Re: installing multuple distributions

["Adam T. Bowen" <adamb@agitate.org.uk>]

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Hi,

Pol wrote:
> I would like to test several distributions (say
> kubuntu,mandriva,suse,arklinux) without changing my working place, when
> switching from one to the other. 
> So / /boot /usr /var of each distribution should be on the same partition,
> while the /home partition should be shared among all.
> Do you think that share /home would give rise to any inconsistencies?

No, it should be fine. The only thing to look out for is the use of dot
files in your home directory for configuration of different version of
applications on the different distros. If, for instance, you are trying
out gnome, and the distros have different versions of the various
components that make up gnome, then you might find things "acting
weirdly". I remember having a nightmare with the .gconf configuration
files between different versions. If things start acting up, deleting
these config directories might sort things out.

> Probably i should make sure that /etc/passwd and /etc/groups are the same in
> all distributions.
> Do you think it would work?

Be careful if you intend to merge the different passwd and group files
because different distros may use different default IDs for system
accounts. A fun, but maybe slightly complicated way of doing this, would
be to store your user accounts in LDAP and have the LDAP data files on a
shared partition (/home would do). Make sure all the system users (UID <
100) are stored in each distribution's local /etc/passwd file and set up
your nsswitch.conf so that it reads files and then ldap. Of course if
you are only going to have one user account, then this is *way* over the
top (but it would certainly teach you a lot about LDAP based
authentication).

Hope you enjoy yourself!

Adam


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