[NTLUG:Discuss] Dual boot of Fedora Core 5 and SUSE 10.0

[william jones]

This was going to be a message for Dennis Rice, who helped me, but it may be of more general interest.
 
Dual boot with Microsoft and any Linux distribution was covered in the July NTLUG meeting.  This message covers dual boot of two popular Linux distros, but the methods should apply generally.
 
First, install Fedora Core 5.  It may be possible to dual boot after loading SUSE 10.0 first, but I never tried it.  Avoid defaults.  Those in Fedora can prevent added installations.  Use EXT3 format for both distributions; it makes a nice common ground.  Experiment later.  Per Dennis, check the Hide RAID device/LVM group members.  Do not accept the default LVM partitioning.  A custom partitioning is needed.
 
A single 40 GB disk will hold both operating systems.  More is better.  I used two 40 GB disks, one for each OS.
 
Specify GRUB as the boot loader.  The partitions should be root (/), boot (/boot), and swap.  If  /boot or swap are not offered as options do not worry.  The operating system has provided them without user input.  /boot should be about  100 MB, because log files are stored there.  Swap should be twice the size of RAM.  Again, don't worry if an option is not presented.  Parties interested in Raid or LVM should look elsewhere.  Trying to keep LVM ruined my whole day.  The unformatted disk space will be used for SUSE.
 
Try Fedora.  It must work before continuing.
 
Now install SUSE.  Again, use custom partitioning.  One additional partition must be created.  This will be /fedora, and will contain the /boot partition from fedora.  This is easy in custom partitioning.  The Fedora /boot partition will be listed.  Simply label it as /fedora in the SUSE partitions.
 
Boot SUSE after installation is finished.  There is no entry yet for Fedora.  Start two terminal sessions in Xwindows. One will be su to /fedora/grub/.  Command less menu.lst.  The other will be su to /boot/grub.  Command pico menu.lst.  SUSE will be the default operating system.  Use pico to insert a blank line below the four lines starting title SUSE ---.  Then copy the four lines from Fedora starting title Fedora ---.  Add another blank line. Save.  At this time the primary boot will be SUSE, the secondary boot will be Fedora, and the Floppy and Failsafe functions of SUSE will still be available.  Try booting Fedora.  Try booting SUSE.  They should both work.
 
The method shown is specific to Fedora and SUSE.  There should be enough information to get any pair of Linux distributions that include the GRUB bootloader working.  Keep the partitioning simple.  If possible, share one swap partition with both operating systems.  Do not be upset if it is not possible.
 
I started multiboot years ago setting up a triple boot with Windows 3.1, OS/2 , and Coherent on an 80MB disk.  Don't ask.