80GB, 4 OS, how to partition?

[tuxfan]

I have just bought a new 80 GB hard disk and would like to have some opinions and suggestions on partitioning scheme. This is what I intend to do.

10 GB FAT32 (main installations)
10 GB FAT32 (data and misc installations)
12 GB FAT32 (music, accessible from all OS)
12 GB FAT32 (music, accessible from all OS)

10 GB PCQ Linux 2004 (based on Fedora Core 1, personal preference, *www.pcquest.com)
10 GB Debian (on strong recommendation from some experienced users)
10 GB Suse (or may be any other, please recommend)

6 GB Wastage (its never 80 GB :roll: )
--
80 GB TOTAL
==

I have following quesries:
1. What partitions should I create for using Linux distros the way I want to use?
2. Can there be only one swap and one boot partition amongst all distros?
3. Can GRUB handle so many OS? I guess it can.
4. Can I create one common partition for all Linux data, accessible from all distros?
5. In future, if I want to replace one distro with another, will it be possible? For example, Mandrake in place of Suse.
6. Should I leave some space for GNU/Herd? Is it coming any time soon? If yes, I will not install Suse.

I am not a total newbie to partitioning. But so far I have handled hard disks with only one Linux distro dual booting with Win98SE (having 3 partitions). But with the luxury of 80GB, I intend to have a look at some more distros

Please guide me generally, give me tips and point out the pit falls that I should avoid. Thanks.

 

[amitsaudy]

Maan
Ever heard anything by the name windows.
4 Distros. on one system.
1]....?
2]The swap partition can be shared cant say the same bout the boot part.
3]It can and even more.
4]Why not?
5]Without formatting?
6]GNU/Herd. Never Herd.
Lemme in on how u get this system up n runnin.
Also some info on GNU/Herd??

 

[pradeep_chauhan]

please be very careful i have a 160GB sata disk and have the partitions as 50g winxp sp2(NTFS), 40gb shared(fat32),100mb /boot,1gb /swap, /40GB and 20 GB is for trial (presently solaris) now prior to solaris I too tried to install debian sarge on the trial space and landed up by loosing all data in my linux partitions this was because firstly two linux distro have the same way of defing swap partition and boot partitions thus land up overwriting these partitions. The clean way i recomend is use two os like win xp and debian and rest of the os can be installed using vmware ( i have a total of 8 os running at present on my pc moreover more than one os can run at the SAME time using vmware)
regards pradeep

 

[amitsaudy]

But VMware makes the system slow.
N using VMware is recommended for developers n advanced users
who want to test their programs on diffrent platforms cos saves time
No reboot needed.
N Tuxfan here is a very advanced user.
He actually wants to run these os on his system for regular use.
So Vmware is out of question.
U can tell from his name n avtar that for him there is no such a thing called as windows .
Microsoft is a new softdrink .
N what gate does this Billy open.
I doubt Tuxfan is an advanced programmer or administrator.
Hey Tuxy,
What do u do for a living?

 

[tuxfan]

U can tell from his name n avtar that for him there is no such a thing called as windows .

How I wish that would be true!! But as of now it isn't. I am creating FAT32 partitions for Win98.

I doubt Tuxfan is an advanced programmer or administrator.
Hey Tuxy,
What do u do for a living?

You are right mate. I am not an administrator. I used to be a programmer and still do it part time as hobby. I am into a profession that is totally unrelated to InfoTech :roll: It only shares its abbreviation.

Thank you guys for your input.

 

[pradeep_chauhan]

All said and done lets face it we do need windows (maybe just to ridicule microsoft by comparing it to your fav os). about the disk problem come on i dont think its that big an issue of speed using vm ware YES there is a drop in speed but for p4 2.4 and above with 1 gb ram the slowdown is not significant (yes you cannot play quake 3 at the best settings). I am useing vmware for the past year to emulate windows for presentations and at times for .net and the other os for my os and real time work its ok
regards pradeep

 

[tuxfan]

All said and done lets face it we do need windows (maybe just to ridicule microsoft by comparing it to your fav os)

I need Windows to run two softwares only. One Tally 6.3 and other CTR Encyclopaedia. Its an encyclopaedia of legal tax judgements and helps me tremendously in any reserach work I do. I can't live without them so have to continue using Windows.

 

[GNUrag]

1. What partitions should I create for using Linux distros the way I want to use?

A single swap file and with separate slash ( / ) partitions for different distributions.

2. Can there be only one swap and one boot partition amongst all distros?

Its possible... You have to rename all the kernels quite unique and save them into /boot partition with their initrd files with unique filenames. Editing grub.conf files should do...

3. Can GRUB handle so many OS? I guess it can.

What else is it supposed to do ???

4. Can I create one common partition for all Linux data, accessible from all distros?

That's what an ideal multi linux boot setup should be like.... You should have a single /home directory in a separate partition and all the different distributions should mount this partition as their home directories.... editing /etc/fstab should do that trick...

