Three Linux Operating Systems in One Computer (Is it possible?)

[Tony Arnold]

On Sun, 2006-09-17 at 13:21 -0700, Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote:
> > Hard Disk 1 19.42GiB IDE
> >  /dev/hda1    Extended-3        /                 6.11GiB     Primary   Boot
> >  /dev/hda7    Memory swap                      1.10GiB     Logical
> >  /dev/hda6    Extended-3       /edubuntu     6.11GiB     Logical
> >  /dev/hda5    Extended-3       /redhat         6.11GiB     Logical
> >
> > Hard Disk 2 76.69GiB SATA
> >  /dev/sda1    Windows NTFS    /media/sda1    14.75GiB    Primary    Boot
> >  /dev/sda5    Windows NTFS    /media/sda5    16.70GiB    Logical
> >  /dev/sda6    Windows NTFS    /media/sda6    16.70GiB    Logical
> >  /dev/sda7    Windows NTFS    /media/sda7    16.70GiB    Logical
> >  /dev/sda8    Windows NTFS    /media/sda8    11.84GiB    Logical
> 
> Wht don't you use LVM (Logical Volume Manager) instead of some many
> partitions? The advantages of LVM are the following:

I agree, although you may need to read up on LVM quite thoroughly before
starting down this road. If you want to configure LVM during Ubuntu
installation, then you will need the alternate CD and not the desktop
CD. The desktop installer does not support LVM during installation.

I would then divide the first disk into two partitions. The first (hda1
say) would be about 50 megabytes in size and would be mounted on /boot
by Ubuntu. I think you can get away with one /boot partition for
multiple systems. Someone else may be able to confirm, or otherwise.

The second (hda2, say) I would use as a physical volume (pvcreate) and
then use this in a volume group called VG, say (you choose a better name
if you want!).

Where you now have partitions, I would create them as logical volumes.
So you would one which would be mounted as / on Edubuntu and the other
which would be mounted as / on RedHat.

You might also want another logical volume to be mounted on /home that
could (maybe?) be shared between the two Linux systems.

Just my thoughts.

Regards,
Tony.
-- 
Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester,
IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
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