How to partition a drive for multiple distros

[firenice03]

I'll chime in with some basic info; the experts may expand in-depth... Now I've mostly installed LL and Mint but the info should work for most distro's that install similarly...

I would partition the drive ahead of time; from a live environment (LiveUSB) using gparted create the partitions for each distro's root, another for swap and a "/home"...
Root partitions I typically format as ext4 but in reality you'll reformat at install - use the drop down to label as "/", format swap as swap  and home same ext4 using the drop down label "/home"...

When installing use the "Something else" option to choose your specific partition...
When installing; install that distro's grub to its root partition..

Especially if installing after LL is installed..

After new distro is installed boot into LL run grub update to add it to grub.
- this will keep grub the prominent grub which it likes.

The separate /home should be seen by all distro's (shared) as would swap.


Another thought to consider is a "/Data" partition for files etc.. This could be mounted into the primary OS and then into the secondaries later as needed..

Also partitions can be created after the fact (say you want to add another trial distro) but there is a BUT... If you think you will want another; it may not hurt to leave a few GB's as unallocated for this or should you want/need to expand a partition later.. Recouping from an partition that is in use adds risk..

I suggest searching the forums for "dual boot" as well as "grub" there is some  really good information in those threads...

Again this is what I have done; the partitions could be created at the time of install from unallocated if you leave more available...