Seeking a concise Linux installation checklist

[Eric Shubert]

Joe, Joe, Joe. You started out ok with this, (dual booting XP/Linux, 
running VBox on Linux). Then somehow you introduced dual booting 
multiple linux distros along with XP. Not a good idea in this day and age.

I think your objective should be to get to the point of having a single 
linux boot, with VBox running whatever other OSs you want from there, 
including XP. Forget about dual booting unless it's absolutely necessary 
to get from here to there.

The first thing you should do if you want to keep your XP system is to 
run the VBox utility which creates a VM image (set of files) from it. I 
don't know off hand the program or process which does this, but IIRC 
there is one. I've done it with VMware, just not VBox.

Then you can do a fresh install of whatever distro you like best, 
install VBox on it, and then copy your XP virtual machine to it, just 
like copying any other files. At this point you can run linux and XP at 
the same time w/out rebooting. Then you can also create whatever 
additional linux machines you'd like. All w/out messing with partitions 
and dual booting and such. It's a *lot* simpler.

-- 
-Eric 'shubes'

On 02/28/2012 05:54 AM, Stephen wrote:
> I would second this setup. With a shared home and swap. Then seperate /
> for each.
>
> On Feb 28, 2012 12:07 AM, "Brian Cluff" <brian at snaptek.com
> <mailto:brian at snaptek.com>> wrote:
>
>     For triple booting, you'll get the biggest bang for the buck by
>     going with at least 4 partitions.
>
>     1) A partition for disto A
>     2) B partition for disto B
>     3) C swap partition that is shared between both distros
>     4) D home partition that is shared between both distros, this should
>     be your biggest partition by far.
>
>     This setup will allow you to actually use the most amount of space
>     on your hard drive as well as share your personal directories
>     between the distros.
>
>     Brian Cluff
>
>     On 02/26/2012 03:51 PM, joe at actionline.com
>     <mailto:joe at actionline.com> wrote:
>
>
>         Even after having done several Linux installations (some a lot more
>         challenging than others), I am still a bit intimidated by it.
>
>         Now, I'm about to undertake another and I hope the PLUG brain
>         trust can
>         provide some guidance, perhaps a concise installation checklist
>         for this
>         next attempt.  I have a box with win-xp installed on a 100-gig
>         HD and I
>         need the following:
>
>         1. How (most efficiently) to shrink and repartition for a dual
>         boot with
>         xp on perhaps 20 gig and the rest for installing two Linux distros.
>
>         2. I've installed PCLinuxOS several times and I (by far) prefer
>         the older
>         version with KDE 3.5, so I want to put it on one set of
>         partitions using
>         about 20-gig.
>
>         3. On the rest, I want to install whatever Redhat based distro
>         might work
>         best with Virtual Box (which I have never been able to get to work
>         before).
>         Some have recommended Cent OS (I've been told that there is a
>         KDE 3.5
>         version available).
>
>         Any guidance to make this as concise, easy, and efficient as
>         possible for
>         a 20-year perpetual "newbie" user would be extremely appreciated. ;)
>
>
>
>
>
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