19 replies to this topic

[Panarchy]

Hello

I'm going to make a 10 boot system (by the end of the year, first I'm going to buy 2 500GB SATA Hard-Drives and put them in RAID0, and I don't think I can buy that till the Christmas sales).

The following OS's I'm going to install (includes 5 or 6 open source OSs);

1. Linux (Ubuntu 64-bit)
2. Linux (Kubuntu 64-bit)
3. Linux (SuSE 64-bit)
4. Solaris
5. OpenSolaris
6. FreeBSD
7. Mac OSX Leopard
8. Windows XP 64-bit
9. Windows Vista 64-bit

Which will mean I will need the following file systems (correct me if I'm wrong);

1. Ext3
2. Ext3
3. Ext3
4. ZFS
5. ZFS
6. ZFS
7. HSF+
8. NTFS
9. NTFS
10. Swap

So now that I've layed this out, please tell me the following;

1. Will any of these OSs (and/or filesystems) be adversely effectly by having them in RAID 0?
2. Which of the OSs need to be installed on a primary partition?
3. Will they all be able to (except the microsoft & apple ones) use the one swap partition?

Please answer my questions... also interested in comments about this 'project'.

Thanks in advance,

Panarchy

PS: Didn't include any Server OSs as for the Server ones, I am going to use VMWare. (please don't suggest VMWare for these other OSs unless for some important reason e.g. without using this OS in VMWare, you won't be able to hear audio or use the internet)

[Termana]

Why would you want all those installed on the one system? Isn't that going a bit overboard? Do you really need that many? Posted via CodeCall Mobile

[Panarchy]

Hi

Well it's mainly for effect. Also, isn't this the best way to learn about GRUB? And BCD?

Also, I am planning on entering the IT Field (eventually to become a white-hat... but you gotta start somewhere).

So... if I were to learn all these 9 OS (of which I can say that I am a pro at... 1, maybe 2 of them) then that would give me quite a lead over my competition.

Also, they are mostly free (I've got licenses for the non-free ones).

I am currently running a tri-boot environment: XP 64-bit, Mac OS X Leopard & SuSE 11.

And on my laptop I am running a dual-boot environment: Ubuntu & XP.

So, I still have a lot to learn... and this seems like the most interesting way of doing it.

Please help me with getting this up and running.

Thanks in advance,

Panarchy

[John]

I really don't see a need for Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Once Ubuntu is installed, you can do a sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop and it will allow you to switch back and forth.

[nullbyte]

John said:

I really don't see a need for Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Once Ubuntu is installed, you can do a sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop and it will allow you to switch back and forth.

That's true, also you can download the server edition, that has no GUI, and execute that commands to install the graphic engines.

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

or

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

[Panarchy]

Hmm... well, hadn't thought of that...

Perhaps I should install MenuetOS instead of Kubuntu.

Thanks

Panarchy

To get back on topic;

Panarchy said:

1. Will any of these OSs (and/or filesystems) be adversely effectly by having them in RAID 0?
2. Which of the OSs need to be installed on a primary partition?
3. Will they all be able to (except the microsoft & apple ones) use the one swap partition?

Please answer my questions.

Thanks in advance,

Panarchy

Edited by TkTech, 01 November 2008 - 11:48 AM.
Do Not Double Post.

[TkTech]

Why even bother installing menuet? Its a floppy distribution and gets updated way to often to make HD use practical.

When I setup multiboot systems, I setup Windoz as the leading partion, then my other system partitions, usually giving each ~10GB. I then create a 4GB swap parition and create an extended partion. Within this, I create a FAT32 filesystem, which is read/write from almost any OS, and use it for program and data storage between OS's.

To answer your questions:

1. Not in any severe way. No matter what option you choose there will be a downside.
2. XP Pre SP3 has issues installing on logical partitions.
3. Actually, methods exist for using that swap partition with both Windows and Mac OS X

[WingedPanther]

Windows can be temperamental if it isn't installed first. When setting up a dual-boot with Linux/XP, you almost have to install XP first to get it to work.

RAID should not be an issue, as the OSs will just perceive it as a single drive.

GRUB will probably end up being the true primary partition, as it will allow you to switch to other OSs.

[Logan]

How would you install multiple OSs on one computer? I've always wanted Linux...

