Multiple linux sharing one common swap

[alex]

I thought I'd be clever to avoid duplication by having 4 linuxes (two 
KNOPPIX, one SuSE, and one UBUNTU) share a single common swap  but now 
I'm  wondiring if  it's a dumb idea  There are also two MS Windows and 
four utility partitions (catch-alls for Windows and linux))

ubuntu's grub controls bootup nicely, all systems seem to work as they 
should but something seems to have upset the original partitioning 
arrangement.

When I partitioned for Linux, I  created a single 500 MB swap partition  
on hdb and  four contiguous 3.5 MB  linux root partitions on hda.   Each 
partition was cleanly defined..   I used   Ranish  Partition Manager  to 
do this.

Installation of the four Linuxes seemed normal,  Each Linux  root ( / ) 
was placed in its partition (hda5, hda6, hda7, and hda8 and at the same 
time, I selected the common 500 MB swap partition (hdb6) when I 
installed each  root..  Each linux seems to work perfectly so apparently 
no real harm has been done..

The problem is, when I recently examined the partiioning scheme, I 
discovered that the linux partitons are no longer contiguous,  there's a 
gap between them, on the order of 20 MB.----there is no gap between the 
non-linux partitions  This is observable on Ranish Partition Manager and 
also on  a graphical partitioner.

Could it be that the common shared swap is being ignored and each Linux 
steals some swap space from it's own root partition thus making it 
appear that there's a space between root partitions?    What can be done 
to make my original plan work, each Linux sharing that single 500 MB 
swap without creating that gap between / partitions?


alex, the OF





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