🚀 go-pugleaf

jason@jasonpNOSPAM.com wrote:
> 
> I have some questions that might be obvious for people with some linux
> experience but I'm new to this so forgive the stupid newbie questions.
> 
> I would like to have a setup with two different distributions of linux
> that could be chosen at boot time, probably RH and Slackware.
> The questions I have are:
> 
> 1)How do I work out the problem of having two "root" partitions with two
> boot images?
> In the RedHat install it will only allow you to select one root
> filesystem and only one can be bootable. It seems like there must be
> some way around this though.
> 
> 2)How much do the two different distributions have to be separated? In
> other words, should there be a different /, /usr, /usr/local, etc. for
> each one?  I know the install/config files are going to be setup
> differently but it seems like there should be at least some common
> ground.
> 
> 3)I already have WinNT4.0 and Win98 filling up my primary hard drive,
> and so I was going to put linux on the second drive. Could this cause
> any potential complications?
> 
> Thanks for the help in advance,
> 
> Jason

Why do you need two distrubutions?

you should be able to have them on different partitions and set the boot
image and partition in lilo as if they were different operating
systems... but if you want them bunled together... I would recommend
having only one distrubution.

But if it were to try another distrubtion I would keep it seperate.
-- 
Jeremy Lunn
Melbourne, Australia
ICQ: 19255837

Jeremy Lunn wrote:
> 
> Why do you need two distrubutions?
> 
> you should be able to have them on different partitions and set the boot
> image and partition in lilo as if they were different operating
> systems... but if you want them bunled together... I would recommend
> having only one distrubution.
> 
> But if it were to try another distrubtion I would keep it seperate.

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?

How about if I've already setup a RedHat version installed with a root,
swap, "/usr", "/usr/local" partitions.
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?
Or for a dual linux OS setup does it have to have a single partition for
each one? I don't see how I can have two "/usr" partitions one for each
partition.
How about the swap partition, can that be shared?

Jason

jason@jasonpNOSPAM.com wrote:
> 
> 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?
> 
> How about if I've already setup a RedHat version installed with a root,
> swap, "/usr", "/usr/local" partitions.
> 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?
> Or for a dual linux OS setup does it have to have a single partition for
> each one? I don't see how I can have two "/usr" partitions one for each
> partition.
> How about the swap partition, can that be shared?
> 
> Jason

Well,

You would have too different partitions... one for redhat, the other for
slackware.  If you do full installations you'll find you have allot of
the same stuff though.  Then if you want to... you can mount the
slackware partition in redhat and the redhat partition in slackware. 
From there you should be able to run most apps from the other
distrubution... but you'll probably have to compile some apps again
though... for each distrubution.

But I wouldn't recommend Slackware... it's a bit broken... it's not
thread safe... and the x server that i came with Slackware 3.6 is a bit
unstable...

Jeremy


-- 
Jeremy Lunn
Melbourne, Australia
ICQ: 19255837

In article <371DADCE.8316C21F@jasonpnospam.com>,
	jason@jasonpNOSPAM.com writes:
[snip]
> 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?
> 
> How about if I've already setup a RedHat version installed with a root,
> swap, "/usr", "/usr/local" partitions.
> 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?
> Or for a dual linux OS setup does it have to have a single partition for
> each one? I don't see how I can have two "/usr" partitions one for each
> partition.
>
> How about the swap partition, can that be shared?


As has been recommended, yes, you probably want to separate the /usr,
etc. partitions for each distribution.  Suppose you install RH first,
and you have this in your /etc/fstab (I've abbreviated the file,
for clarity):

/dev/hdb9	swap	swap
/dev/hdb1	/	ext2
/dev/hdb3	/usr	ext2
/dev/hdb5	/home	ext2
/dev/hdb6	/usr/local	ext2

Of course yours will look different.  Now suppose you install Slackware
with root on /dev/hdb2.  You'd probably want the Slack /etc/fstab to
look like so:

/dev/hdb9	swap	swap
/dev/hdb2	/	ext2
/dev/hdb7	/usr	ext2
/dev/hdb8	/usr/local	ext2
/dev/hdb5	/home	ext2

Some items of note:

--The /, /usr, and /usr/local partitions are located on separate
physical partitions (that's what the /dev's are) on the hard disk.
This is what people are recommending to avoid library/binary
conflicts.
--The /home partition is on the same physical partition /dev/hdb5
in both distributions.  As long as you don't put binaries from
one distribution in /home, and then run it in another, you should
be okay.  (Even doing that shouldn't cause major problems, but
better safe than sorry, eh?)
--The swap partition is on /dev/hdb9 in both distributions.
--You have to plan your partition table very carefully for this
configuration; in particular, make sure that your root partitions
are below the 1024 cylinder limit, or LILO will complain.

The two major problems you'll have are booting and confusion.  The
booting will be odd because you'll have to make sure your LILO
configurations are the same in both distributions.  Else, if you
run LILO in one, then make different changes and run LILO in the
other, you might not realize that your LILO install is now
inconsistent with one of your distributions.  Easy to fix, but
can get irritating.

