[vox-tech] Re: Partition question

[Margo Schulter]

Hello, everyone, and thanks for a very helpful discussion on a not
always so charming topic. Some quick acknowledgements of thoughtful
comments, and parting remarks for now on partition (I'm visiting my
Mom in L.A. for two weeks, and will be back on the 31st).

[Rick Moen]

> Margo, if you don't mind my addressing your concerns only
> obliquely, it seems to me you've run into some Core Truths about
> filesystems:

[for example...]

> 4.  Multi-boot problems will drive you crazy.

I'm not going to argue <grin>!

Thanks also for the advice on the utility of root-boot floppies,
which I can already appreciate (parted, 2.4.26 rescue set from
Slackware, BasicLinux 3.2 to get on the Internet). The LAN sounds
like a neat backup solution for the kind of copying and
repartitioning that you're discussing.

[Jeff Newmiller]

> I was not aware that an extended partition could precede a physical
> partition.  If it can, then it looks like it would work.

Yes, from what I've read it's OK: at least in general, or from a
Linux point of view, the extended partition "can go anywhere on the
disk" (Partition HOWTO). I'll have to see how this plays out in
practice: as has been made clear, multi-boot isn't always the
tidiest affair.

[Bryan Richter]

> As long as you aren't planning on running SW and Gentoo at the
> same time (heh), you only need one swap partition. Nothing is
> saved from one boot to another, so they can both use the same
> one.

Thanks for this tip. I'd like to look into this, and how it would
affect the installation procedure for the two distros.

> That doesn't change anything about any of your plans, but I
> thought you'd like to know. :)

Actually it might change my plans a bit, because rather than having
two 768M swap partitions, I could have a single shared 1G partition
plus a 256M boot partition for each. Your idea is the direction in
which I'm now leaning -- thanks!

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter
mschulter at calweb.com