I multi-boot to the extreme. I have two hard drives, one with two NTFS partitions for Windows and one with 7 partitions for Linux. On the Linux partition I run four distros (PCLinuxOS, OpenSuse 10.3, Ubuntu 7.10, and one is empty for now). My main distro is Ubuntu. I test other distros for fun. My point is that it can be done very easily without disturbing your system.
You need to become familiar with a partition manager. There are several good ones for Linux. I use a graphical one. Most installers come with one. It really depends a lot on which distro and which installer. Some are easier to understand than others. I find that Suse and Fedora's are not so easy for beginners, and SimplyMEPIS (Debian based) and Ubuntu's are easier. The first trick is to get around Windows. If Windows is to be one of your dual boot partitions (you did not say) then it should be installed first and be on the first partition. Better still run them from separate drives. I have literally installed hundreds of Linux distros without disturbing Windows once because I use separate drives. Many installers will resize the Windows partition for you and establish the necessary Linux partitions in one step. Be sure to back up your Windows drive first! If you do not have Windows then this is not a consideration. If you need to do this manually from scratch then you will need at least two partitions equally divided for each Linux distro. I recommend four partitions, one for each distro, a home partition and a swap partition. The root partition in Linux has the mount point /. The home partition mount point is /home. You also get to choose the file format, usually ext3 or swap for the swap partition. The swap partition can be small 512 MB for example, if you have 512 MB of RAM. Don't exceed a GB since it won't have much affect. The root partition can be 1 GB or less for a really small distro or up to 20 GB for a big one such as Sabayon. Usually 4 GB is enough, but choose more if you have lots of room and you plan on adding lots of packages. The rest will go for your home directory. Mine is 50 GB. This gets eaten up really quickly, especially if you use it (as I do for all of the distros). Data files with music downloading and partial files can be huge. Use your discretion. My Ubuntu root partition is 30 GB and the rest are all 20 GB. The reason for having a separate home partition is this. If you decide to upgrade or re-install then you lose your home partition and all of the files if you use only one partition. If you have a separate home partition then you can not only keep your files, but also all of your settings. I have bookmarks that go back years. Each time you install a new distro it will replace the boot loader. A good distro should detect all of your partitions and set them up to boot properly from a menu (graphical or otherwise). Some have been known to mess up your boot loader. I have found Freespire to be heavy handed in this respect. Be careful to have it write to the proper drive, if you have more than one hard drive. If it doesn't add your other bootable partitions, all is not lost. As root, you go into the partiton that is not booting and navigate to /boot directory. Grub is by far the easier boot loader to modify and fortunately it is more common than LILO. You go to the sub-directory called /grub and load the file called menu.lst into into a text editor such as Kate and copy and paste sections into the same file of the boot loader that works. For example if on my system it does not show PCLinuxOS in my boot menu then as root I go to my file manager and choose my hda7 partition. I navigate to /boot in my root directory then to /grub, then load the menu.lst file into Kate. I copy the lines that refer to PCLinuxOS: title PCLinuxOS kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS root=/dev/hda7 acpi=on splash=silent vga=788 initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img Then I navigate to my Ubuntu drive hda5 to the same file in the same place. I go to the bottome of the file menu.lst and paste what I copied above. I save it and then when I reboot the option to boot PCLinuxOS appears when it didn't before. This may not be the most elegant way to do it, but has got me out of several jams. You can manually modify grub at boot time, but it isn't the same. The devices aren't even the same number. It is trickier to modify from the grub menu in my experience. My set-up is on the extreme I admit and I have learned from hard experience. It needn't be scary. to modify partitions or to install new distros. Just be logical and take your time. Cheers, Roy ----- Original Message ---- From: Joan Leach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, December 2, 2007 5:10:51 PM