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Re: is it possible to have more than one distro on a m/c?



M K Saravanan wrote (mksarav@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx):

> I need to check lot of tamil stuff like KDE tamil etc.. is
> it possible to load another version of linux in a separate partition for
> testing purpose? any clues will be a great help.

If you merely want to test sw packages, you would not have to install another
distro at all. Simply copy the files+libraries that you require into a
directory (preserving the directory structure ofcourse) and just chroot to the
directory.

I have used this method to run an RH distro from a debian box simultaneously.
We have some commercial linux sw that is supported only on RH systems, but all
our machines run debian. I have a testing redhat installation  on a separate
partition (under /redhat) on the debian system and run "chroot /redhat" (as
root). Now I can install/test/debug the app as if it were running on a RH box.

This setup has the advantage that you do not have to reboot your computer (a
big plus since our machine is a server) to checkout new software. Ofcourse,
this method is restrictive - you cannot try out a new kernel, but it works
fine for most user mode progs.

I think that I have made this sound too easy... well it's not, I faced several
small annoyances (all of which were easily fixed). Well be warned if you take
this route! If you are still interested email me offline.

If you're still keen on installing a new linux version, check the HOWTOs which
describe (very nicely) how to user an NT bootloader to boot multiple OSes. Or
check out the Grand Unified Boot Loader (GRUB), soon to be the default on
debian.

- Raja
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