[WingedPanther]

You need two things:
1) free space on the physical drive to create partitions (logical drives).
2) a boot-loader (Most linux installs include GRUB or LiLo) to select which OS to load.

[TkTech]

To clarify some points above:

There are 3 types of partitions. Primary partitions, of which 4 can exist max, extended partitions, and logical paritions.

An extended partition holds logical partitions. In your partition table, an extended partition counts as a primary partition. So your disk layout would optimally look like this.

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| FAT32 (10GB) | EXT3 (10GB) | HFS+ (10GB) | ---------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------| Extended = |--------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| SWAP (4GB) | FAT32 (~)|
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|

I always recommend using fat32 as your main storage space, maping it to /home/ in linux and mapping My Documents in Windows.

Windows will sometimes see the drive as corrupt, not during the 1st stage (the blue setup screen) but afterwards, thanks to a ****ty bootloader, so installing windows first is usually recommended. However, it is possible to install windows afterwards, and then just reinstall the bootloader into the MBR after windows is installed.

[Panarchy]

TkTech said:

Why even bother installing menuet? Its a floppy distribution and gets updated way to often to make HD use practical.

When I setup multiboot systems, I setup Windoz as the leading partion, then my other system partitions, usually giving each ~10GB. I then create a 4GB swap parition and create an extended partion. Within this, I create a FAT32 filesystem, which is read/write from almost any OS, and use it for program and data storage between OS's.

To answer your questions:

1. Not in any severe way. No matter what option you choose there will be a downside.
2. XP Pre SP3 has issues installing on logical partitions.
3. Actually, methods exist for using that swap partition with both Windows and Mac OS X

Oh... it's a floppy distro? Well maybe I'll give a go install BackTrack or a flux distro...

1. Ok
2. Really? Does that include 64-bit (which is only up to SP2)?
3. Oh! Sounds interesting! I gotta read that up!

Um... to expand on #2...

I know for sure that I'll need a primary for;

• Mac - HFS+
  
• Vista - NTFS

But you say I need another primary for GRUB?

• Mac - HFS+
  
• Vista - NTFS
  
• Linux - Ext3 - GRUB

And then you said something about XP needing primary...

• Mac - HFS+
  
• Vista - NTFS
  
• XP - NTFS
  
• Linux - Ext3 - GRUB

Woh woh woh! Hang on a second, I remember learning this! You can have a maximium of 4 primary partitions. Or you can have 3 primary partitions and an extended (which holds the logical partitions). Okay, so where have I gone wrong?

Are you absolutely sure that linux's GRUB and XP 64-bit need to be installed on a primary?

WingedPanther said:

Windows can be temperamental if it isn't installed first. When setting up a dual-boot with Linux/XP, you almost have to install XP first to get it to work.

RAID should not be an issue, as the OSs will just perceive it as a single drive.

GRUB will probably end up being the true primary partition, as it will allow you to switch to other OSs.

Hmm... interesting!

Are you saying that GRUB needs to be installed on a primary?

Or have I misread you...?

Quote

To clarify some points above:

There are 3 types of partitions. Primary partitions, of which 4 can exist max, extended partitions, and logical paritions.

An extended partition holds logical partitions. In your partition table, an extended partition counts as a primary partition. So your disk layout would optimally look like this.

|-------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| FAT32 (10GB) | EXT3 (10GB) | HFS+ (10GB) | ---------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------| Extended = |--------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| SWAP (4GB) | FAT32 (~)|
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|-------- --------------------------------------------|

I always recommend using fat32 as your main storage space, maping it to /home/ in linux and mapping My Documents in Windows.

Windows will sometimes see the drive as corrupt, not during the 1st stage (the blue setup screen) but afterwards, thanks to a ****ty bootloader, so installing windows first is usually recommended. However, it is possible to install windows afterwards, and then just reinstall the bootloader into the MBR after windows is installed.
__________________

Woh! (couldn't quote you since it went off the page!

Hmm... I'd rather use FUSE then having to have a FAT32... I know at least on Vista 64-bit I can use an HFS+ driver.

Well, I guess I'll probably eventually have a FAT32 partition. Just in case...

Thanks everyone, please answer the questions I have asked in this post!

Panarchy

Edited by Jordan, 05 November 2008 - 06:37 AM.