🚀 go-pugleaf

jason@jasonpNOSPAM.com writes:

>I'd like to have RedHat as full featured distribution to use at first,
>and also a barebone Slackware version to learn the ins and outs of it.
>Then as I gradually add only the things I really need/want on Slackware,
>and I know how it all works, I might keep that and scrap RH.

>So I take it that the procedure to have two linux distributions running
>as different OSs is to just create two linux native partitions and then
>with LILO choose the appropriate partition as root, right?

There are a few things you should keep separate, and some you can share.

Boot partition: This is the partition that contains vmlinuz, from which
lilo will load the kernel. You can have a single boot partition for both
distributions and still have each system boot with a different kernel. A
boot partition is not strictly necessary (/boot), but I always use one as
lilo has some restrictions on where the kernel can reside (must be
accessible by the bios, within the first 1024 cylinders I think).

Root partition: These will be separate for each distribution, as each will
have its own set of config files in /etc.

/usr partition: These should also be separate - you could share it, but
this is where each distribution will install software. If you have a single
/usr, you wont really have two different distributions, but one merged one.

/usr/local: You only need one of these. Neither distribution should put
anything in here - its for you to install software that does not come from
the distribution. Make sure nothing in /usr/local refers to files outside
/usr/local unless you're sure it's a common file. ie. Have you own
/usr/local/etc for config files, rather than sticking them in /etc (because
then you'll need two copies, on each root partition).

/home: Shared. This is one partition of mine that has survived from my
early days of linux. Been through 4 distributions without ever wiping
/home.

swap: Shared. Either distribution can use the swap partition and of course,
neither will need to use it at the same time, so you only need one of
these.

/var: This will either be on /, or if on a separate parition should not be
shared. If both distribs follow the FHS closely, you may be able to share
it, but in my experience, different distribs lay out /var differently
(perhaps subtly, but still different). Also I think redhat has /var/lib/rpm
which contains stuff specific to that distribution.

>If I created a new partition for Slackware and made it the root
>partition with LILO wouldn't it still try to use the /usr and /home
>directories from the RH distrib?

For each boot option, you can specify a different kernel and a different
root partition. Each root partition would have its own /etc/fstab which
describes where the rest of the partitions come from.

Hope this helps.
-- 
Cameron Hutchison (camh@zip.net.au) | Onward To Mars
GCS d--@ -p+ c++(++++) l++ u+ e+ m+(-) s n- h++ f? !g w+ t r+