by being your own mirror. With you can update changed packages from one of the distribution mirrors and then update your systems from your own hard drive. With you can run in the background in the late night hours to minimize impact on your other users. Otherwise they would see significant competition for the internet connection.