[ubuntu-za] ubuntu-za Digest, Vol 67, Issue 43

[Corrie Strydom]

n 20 April 2011 15:18, Peter Nel <fourdots at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:55:42 +0200
>> From: Johan Scheepers <johansche at telkomsa.net>
>> To: ubuntu-za <ubuntu-za at lists.ubuntu.com>,
>>        ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>> Subject: [ubuntu-za] Installing 3 distro's on same drive.
>> Message-ID: <4DADA26E.8000200 at telkomsa.net>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>
>> Good day,
>>
>> If I intend to install 3 distro's on one drive, but would like to find
>> out if it is possible / feasible ?
>>
>> Make 4 partitions on drive.
>>
>> Should they be all primary. I understand linux can handle that?
>>
>> For instance..
>>
>> First partition..        Ubuntu
>> second partition..    Fedora
>> third partition..        Centos
>> fourth partition..      Swap.
>>
>> Now..should I install them in that sequence then Centos would control
>> the MBR ?
>>
>> So now what happens when ..  say I replace  any of the first 2 with
>> another/later distro ?
>>
>> What can be done should the MBR go bad to boot the distro'S.
>>
>> Some advice will be appreciated
>> Thanks
>> Johan S
>>
>
> If I were you i'd save my primary partitions, since you can only have 4 of
> them per physical drive, while you can have unlimited extended partitions
> per primary partition.
> Windows, for one, can't install to anything but a primary partition. Linux
> doesn't care.
> So you can reserve unused primary partitions like this:
> 1) Primary Partition #1:
> - Extended Partition 1.1: swap (share this between all distros)
> - Extended Partition 1.2: ext4 (ubuntu)
> - Extended Partition 1.3: ext4 (fedora)
> - Extended Partition 1.4: ext4 (centos)
> 2..4) save Primary Partitions #2..#4 for something that really needs primary
> partition (e.g. 1xwindows & 1xdedicated partition for fixed page file, aka
> virtual memory, aka swap (use 64-bit blocks, if you're interested in doing
> this) -- not that i use windows, but i've done it like this before).
> Do you really need to install the OS's to the drive in order to test them
> out? Would a LiveCD not be sufficient, like ubuntu's main install disk? I
> don't know if Fedora and CentOS have live CD's.
> Have you considered debian? Would be a little bit easier to work if you know
> ubuntu (both fedora and centos are Red Hat (.rpm) based)
> --
> Péter Nel
>


Rather use a VM, like Virtualbox?

Corrie