Posted: 8/3/2008 2:43:53 PM EDT
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Linux newb, but I like everything I see so far. Getting a brand new box this week. Comes with Vista. Want to multi boot at least with Ubuntu (found plenty of sites to help with this). However what about adding other Distro's? What's stopping me from loading up with Mint, Fedora, Debian, and so on once I have a Linux file system partition? I've found a few resources on this but a lot of them make reference to tools I'm not yet familiar with. Is there a simple answer or site that might explain? I'll keep Googling but thought I'd bounce it off ya. As for the purpose -- curiosity. I'm not a developer, just an applicance user who wants to experiment. Much of the beauty of Linux (to me) is options. |
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The main problem is your disk is going to be partitioned with one large partition for windows. You will either need a tool to resize the windows partition or to reinstall windows to repartition the drive. The better bet is to install vmware server (free) or workstation (maybe free) on your system. It will allow you more flexibility without having to risk goobering up your OS if you're a linux noob. However, back to your original question, if you have enough room you could create multiple partitions and then install different distros to their own partition. They won't be able to cohabitate the same partition as far as I know. -Foxxz |
Vista has such a tool if I'm not mistaken. I should be able to shrink the main partition using the Vista utility in order to create enough unpartitioned drive space to install Ubuntu. My new HD is 500GB. I don't think I'll be adding another for quite some time, especially just for this experimentation. I'm familiar with VMware, so maybe I'll just run the other distros in the virtual environment. |
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Well, my goal is to run Ubuntu as much as possible, switching to Windows only for things like Echolink or Ham Radio Deluxe rig control. So I don't want to run ALL Linux under VMware. So to clarify, are you guys suggesting that I dual boot Ubuntu/Vista and then for any other distros I want to play with, run those under VMware (which I suppose can be done when booted under either Linux or Vista)? I've played with VMware before and the full GUI distros are extremely sluggish. Based on my experiences so far, I view that method more as a try-before-you-buy for a new distro rather than a practical way to run Linux. |
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Update: Went through the Ubuntu installer and everything is working properly for dual boot with Vista -- GRUB menu comes up and I select which OS I want. Maybe I won't mess with the other Distro's at this point. Ubuntu is really giving me what I need, plus it has nice package managers. |
this is correct, drive management in Vista has a tool to resize the partition and it works pretty well. It allowed me to get Ubuntu on my brand new Gateway laptop. |
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Just some food for thought... Install vister, sucks up your whole HD. Get a livecd of linux with qtparted, shrink the partition to about 50%. Set up a ext3 partition less the ram u have, set up a swap file == ram. install some linux distro, use vmware to install varios other distros. Make sense? |