[LUAU] Dis N Dat

[Julian Yap]

Jaques,

See below for some of my responses.

On Fri, 2007-03-30 at 19:05 -1000, Jim Thompson wrote:
> On Mar 30, 2007, at 4:41 PM, Jacques L. Yerby wrote:
> > Some questions:
> > 1. You guys have been partial to Ubuntu in the past.  What is/are  
> > the more
> > popular easy to install distributions these days?
> 
> I'd say the majority of the list is partial to fedora, with ubuntu  
> (all flavors) a close second.

I usually recommend people to http://distrowatch.com for the most
popular distros.

Ubuntu focuses on the desktop and is easy to install from the Live CD.

> > 2.  I usually pre-allocate my partition space for Linux.  I don't  
> > trust auto
> > partitioning.  What's a recommended partition size for Linux?
> 
> I trust auto-partitioning, unless its an internet-connected server,  
> with the requirement
> to keep the root, /usr and /var filesystems "safe" from being  
> filled.   Otherwise, these
> days I normally build a big / and mount that.

Yeah, auto-partitioning is fine in the more popular distros.

Like Jim said, you can just put everything in / and create a swap
partition.  If you're installing a server you might like to partition
things up more.

> > 4.  Multiple Linux boots:  Are most distributions similar enough  
> > that one can
> > install then into the same partion(s) and give each kernel a  
> > different name
> > in the /boot directory?  Or would it be better to create a  
> > separate /boot for
> > each distribution.  I am assuming that /usr /var /etc and the rest  
> > are pretty
> > standard across the Linux universe or am I wrong.
> 
> Most of the differences are user-land, so no.

I at times have multiple distros.  I keep them under separate /
partitions (well, I have a shared /home partition too)...  But the /boot
partitions differ in the way that the different distributions handle
package management and installing new kernels...  So you wouldn't want
to have a shared /boot partition between installed distros.

Different distros handle the /boot/menu/grub.conf file differently for
instance and have different kernel naming schemes.

When I have multiple distros running, I have a main Grub install and
just add in the other distros to that menu...  For any other distro you
install, just don't install Grub to the MBR.

eg. grub.conf
default=0
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core 6
        root (hd0,2)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.fedora ro root=LABEL=/fedora6
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.fedora.img
title Ubuntu 6.10
        root (hd0,3)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.ubuntu ro root=LABEL=/ubuntu606
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.ubuntu.img
title Crappy Windows
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        chainloader +1

> > 2.  Will Linux run under the Parallel software?

Yep.  I've seen YouTube videos.

- Julian