The other issue is that RH and Slackware have very different
configuration files and setup.  It will probably get confusing
going back and forth to, say, configure a boot script in
RH, then try to do the same in Slackware.  Some files will be
in different places, others will be completely different, etc.

Bottom line: If your long-term plans call for having only one
distribution installed at a time, then what you're trying to
do isn't a problem.  Make this decision quickly, though, to
save yourself some headaches.


-- Keith
kkeller@dspeed.net

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+

I did exactly the same thing , but with the Suse and Slackware
distributions (SAME lib versions), which are much more similar. It works,
but with some extra work. I did it like this:

/dev/hda2	:root AND /usr dirs for Slackware
/dev/hda3	:swap for both distributions
/dev/hda5	:root AND /usr dirs for Suse (RH your case)
/dev/hda6	:/home shared by both distributions
/dev/hda7	:/usr/local for both distributions
LILO can boot 1,2 and 5 of course.

IF you put /usr on a shared partition you're in for a really rough ride,
don't think about it.

I put /usr in the same partition as the "base" system in / because it
contains the X11 system, and I wanted to experiment with that, too.
My "base"partitions 2 and 5 (the only not-shared partitions) are 200MB.
This is tight if you go to the end with installing, it is just workable.
Now, the trick is:

1) Put only the MOST basic apps in the distribution specific partitions,
you are going to try to share the rest. You can do this installation
with the distribution specific installers.

You must verify that you not only have the same users on both sides, but
that they have the same uids and gids too. In your case you'll want to
adapt the Slackware passwd and groups files manually.

Be aware that your /tmp and /var directories are on your "not shared" 
partition, which has a limited size. You may want to link them to similar
directories on /usr/local.

2) Sharing swap and /home is easy

3) The real work is in installing the shared apps in the /usr/local
partition. Xemacs, Netscape, TeX and The Gimp are first candidates for
this.

You cannot use the distribution specific installers/package managers to
this end.
I made a separate Slackware/log/packages-like system in /var/local/log,
which keeps track of where I installed what. (advantage: you can force
things to be more Linux File System Standard.)
There is work here, some libraries are better in /usr/local, some better
in /, and you have to play around with links and startup scripts to keep
things working. Normally, you need to manually adjust the installation
scripts for to be installed applications too.

Very often it is also practical to install whole packages to /usr/local/ 
instead of / . You can end up with /usr/local/usr/man directories this
way, which you move to /usr/local/man while linking /usr/local/usr/man -> 
/usr/local/man. Etc., etc..

good luck

Armand

In article <371DADCE.8316C21F@jasonpnospam.com>,
	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?

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+

Hi

I beg to differ
You can make use of this dir to mount a partition on it with all the
applications on it which, you found, can run from both of the separate
distribution partitions. You just should not install them with the rpm resp
pkgtool tools, but organize their location yourself and keep track of it. The
more tricks you learn, the more applications you find you can then move to
/usr/local/

ciao,

Armand


In article <7flqpm$bas$1@imsp009a.netvigator.com>,
>: /usr/local: its for you to install software that does not come from
>: the distribution. 

Sorry

This one thing is something else I used elsewhere. It is a misstatement (Is that
word there in English?). You could link some subdirs of these dirs, of course,
but it goes to a shared partition. (My /var/local/log is linked to
somewhere in /usr/local/*.)

The point is that /var tends to grow in time, and /tmp grows during sessions.
Keep space for it.

Armand


In article <7flqq2$iuk$1@news1.xs4all.nl>,
	I wrote:

> Be aware that your /tmp and /var directories are on your "not shared" 
> partition, which has a limited size. You may want to link them to similar
> directories on /usr/local.
> 
> Armand
> 
> In article <371DADCE.8316C21F@jasonpnospam.com>,
> 	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?

Slackware is not "a bit broken". I have found Slackware to me *more* stable
than RedHat, and more comfortable to use at the command line. In my
dual-booting machine (RH 5.2 and Slack 3.4, before I finally deleted RH in
disgust) I have had no problems with X at all.  Still don't have problems,
for that matter - but then it *is* 3.4 (haven't tried 3.6 yet).

To dual boot, I just added the second RH partition to lilo, and chose
between them on boot.

George-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
> Well,
> 
> You would have too different partitions... one for redhat, the other for
> slackware.  If you do full installations you'll find you have allot of
> the same stuff though.  Then if you want to... you can mount the
> slackware partition in redhat and the redhat partition in slackware. 
> From there you should be able to run most apps from the other
> distrubution... but you'll probably have to compile some apps again
> though... for each distrubution.
> 
> But I wouldn't recommend Slackware... it's a bit broken... it's not
> thread safe... and the x server that i came with Slackware 3.6 is a bit
> unstable...
> 
> Jeremy
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jeremy Lunn
> Melbourne, Australia
> ICQ: 19255837
>