Bart Garst wrote:

>>I need to partition a 20 GB harddrive for Win98, Linux (Slackware) and 
>>NetBSD. I also want to leave a partition open for testing different Linux 
>>distros. My needs are: 
>>
>>Win98: 2 GB
>>/swap: 512 MB
>>Slackware: 5 GB for / (/home is on hdb1)
>>Other Linux: 5 GB
>>NetBSD: 7.5 GB (all the rest) 
>>
>>There is a limit of four Primary partitions. Windows and /swap need two 
>>Primary partitions. I would like a /boot partition; I'm thinking 
>>that could 
>>solve the problem of where to install the bootloader for each 
>>distro or O/S. 
>>Is having a /boot partition a good or bad idea? 
>>
>>How can I partition this to not go above the four Primary 
>>partition limit? 
>>What can go into an extended partition? 
>>
>>Thanks for any suggestions. 
>>
>>Siri Amrit 
>>
> 
> 
> Linux will boot from an extended partition. It can use a swap in the extended as well.

Right.

> 
> I know windows must be on a primary, but I'm not sure about NetBSD.

Me neither, but that won't be a problem.

> Using grub, installed in the MBR of hda, I've been able to successfully boot WinMe (fat32) & WinNT (fat16), but not at the same time (WinNT replaced WinMe).

That shouldn't have been a problem. You might need to use some more 
elaborate grub commands (hide, I believe), but WinME and WinNT can 
coexist on the same drive. That's beside the point though.
> 
> Bart
> 
Installing /boot in its own primary partition is a good idea. Here's 
what your partition table would look like:
/hda1 WinME
/hda2 /boot
/hda3 not used, or NetBSD if necessary
/hda4 extended partition
/hda5 /swap
/hda6 / slackware
/hda7 / other linux
/hda8 / NetBSD, if not on /hda3
(I'm presuming that NetBSD will use a linux swap partition)

I'm not familiar with the installation programs of any of your choices, 
so I don't know what partitioning capabilities they have. To be safe, 
you can run parted or fdisk (linux version) off of a boot disk to make 
your partitions ahead of time.

It's easiest if you install WinME first. It's possible to add WinME 
after linux, but there are several extra things you need to after the 
WinME installation which aren't necessary if you install linux after 
Win. Also, you would need to make sure to leave a primary partition 
available for Win when installing Linux. Believe me, you don't want to 
go that route if you don't have to.

The newly released "Linux Cookbook" (O'Reilly) has a chapter on 
multi-booting. It's a very good book, and I highly recommend it.
-- 
-Eric 'shubes'
"There is no such thing as the People;
  it is a collectivist myth.
  There are only individual citizens
  with individual wills
  and individual purposes."
-William E. Simon (1927-2000),
     Secretary of the Treasury (1974-1977)
  "A Time For Truth" (1978), pg. 237

 
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