5. In future, if I want to replace one distro with another, will it be possible? For example, Mandrake in place of Suse.

Just pop in setup CD and walk through installation.... If you have a single home directory setup has i explained above, you dont even have to worry about loosing data... Otherwise, you can create a tarball of your home directory and move it to some convenient place before installation

6. Should I leave some space for GNU/Herd? Is it coming any time soon? If yes, I will not install Suse.

Its GNU/Hurd ... and it will be the original GNU Operating System .... its still in testing phase (you can say alpha).... though Debian has released Debian GNU/Hurd (testing/unstable) release....

I am not a total newbie to partitioning. But so far I have handled hard disks with only one Linux distro dual booting with Win98SE (having 3 partitions). But with the luxury of 80GB, I intend to have a look at some more distros

Somehow figure out how to use cfdisk .... and it'll walk you through hard disk partitioning.... its not difficult to use.... be bold man and try it now! ...

Please guide me generally, give me tips and point out the pit falls that I should avoid. Thanks.

One tip: Its possible to create an Icon on Windows 98 desktop that boots you through windows directly to Linux (without restarting computer).... though there is a limitation, your ext3 partitions will be mounted in ext2 mode.... this might be fixed in next version of loadlin....

 

[GNUrag]

6]GNU/Herd. Never Herd.
Lemme in on how u get this system up n runnin.
Also some info on GNU/Herd??

Please read : *www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html

The GNU Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for the Unix kernel. The Hurd is a collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel to implement file systems, network protocols, file access control, and other features that are implemented by the Unix kernel or similar kernels (such as Linux).

Currently, the Hurd runs on IA32 machines. The Hurd should, and probably will, be ported to other hardware architectures or other microkernels in the future.

The Hurd is not the most advanced kernel known to the planet (yet), but it does have a number of enticing features:

 

[GNUrag]

now prior to solaris I too tried to install debian sarge on the trial space and landed up by loosing all data in my linux partitions this was because firstly two linux distro have the same way of defing swap partition and boot partitions thus land up overwriting these partitions.

You must have been careless while installation....

The clean way i recomend is use two os like win xp and debian and rest of the os can be installed using vmware

You see, where's the fun of using GNU/Linux if you are emulating Linux on some other OS.

.

 

[cockyrudh_2020]

Heres how i partitioned my system:
I have 8 partitions, 10 gb each:
1) C:/ - Windows XP
2) D:/ - Program files
3) E:/ - Games
4) F:/ - Songs
5) G:/ - Dotnet
6) I:/ - Games
7) J:/ - My Documents
8) Red Hat Linux 8.0 ()

That helps me maintain my system very well!!!

 

[pradeep_chauhan]

debian is a pure form of linux and vmware (for linux) runs in debian emulating all other distro and it is debian that is providing a stable platform for all development work..
careless ? yes very maybe doing it after a visit to the local pub? no i dont think so.

 

[tuxfan]

3 posts by GNUrag followed by a personal visit to my place has solved my dilemna

Now I have PCQ Linux alongwith Knoppix (Debian) in my PC with 15 GB still blank for future use

 

[silly_kash]

hmm that's good.

even i need some help.

i installed redhat but its not detecting my modem.

i have a motorola sm56 modem.

pls post any links that will be helpfull.

thanks in advance.

 

[GNUrag]

Internal Modems are not really true modems, in the sense that they use software instruction set to work... whereas external modems have firmware installed onto the chipset itslelf...

For everyone's record:

Much more information or driver kits for particular chipsets can be obtained at:

* *www.heby.de/ltmodem Lucent/Agere modem resources Manufacturer names of Lucent or Xircom may be displayed by the query "lspci -vv". These may be supported. The Lucent AMR modems are definitely not supported.
* *developer.intel.com/design/modems/support/drivers.htm Intel HaM driver
* *www-124.ibm.com/acpmodem/ IBM's Mwave modem driver for Thinkpad 600E and newer laptops. This is new modem card format, neither ISA or PCI.
* *linmodems.technion.ac.il/pctel-linux/ Jan's PCTel Resources
* *www.linuxant.com/drivers/ Linuxant offers the latest and greatest general purpose Conexant drivers for Linux.
* *walbran.org/sean/linux/stodolsk/linux111.zip Driver for ESS ISA Modems. Only for earlier 2.2 kernel versions.
* For 3COM/US Robotics Inc. winmodems, drivers were NOT available as of May, 2001.


For more information visit : www.linmodems.org

 

[pradeep_chauhan]

of my two modems one is a sm 56 from motorola to get the driver go to the motorola home page and navigate to download driver you will get a tar.src file which you can make and install. alternativly go to drivers.com register for free and get a rpm for your distro. (The external modems work better in linux I use a dlink external in tandum and found it more reliable ie less dropping and better throughput upto 6K downloads.)

 

[amitsaudy]

Gnurag seems to be a great humanbeing.
Very helpfull indeed.
We sure need more of these.

 

[GNUrag]

@amitsaudy... lots of thanks for your encouragement....

 

[pradeep_chauhan]

Guys use external modem (any make dlink usrobotic boka unitex whatever) they are detected automaticaly no drivers needed and i feel they hold the connection longer. I also have a internal dlink modem but the driver fron covex---- (something) restricts speed to 14.4 and one has to pay Rs 650/- approx to unlock the full speed. frustrated i got a dlink external modem and have never looked back since.