Installing Multiple Distros of Linux in multi-boot situation

[decatur-linux]

I have a 160-Gb drive that has Win2K in its own 40-Gb partition; the rest of the disk is unformatted and free.

I want to set up partitions so that I can install multiple distributions of (K)(U)buntu. As an example, I would like to install Ubuntu 6.06 LTS and/or Kubuntu 6.06 LTS and, in a separate partition, Kubuntu Feisty Fawn. I have several questions.

(1) Rather than having separate partitions for Ubuntu / Kubuntu would I be better off with ONE partition and install both DESKTOPS?

(2) I want to manually partition the remaining 120-Gb of the drive so that I can have a /boot partition, a /home partition, a /swap partition, etc. Since the distros that I plan to install are so similar, can I share partitions among the various distros? In other words, can I use the same /home partition for each of the versions of K/Ubuntu? Can I use the same /swap partition and the same /boot partition? If so, how should I set up the various partitions? I don't mean how should I PHYSICALLY create the partitions: I know how to do that. I mean what partitions do I need to set up so that all two/three distributions can co-exist, but share what partitions I can.

(3) If instead of Feisty Fawn I wanted to install Knoppix or SuSE or Red Hat (a disto sufficiently different from K/Ubuntu) what problems could I expect? Could I share partitions with the "foreign" distribution.

(4) I tried to install Kubuntu 6.06 in a dual boot with Win2K today, and when i got to the point of partitioning the drive I had three choices:
a. Partition the entire drive (which would defeat the dual-boot and wipe out Win2k);
b. Partition the largest contiguous space (or something like that); or
c. Manually partition the drive.
I chose (c), to manually partition the drive. I selected the 120-Gb that was free and tried to partition it. As I recall it gave me no option to set the size of the partition, and when I selected the first partition, it didn't give me the option to set up another (Swap?) partition, but said that it was ready to do the install. I didn't think that this was correct and so I aborted the install. I probably did something wrong but cannot identify what I did wrong.

I would appreciate any guidance regarding the above 4 questions. TIA.

[podunk]

Re: Installing Multiple Distros of Linux in multi-boot situation

I can't answer all of them. To be honest - I plan my partitions in advance - then cheat and use Win Xp to partition the drive. :-)

I make a list of the partitions and their size. I chose manual partition. I skip over the screen where it gives you the option to shrink and create partitions.

When I get to the screen where I set what partition does what I just use the drop down and assgin the partitions. I set the little one as swap - the next biggest as root, and the largest as /home. I put a tick by those 3 to format - and make sure that nothing else is checked.

Red Hat gave me a very hard time, I was setting it up as a server. What I ended up doing was wiping the drive, let Red Hat do whatever. I then shrunk it's drive and created partitions and restored my back ups.

It's early days for red hat and I - but so far core 4 and 6have been awful slow.

Swap is swap.

My K/Ubuntu didn't try to install a boot partition?

I never tried this - but I doubt *very* seriously you could have 2 different versions of K/Ubuntu on the same /home. You could have Kubuntu and Ubuntu of the same version on one home.

I mean - how would it write configuration files?

[decatur-linux]

Re: Installing Multiple Distros of Linux in multi-boot situation

Thanks, podunk, for your reply. I think that I will install both KDE and Gnome desktops in the same partition, and then choose which one I want to use when I login. I think that I will install Feisty Fawn in another partition as a separate /home, and then see if I can use the same SWAP file.

I've found some good sites which go into detail about dual booting K/Ubuntu, so I will see what they have to say.

The one good thing is that I have 5 or 6 hard drives mounted in cassettes, so that I can insert a spare drive and experiment with it and not mess up my "main" installation. I believe that I have one with Windows XP, one with Kubuntu 6.06, one with Kubuntu 6.10, one with Xandros, one with Knoppix, etc. And if I mess up on the spare, I just clean it off and start all over again. But I need to keep notes so that, when I get it right, I can do it over again at a later time with another disk.