[ale] new to linux, question about partitioning

[hbbs at comcast.net (Jeff Hubbs)]

250GB is huge, as you've probably surmised.  If you want to be able to
switch between several distros, you certainly can.  Here's how I'd set
up for five distros:

hda1  64MB    /boot
hda2  64MB    false boot
hda3   (extended - rest of drive)
hda5   24GB    / for Distro 1 (this is the first logical partition -
hda4 is skipped)
hda6   24GB    / for Distro 2
hda7   24GB    / for Distro 3
hda8   24GB    / for Distro 4
hda9   24GB    / for Distro 5
hda10 swap (larger of 2GB or 2 times RAM)
hda11 .5GB    false home
hda12 ??GB    /home

The real trick here is managing both /home and /boot.  When you install
the first one, use hda12 and hda1, respectively, for each.  Use Grub and
not LILO.  For subsequent distros, use hda11 and hda2 for /home and
/boot.  Post-installation, examine what got painted into the "false
home" and "false boot" and integrate those contents into the *real* home
and boot. 

For the real /boot, you'd move the new distro's kernel, initrd, etc.
over and modify grub.conf (using the new distro's grub.conf as a guide)
to give you a choice to pick the corresponding kernel, initrd, and root
partition.  I have a machine here with a basic Debian distribution on it
whose only real purpose is to provide a way to install or modify a
Gentoo distribution; the Grub menu that appears at boot allows me to
choose between the two.

Dealing with /home would probably be tricker because differing versions
of common apps (firefox, thunderbird, openoffice) that leave data/config
directories under ~ (e.g., .mozilla, .thunderbird) may break horribly
when faced with data/config directories from a preceding or succeeding
version of the app.  If everything worked beautifully, you could simply
have one /home for all the distros, but if it didn't, you'd be forced to
have multiple /homes, play some kind of symlink squaredance, etc.

All the distros can use the same swap partition happily.

- Jeff

Step wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm (mostly) brand new to Linux, just installed Ubuntu on an old PC a
> few days ago.  :)  I've been watching the list the last few days, and
> hope some of you can offer your opinions:
>
> -I have a 250 GB HD, right now it's all one partition (except for
> /boot and /swap), as that's what someone recommended.  But I suspect I
> will soon want to try other linux distros, and I know I'll want to
> play with postgres, wordpress, as well as several server activities. 
> The main one is to have the box act as a file server for my home
> network, so I can edit / use pictures on my Mac, and share files
> between my window, mac, and linux boxes.  Another big priority is to
> set up a script to regularly back up my pictures, music, data, and
> even settings maybe.
>
> Can I repartition on the fly later?  Do you recommend partitioning
> now, before I get Ubuntu too set up?
>
> Any other advice for a newbie?  Thanks all for your time.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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