Question about dual-booting two versions of RedHat

[Gene C.]

On Wednesday 15 October 2003 09:02, Terry R Linhardt wrote:
> I have a large disk drive with ample space. I've decided I would like to
> install two versions of RedHat. One would be a "production" version, the
> other a "test" version.

I will typically have five different linux systems defined on my test system 
(a boot selector and emergency recovery system, a "current" production 
system, and three "test" systems such as taroon, fedora 0.94, fedora 0.95).

I install a minimal system into a small partition (small has grown to almost 
700M for RHL9, etc.).  Grub is installed in the MBR.  The other systems 
install grub into the / or /boot partition itself (selectable from the "boot 
advanced" panel) and NOT the MBR.

Then, either when I install the minimal system or after installation by 
editing /boot/grub/grub.conf, I add definitions to boot the other partitions.  
Such a definition looks like:

title testing on hdc1 (Fedora test2)
        rootnoverify (hd2,0)
        chainloader +1

If I have a small system such as a laptop with disk space for only two system 
partitions, I install grub for the "production" system in the MBR and install 
the "test" partition into the partition itself with a pointer as above in the 
production system.

I have found that it is better to always install (not do an upgrade) as it is 
much, much cleaner with fewer problems.  Using these multiple systems, I keep 
from destroying a "working" system to install a new version.  Data partitions 
such as /home are in separate partitions.
-- 
Gene