[ubuntu-za] Installing 3 distro's on same drive.

[Johan Scheepers]

On 04/19/2011 05:19 PM, Stefano Rivera wrote:
> Hi Johan (2011.04.19_16:55:42_+0200)
>> If I intend to install 3 distro's on one drive, but would like to
>> find out if it is possible / feasible ?
> Yes.
>
>> Make 4 partitions on drive.
>> Should they be all primary. I understand linux can handle that?
> That's a bad idea, because then you can't add any more partitions
> afterwords. I'd make that swap partition extended, or put them all on
> LVM (grub2 can boot from root filesystems in LVM).
>
>> Now..should I install them in that sequence then Centos would
>> control the MBR ?
> Put one that will do a good job in control of the MBR, and tell the
> others not to touch it. I know Debian&  Ubuntu do a good job of
> detecting other distributions and listing them in the grub menu. No idea
> about others.
>
> Alternatively, put a grub in the MBR that's not controlled by any of the
> distributions, that chainloads each distro's grub in the bootsector of
> the partition.
>
>> So now what happens when ..  say I replace  any of the first 2 with
>> another/later distro ?
>> What can be done should the MBR go bad to boot the distro'S.
> Tell them not to put their bootloader on the partition, not the MBR.
> Most disros offer that option.
>
> If it does get broken, fix it. (In ubuntu, run dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc)
>
> SR
>
Good day,

Many thanks to all that gave me advice.
Much appreciated.
There will be a learning curve now before the plunge.

Thanks
Johan S