[Sussex] Linux dual boot

[Gavin Stevens]

A while ago, I set up a Windows/Ubuntu dual boot on my partner's PC.
This was fairly easy to do & worked first time.

On my own second PC, I decided to try a dual boot of Debian Sarge &
CentOS 4.1. Perhaps naively, I thought it would be relatively easy to
achieve. This has not been the case: I made a partition for CentOS when
I installed Sarge. The CentOS partition had a mount point of "/centos",
but CentOS was not impressed with this when I came to install it. It
said it needed a "/" directory in order to know where to install itself.

A little reading reveals that this is commonplace when attempting a
Linux dual boot.

The end result of trying to install CentOS was a mess, which first of
all resulted in not being able to boot CentOS, & then after a second
attempt I couldn't boot Debian.

Presently, I have the partitions set up like this:

/dev/hda1	/	primary, bootable
/dev/hda3	/1	primary
[/dev/hda2		extended]
/dev/hda5	/home	
/dev/hda6	swap

/dev/hda2 seems to be a Debianism, incorporating hda5.

/dev/hda3 has been renamed "/1" after having to re-install Debian (at
which point, I deliberately wiped the CentOS install, leaving that
partition ready to have another go).

Before I get into questions about GRUB (actually, I'm not confused about
GRUB), I need to establish the correct way to install the two distros,
plus any alterations to the partitions that could be helpful (if it is
possible to do this on one HDD).

I only have the one HDD in the second PC, but if a second drive is
adviseable, then I can easily get one from work.

Finally, just to re-iterate that all of the above is taking place on my
second PC, which I built especially for learning & experimenting. So I
can re-format, re-install etc. as necessary without any fear of data
loss.

Some may ask why I am bothering to attempt this at all: It is purely for
learning purposes. It does have a possible link in to my planned
"non-techie" presentation at a moot, but I have a strong desire right
now to get my hands dirty with Linux & know a lot more.

I have already learned one thing: It is easier to set up a Windows/Linux
dual boot than it is to do a Linux/Linux dual boot.

Any help much appreciated.

TIA

Gavin.