🚀 go-pugleaf

I ve just done what exactly u want to do.  Dual distribution on the same 
system, Slackware 4.0 and Redhat 5.2.  Though it is not that perfect,
but it works.  My harddisk was a 4G partition into 4 partitions.

partition 1 Linux native 1G (for slackware /)
partition 2 Linux native 1G for Redhat /)
partition 3 Linux native 1G for /Oracle
partition 4 Linux extended 1G for /home and swap

I only share their home directory, so I could log on with the same user
id in the same home directory.

The thing that I ve done, is just simply using lilo to boot different
vmlinuz image.  The slackware is using kernel 2.2.5 and redhat is 2.0.36 
and set root equal to different partitions in your lilo.conf.

They work perfectly, the only drawback is everyime when 
I compiled kernel in the redhat, I need to copy the
vmlinuz to the / on the slackware disk.

Just my 2cents.
aus.computers.linux Cameron
Hutchison <camh@zip.net.au> wrote: : 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+