Multiboot

[Mc416]

Hiya,
here completely newbie about Linux
I have a Win2K pc with a 30GB HD (it's a secondary machine).
I want totally delete Win and create 3 partitions (10-10-10 GBs) installing 3x different distros: Mandrake, Fedora and SUSe. Is it possible?
Can I just use Fdisk to partition the HD?
Once installed Mandrake (the 1st distro I have intention to install), the second distro will automatically see the free partition? Should I make some adjustment?
Thank you

PS: If you have already treated this subject, please feel free to delete this post and point me in the right direction. I could not find anything

[smurfy]

Hi there.
No, you should not make the partitions with MS FDISK. You should use it to remove all existing partitions from the disk then boot to the Mandrake CD and during the install process it will present you with the partitioning section where you can allocate <10Gb for the Mandrake install and decde whether to split your mount points onto seperate partitions.
e.g
swap partition (has to be seperate but will be accessible to all 3 distros so you'll only need to create it once)
/root (needs to be unique to each distro)
/home (can be shared between all 3 Linuxes)

What you may end up with is not 3x 10Gb but something more like:
1 GB - SWAP
5GB - /Home shared
8GB - Mandrake
8Gb - Fedora
8Gb - SuSe

[R4NG3R]

wow that's just crazy! bootloader on the /MBR or a partition?

[bAdWaYz]

I thought smufy's example was well put together and clear. Good job mate, keep up that kinda work and I'll be out of business.

[smurfy]

Here's a brief view of my current partition table:
hda1 - Primary - FAT32 - 3Gb (Win98)
hda2 - Primary - Ext2FS - 243Mb (Mandrake /boot)
hda3 - Primary - Ext2Fs - 243Mb (Debian /boot)
hda4 - Extended 36GB
hda5 - FAT16 251Mb - DOS 6.22
hda6 - Ext2Fs - 500Mb (Linux Swap - shared between the next 3 distros)
hda7 - Ext2Fs - 4.8Gb (Mandrake9.0 / [root]) (My default boot in XOSL - what I use everyday)
hda8 - Ext2Fs - 4.8Gb (Lycoris Desktop LX / [root])
hda9 - Ext2Fs - 4.8Gb (Debian3.0r2 / [root])
hda10 - FAT32 - 6.5Gb (Storage)
hda11 - FAT32 - 8Gb (Windows NT Backup)
hda12 - FAT32 - 4.8Gb (Storage)
hdb1 - Primary - FAT16 - 203Mb - XOSL Boot loader.
hda MBR is never modified as it refers to the XOSL boot loader on hdb. Whenever I add or remove an OS I make sure it never modifies the boot record. If it's another Windows install, XOSL has a few tricks that makes it believe it's installing to hda1. With the Linux distros I install I let them install a boot loader to their respective /boot partitions, never to hda1. This occasionally means I will have to go through 2 boot menus (until I configure Grub or LILO to auto boot with 0 delay) to get to each OS.