dual boot Kubuntu LL and Slackware with same /home partition

[miKeyBabid]

Hey there,

I'm looking to do a fresh install of Lucid Lynx on a new 400Go hard drive as my primary OS. I'd also like to try out Slackware as a dual boot.

I intend to create a 2Go Swap partition first for the two OSs to share.
I'll then install Lucid Lynx's 20Go / partition first, installing Grub2 to the MBR.
I'll then install Slackware's / partition (15 Go), installing lilo on the / partition.
The rest I'd like to allocate to /home, with the 2 OSs sharing the /home partition.

Provided that there are no major issues with my partitioning scheme (I'm rather a newbie to al this), is there anything I need to know about using the same /home partition for two OSs ? I've read varying information - often contradictory, I might add - and am starting to get a tad confused.

I'd be thankful for any advice before going ahead with formatting and installation (although there's no data on the HD so any mistakes won't cost me anything other than my time - I'd just like some of the above points clarified in my mind really.

Mike

[miKeyBabid]

Re: dual boot Kubuntu LL and Slackware with same /home partition

Ok, i think I'm starting to figure out how to share a /home directory between 2 (or more) linux distributions without running in to permission issues.

I've done some more research and (if I've understood things correctly) I need to create different user ids for each distro and a special group id for all the distros. I then need to edit fstab with "grpid" (without the " ") so that my default group owns the mountpoint in the /home directory.

Excuses for any jargon errors.

Any thoughts on all this ?

[oshunluvr]

Re: dual boot Kubuntu LL and Slackware with same /home partition

There's several ways to handle what you want to do. None of them are difficult, it's more about how you want to do it.

1. Use different UID's but the same GID's. Put data (music, documents, etc) in folders with group permissions set correctly. Set umask to allow group access to all files. Link each user home directory to the shared data directories.

2. Let each install keep the /home in it's install (root) partition. Use the same UID and GID. Put data into a shared partition (called /files or something else sensible) and mount it in each install as /home/files or whatever.

There is some danger in sharing /home because the user settings are likely to get messed up. If you use different UID's that prevents setting cross-over but could restrict access to desired files.

If you need to share more space to maximize hard drive space you can also share /tmp without much risk. Also 20gb is more than needed if you have /tmp and your personal data separate. You can do a fully loaded kubuntu install in 12gb.