Novice query: Installation Help

[Liam Proven]

On 3 October 2013 13:29, AP <worldwithoutfences at gmail.com> wrote:
> Because of such great options in existence, I have decided to play with the
> hard-disk on the coming Sunday (on the day I get time).

:-)


> Here is a small doubt ---> The space was made in the extended by the aid of
> GParted which ("the free space created") also came under extended after
> creation. Could this space be made as primary partition (by making GParted
> shrink the space of the already present extended partition and allocating it
> as new 'primary')...?

Yes, you can do that.

The only reasons I suggested this way are:

#1 - you don't use up an extra 1 of your 2 remaining primary partitions

#2 - partitions tend to fill up from the beginning towards the end.
This means that when you resize one, if you move the end, it's quick,
but if you move the beginning, it is very slow. It can take many
hours, as GParted has to relocate the entire contents of the disk.

> Very good if it works systematically but I am afraid to use it right now
> only because for the user who is learning the basic installation would how
> all of a sudden can install so many linuxes, though nothing is impossible
> but a danger of deterioration of time is there if the hard-work goes in
> vain, however, at the same time, a thrill of getting something new is making
> heart and mind to try for it!

Yes. Start with something simple - e.g. just 3 partitions: /, /home
and swap. This is nearly as simple as can be, but it gives you more
options for the future.

> Is it Mac?

No, I am running the Apple Mac operating system on a PC. This is
called a "Hackintosh". :-)

> Yeah, at this stage I really don't need to think for such bigger hard-disks!

Me neither. :-)

> Even suppose I have two OSes, e.g. Fedora and Ubuntu and if I have installed
> Ubuntu first like using one primary and one extended and two inside the
> extended. Now, if I installed Fedora in the above fashion (like using
> GParted), then it won't have a separate "boot manager" or the booting comes
> solely under the governance of Ubuntu which was installed as the first OS?
> Or it is in our hands to make "boot manager" separately for both and only
> then would they appear while booting and choosing the options from(while the
> PC starts)?

The way it works is that the most-recently-installed Linux takes
control of booting.

So if you install Ubuntu first, then later add Fedora, it will be
Fedora's copy of the GRUB bootloader that is in the boot-sector of
your hard disk.

But that's OK. More or less *all* Linux distros use GRUB now, so there
is no clash. And GRUB is smart - whenever it is updated, it scans your
hard disk(s) and adds all the OSes that it can find. So your menu goes
something like:

Fedora Linux
Fedora (advanced options)
Memory Test
Ubuntu Linux
Ubuntu (advanced options)

-- 
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