Author Topic: ? about installing multiple *nixes on the same system  (Read 482 times)

jrich4

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? about installing multiple *nixes on the same system
« on: 25 November 2003, 07:59 »
I am currently running RedHat 9.0 on my current system. What I want to do is on a totally separate system install Fedora, Slackware, and maybe FreeBSD. I am planning on using grub as the bootloader and about 10gb per OS. I have never had multiple *nix OS's on the same system before only Linux and windows. If anyone has ever installed multiple *nixes on the same system and has any tips I would be greatly appreciative. In paticular I need to know how the different partitions are setup so that everything will work properly for each OS.
Thanks,
jrich4

jtpenrod

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? about installing multiple *nixes on the same system
« Reply #1 on: 25 November 2003, 12:25 »
This is not a problem. If you are going to install Free BSD, this one wants to be on a primary partition. The various Linuxes (Linuxen? Linuces?) can be on extended parts. So Primary 1 could be Fedora /root (hda1). The next part could be your extended for the Linuces, with hda5 being the swap part (make at least equal to system RAM, better yet: 2xsystem RAM. This part can be used by Slack and Fedora. That would make hda6 Fedora /home. hda7 could be Slack root, with hda8 being Slack /home. The third primary (hda3) could then be carved up for FreeBSD. Make sure that you get GRUB installed to the MBR (it will ask). Next, when you install Slack, tell it to put LILO on the root part, not the MBR. Use the "expert" LILO config to do that so you get it right. Set LILO up for a "no delay" boot straight into Slack. This is necessary as Slack doesn't come with GRUB (at least Slack 9.0 didn't). Then simply add this to the /boot/grub/menu.lst:
Code: [Select]
Where: hd0= hda, and "10"= hda(n - 1). So I had Slack on hda11, hence the "root (hd0,10)" entry for GRUB. Some distros come with GRUB already, so that it's NBD to simply tell it to use another previously installed GRUB to boot, or they come with a utility to create an "initrd.img" that GRUB can use (Deb and Libranet do this), however, Slack doesn't. Hence, the use of the chainloader option. FreeBSD will probably boot the same way.
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suselinux

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? about installing multiple *nixes on the same system
« Reply #2 on: 25 November 2003, 21:54 »
I did it the easy way and made boot disks for Fedora, and Mandrake beside my main SuSE partition.

You are usually given the choice to do so during the install process.