12-27-2015, 10:58 PM
That response, gold_finger is - as usual - pure GOLD!
Thank you so much for that clear, precise and logical step-by-step guidance. It is so helpful when the process is set out in such a systematic way.
Good advice to create a separate back-up/recovery disk. I have both the Samsung recovery program and the Win7 backup/repair utility, so might play safe and do one of each!
Although I understand the arguments for turning over the whole bootloading process to LL's Grub, I think I will probably rely on EasyBCD, keep the Windows bootloader and put each Linux distro's Grub on the relevant /root partition. As I understand it, once the various distros are installed in this way and listed in Easy BCD, then EasyBCD just "points" to the Grub of whichever distro you opt to boot into. In other words, if using EasyBCD there's no need to "sudo update" any of the Grubs belonging to any individual distro, as each is in its own partition and only responsible for booting its own distro when told to do so by EasyBCD!
One particular point of detail. You say it's hardly worth creating /home partitions when installing each distro because there will be a DATA partition wherein to store all the docs etc. Then a bit later on you say "Create symlinks from the DATA partition folders to your Home in each Linux distro. You'll need to boot into each distro one-by-one and perform same basic steps......Navigate to Home folder and delete all current folders except the "Desktop" folder......Create symlinks from the DATA partition folders to your Home." Now this might seem a really dumb question from a newbie - but am I right to think that if I only have a /(root) partition for each distro (and no separate /home), then I will instead have a "Home" within the /(root) of each distro (inside which are pre-prepared and empty Docs/Pics/Music/Video folders)? And once I have deleted these ones, I then go into the DATA partition, via each distro in turn, and do the "symlinking" using the terminal commands you provide?
I don't want to digress or complicate matters: but am I right to think that one argument for making a /home partition (even if only small) for each distro is that certain stuff ("configurations", and "profiles" - which are particular to each distro?) can and do then remain there, even if you store all the docs, music, etc in the folders in the DATA partition? Or does that sort of stuff just as easily stay in the residual "Home" area in the /(root) of each distro if you don't have separate /home partitions?
One other area where I'm still not wholly sure I have grasped the details is the business of choosing/labelling the mount point for the DATA partition and then sorting out or changing its ownership and creating symlinks. But you have given me more than enough information and encouragement to "give it a go", so I will get started on the backing up and (re)partitioning and installing, and see how far I get.
Huge thanks for your advice: I guess a lot of it is about having enough of an understanding to act with confidence, rather than groping around trying things in the semi-dark without really knowing why!
Thank you so much for that clear, precise and logical step-by-step guidance. It is so helpful when the process is set out in such a systematic way.
Good advice to create a separate back-up/recovery disk. I have both the Samsung recovery program and the Win7 backup/repair utility, so might play safe and do one of each!
Although I understand the arguments for turning over the whole bootloading process to LL's Grub, I think I will probably rely on EasyBCD, keep the Windows bootloader and put each Linux distro's Grub on the relevant /root partition. As I understand it, once the various distros are installed in this way and listed in Easy BCD, then EasyBCD just "points" to the Grub of whichever distro you opt to boot into. In other words, if using EasyBCD there's no need to "sudo update" any of the Grubs belonging to any individual distro, as each is in its own partition and only responsible for booting its own distro when told to do so by EasyBCD!
One particular point of detail. You say it's hardly worth creating /home partitions when installing each distro because there will be a DATA partition wherein to store all the docs etc. Then a bit later on you say "Create symlinks from the DATA partition folders to your Home in each Linux distro. You'll need to boot into each distro one-by-one and perform same basic steps......Navigate to Home folder and delete all current folders except the "Desktop" folder......Create symlinks from the DATA partition folders to your Home." Now this might seem a really dumb question from a newbie - but am I right to think that if I only have a /(root) partition for each distro (and no separate /home), then I will instead have a "Home" within the /(root) of each distro (inside which are pre-prepared and empty Docs/Pics/Music/Video folders)? And once I have deleted these ones, I then go into the DATA partition, via each distro in turn, and do the "symlinking" using the terminal commands you provide?
I don't want to digress or complicate matters: but am I right to think that one argument for making a /home partition (even if only small) for each distro is that certain stuff ("configurations", and "profiles" - which are particular to each distro?) can and do then remain there, even if you store all the docs, music, etc in the folders in the DATA partition? Or does that sort of stuff just as easily stay in the residual "Home" area in the /(root) of each distro if you don't have separate /home partitions?
One other area where I'm still not wholly sure I have grasped the details is the business of choosing/labelling the mount point for the DATA partition and then sorting out or changing its ownership and creating symlinks. But you have given me more than enough information and encouragement to "give it a go", so I will get started on the backing up and (re)partitioning and installing, and see how far I get.
Huge thanks for your advice: I guess a lot of it is about having enough of an understanding to act with confidence, rather than groping around trying things in the semi-dark without really knowing why!