multi-OSes and partitioning

[taeb]

On Sat, Apr 08, 2006 at 10:15:45PM +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:

<SNIP>

> An extended partition is a special kind of primary partition and there 
> can only be one of them. This extended partition "contains" other 
> logical partitions (it acts like a box to put the logical ones in). 
> The absolute limit is 64 partitions total per disk, but I've seen 
> implementations that limit you to 16.

Well, that clears up one fuzzy area for me.  One of the sites I read
said: ... up to three of the partitions could be marked as EXTENDED ...


> 
> You don't have to have a conventional primary partition at all, in 
> fact a default Ubuntu install will give you one extended with two 
> logical inside. You won't be able to dual-boot Windows on a disk like 
> that though (maybe XP can cope with it, but '98 certainly couldn't).

Well, I don't have Windows so that's not a problem for me.  :)  I am
planning to run FreeDOS, though, so your point is well made.


<SNIP much useful info>

> > The partitioning scheme I'm planning to use is:
> >
> > P1: freeDOS     ~100MB
> > P2: minix3      ~900MB
> > E3: freeBSD     ~59GB
> > E4: Linux       <remainder of disk>
> >
> > Inside E4 would be partitions 5-9 laid out something like:
> > p5: Linux-1     to hold one version of Ubuntu -- current or next
> > p6: Linux-2     to hold another version of Ubuntu
> > p7: swap
> > p8: Home
> 
> That won't work, you have two extended partitions and can only have 
> one (maybe E3 is a typo). This will work better:

Nope.  I thought you could have more than one extended part.  As a test
I just tried creating more than one extended part, and by golly it only
let me do one. :)


> 
> P1: freeDOS	~100M
> P2: minix3	~900M
> P3: freeBSD	~59G
> E4:		remainder
>   L5: Linux 1
>   L6: Linux 2
>   L7: swap
>   L8: home

If I understand correctly it sounds like I could skip P3, put a
partition inside E4 and let freeBSD use it.  Not sure that'll work,
although I might try it if I have some time, just to see.  I'll probably
stay with something like the above. :)

> 
> Remember that Linux couldn't care less about this weird partition 
> convention. The only software where it matters is fdisk and others in 
> the same class.
> 
> > Any comments on conflicts or problems or whatever?
> 
> Need any help with the deep dark voodoo secrets on getting grub to 
> work intelligently on a multi-OS disk? :-)

Not until after I wipe the disk and start installing OSes.  Then:
almost certainly, I'll be back.


Alan, thank you very much for this response.  It has been very useful
and educational for me.  I appreciate your time and insight.

Best regards,
tony