Quad Distro Install

[Jim1938]

i want to install 4 Linux distros on a blank HD.

In the past i have installed Ubuntu and Crunchbang behind Vista. Easy peasy.
But it seems that what I want now is a little different and I don't see it.
I had gParted my HD into 4 primarys and one unallocated.
When I install Mint, it wiped all that out.
I guess preparing my HD ahead of time was a waste of time.
But some distros let you put them where you want them.
Not Mint apparently.

I want Mint to be in sda1.
2nd distro on sda2.
3rd on sda3 and 4th on sda4.
Plus I want /home and /swap.
I guess I didn't prepare correctly.
Or am I good and can continue from here,
adding one distro at a time,
particianing as i go???
What steps do I need to take?

Linux since 2004, suse, ubuntu, puppy, crunchbang

Jim1938...

[zerozero]

I had gParted my HD into 4 primarys and one unallocated.

this. you can only have 4 primary partitions per hdd or create one or several extended partitions and as many as you need logical partitions inside that extended partition

adding one distro at a time,
particianing as i go???

it's up to you really but having the disk partitioned beforehand won't hurt

Code: Select all

 zerozero@deb-kde ~/Documents $ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA ST3500418AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End    Size    Type      File system     Flags
 2      32.3kB  136GB  136GB   primary   ext4
 3      136GB   493GB  357GB   extended                  boot
 5      136GB   284GB  148GB   logical   ext4
 6      284GB   395GB  111GB   logical   ext4
 7      395GB   419GB  24.4GB  logical   ext4
 9      419GB   443GB  23.3GB  logical   ext4
 8      443GB   467GB  24.3GB  logical   ext4
10      467GB   493GB  26.1GB  logical   ext4            boot
 4      493GB   500GB  6955MB  primary   linux-swap(v1)