[TriLUG] Multiple versions of Linux

[John Matthews]

Yes, you can install several versions of Linux on the same box, and it
is quite easy. My recent example is that I bootstrapped from source a
Gentoo Linux install on my laptop (looooooooong compile) and then
installed the latest Red Hat beta right alongside it.

/dev/hda1   /boot            64Mb
/dev/hda2   swap            320Mb
/dev/hda3   extended
/dev/hda5   /home (shared) ~700Mb
/dev/hda6   / (for Gentoo)  2.0Gb
/dev/hda7   / (for Red Hat) 1.9Gb

I told the newer distribution (in this case, Red Hat) to install its
files on /boot but don't overwrite the bootloader I had already
installed (in this case grub from Gentoo). Then, after installing Red
Hat, I rebooted into Gentoo and edited my menu.lst to include the new
Red Hat kernel. After doing this, a reboot and I was right into my Red
Hat install. Both distros are using a common /home structure, which
could cause problems if I'm not careful, but luckily both have about the
same version of GNOME and the same set of applications.

I've been quite pleased with the results so far.

Regards,
matt

-- 
Matt Matthews     \ ph: 919.660.2811        \ Use GNU/Linux  _o) w00t
Duke Univ., Postdoc\ jvmatthe at math.duke.edu  \____________   /\\
Dept. of Mathematics\ http://www.math.duke.edu/~jvmatthe/ \ _\_V