Subject: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] Debian EMC & Ubuntu EMC The word is multi-booting, and you have to edit the menu program depending which one you have chosen, i.e.: Grub or Lilo, but you're right on the partitioning of you're hard drive, too. It would be good to have a persistent Home folder on a separate hard drive maybe. Others will have more info, but here's a Google search to get you started: http://www.google. com/search? hl=en&client= firefox-a& channel=s& rls=org.mozilla: en-US:official& sa=X&oi=spell& resnum=0& ct=result& cd=1&q=how+ to+multiboot+ linux+&spell= 1 Welcome, and good luck, Joan peppermark1 <[EMAIL PROTECTED] net> wrote: Would like to ask group how to install both Debian & Ubuntu EMC to PC?? I can install Debian with CD but not sure how to prepare the HD partition so I will be able to install Ubuntu on the same HD and have a window to choose which one. The Debian EMC installs nicely as does the Ubuntu EMC. However I missing something as one will eliminate the other when installed individually, and vise versa. What is left is the EMC version that you last installed. Probably has something, I suspect, with preparing the HD partitions when asked by the program? Can anybody help? Would like to have both EMC's on the HD compliment each other and to be able to choose which?? Thank you for your assistance. Pete - Newby Senior C [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] <!-- #ygrp-mkp{ border:1px solid #d8d8d8;font-family:Arial;margin:14px 0px;padding:0px 14px;} #ygrp-mkp hr{ border:1px solid #d8d8d8;} #ygrp-mkp #hd{ color:#628c2a;font-size:85%;font-weight:bold;line-height:122%;margin:10px 0px;} #ygrp-mkp #ads{ margin-bottom:10px;} #ygrp-mkp .ad{ padding:0 0;} #ygrp-mkp .ad a{ color:#0000ff;text-decoration:none;} --> <!-- #ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc{ font-family:Arial;} #ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc #hd{ margin:10px 0px;font-weight:bold;font-size:78%;line-height:122%;} #ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc .ad{ margin-bottom:10px;padding:0 0;} --> <!-- #ygrp-mlmsg {font-size:13px;font-family:arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;} #ygrp-mlmsg table {font-size:inherit;font:100%;} #ygrp-mlmsg select, input, textarea {font:99% arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;} #ygrp-mlmsg pre, code {font:115% monospace;} #ygrp-mlmsg * {line-height:1.22em;} #ygrp-text{ font-family:Georgia; } #ygrp-text p{ margin:0 0 1em 0;} #ygrp-tpmsgs{ font-family:Arial; clear:both;} #ygrp-vitnav{ padding-top:10px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:77%;margin:0;} #ygrp-vitnav a{ padding:0 1px;} #ygrp-actbar{ clear:both;margin:25px 0;white-space:nowrap;color:#666;text-align:right;} #ygrp-actbar .left{ float:left;white-space:nowrap;} .bld{font-weight:bold;} #ygrp-grft{ font-family:Verdana;font-size:77%;padding:15px 0;} #ygrp-ft{ font-family:verdana;font-size:77%;border-top:1px solid #666; padding:5px 0; } #ygrp-mlmsg #logo{ padding-bottom:10px;} #ygrp-vital{ background-color:#e0ecee;margin-bottom:20px;padding:2px 0 8px 8px;} #ygrp-vital #vithd{ font-size:77%;font-family:Verdana;font-weight:bold;color:#333;text-transform:uppercase;} #ygrp-vital ul{ padding:0;margin:2px 0;} #ygrp-vital ul li{ list-style-type:none;clear:both;border:1px solid #e0ecee; } #ygrp-vital ul li .ct{ font-weight:bold;color:#ff7900;float:right;width:2em;text-align:right;padding-right:.5em;} #ygrp-vital ul li .cat{ font-weight:bold;} #ygrp-vital a{ text-decoration:none;} #ygrp-vital a:hover{ text-decoration:underline;} #ygrp-sponsor #hd{ color:#999;font-size:77%;} #ygrp-sponsor #ov{ padding:6px 13px;background-color:#e0ecee;margin-bottom:20px;} #ygrp-sponsor #ov ul{ padding:0 0 0 8px;margin:0;} #ygrp-sponsor #ov li{ list-style-type:square;padding:6px 0;font-size:77%;} #ygrp-sponsor #ov li a{ text-decoration:none;font-size:130%;} #ygrp-sponsor #nc{ background-color:#eee;margin-bottom:20px;padding:0 8px;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad{ padding:8px 0;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad #hd1{ font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold;color:#628c2a;font-size:100%;line-height:122%;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad a{ text-decoration:none;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad a:hover{ text-decoration:underline;} #ygrp-sponsor .ad p{ margin:0;} o{font-size:0;} .MsoNormal{ margin:0 0 0 0;} #ygrp-text tt{ font-size:120%;} blockquote{margin:0 0 0 4px;} .replbq{margin:4;} --> ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To unsubscribe from this list, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] & you will be removed. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
