On Monday 19 October 2009, Adam wrote: > Mike Kershaw wrote: > > 2) For each distro, do NOT install to the MBR. Pick the option > > to install the bootloader to that distributions partition only. > > (This will only work for distributions which are on primary > > partitions, as far as I know, but it's possible Grub will do some > > magic for you > > Here's what's worked for me: > > Partition the HD. At least 10G/distro (more is better), plus swap, > and one for common data would be nice. No need for /boot.
Yes -- no separate /boot partition. > For Linux, all of these can be either primary or extended > partitions. Windows, if used, must be on a primary partition -- > the first partition, I think, and should be installed first. Yes, that's the easiest. You can use Grub to HIDE any partitions before any primary one that Windows is on in order to make it appear as though it were the first partition on the drive -- this technique is required if you want to install multiple versions of Windows for some reason. > For each distro, install to its partition, have it use common swap > partition. Install its bootloader to that same partition, /not/ to > MBR. Repeat for each distro. > > Install Smart Boot Manager (OSS) or equivalent. You may have to > boot from a live CD to do this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_boot_loaders I like GAG, but if you need to hide/unhide partitions then I'd use Grub instead. Note that these days there are two versions of Grub -- Grub1 (now called "Grub Legacy") and Grub2 -- and the configuration between them is totally different. The latest versions of Debian and Ubuntu have both gone over to Grub2. Grub Legacy is now considered to be unsupported. > Originally I had a common /home partition for all distros, but > somebody pointed out that this is not a good idea. If two distros > have different versions of the same app, any config files in ~ > will be wrong for at least one version. I remember this coming up at one of the meetings. It is a small issue, but I'd still prefer to stick with a common /home because otherwise it gets too confusing where your data is. -- Chris -- Chris Knadle [email protected] _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Oct 7 - Glade - Linux GUIs made easy Nov 4 - Google Wave Dec 2 - MythTV Jan 6 - Git
