Guys and Gals,

First off, here is a diagram to help explain:






Ok, what you are looking at is my idea of how my hard drives will be partitioned if this is possible.


1. I want to have Windows Vista and my Videos (formatted as NTFS) partitions on my 500 GB SATA 0 HDD. Vista is already installed and the partition is already set up.

2. I want my entire SATA 1 HDD to be my Home partition for Windows, it will by NTFS format, which is readable from OS X and Linux.

3. I want my 80 GB EIDE HDD to have Mac OS X Tiger (already installed and setup) on the first partition. The second partition to be a miniscule FAT32 Share partition. Then I want to setup up a logical partition with 5 primary partitions within for 4 different linux variants plus a Swap partition.


So my questions are:

A. If I put my installs of the different variances of Linux in a Logical Partition, and install the Grub boot loader to a Floppy disk, will all of the Linux's be bootable (in theory)?

B. If question A is possible, the logical thing to do would be to install the Linux's in this order: OpenSUSE, Fedora 9, OpenSolaris, and then Ubuntu because I have the most experience in Ubuntu and that would make configuring the Grub boot loader easier, Right?

C. If you got this wild hair up your @ss, how would you approach this Six-Boot behemoth project?


Note: I am not a complete nut per say, and I don't have as much time on my hands as this would lead you to believe, I just love tinkering in my spare time and playing with operating systems are FREE!


Thank you for any help, information, tips, advice, or comment in advance,
Cody

Comments? Anyone?

A. I have never heard of that. Using Acronis OS Selector would be a much "cleaner" and easier solution.
You could also try BootIt NG, a great program, very small in size
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/index.htm
B. See above
C. Again, see above. Acronis can certainly boot all of them. Not quite sure if BootIt NG can boot Leopard.

Thanks for the reply A17.

As for using Acronis, I don't prefer it. I know how to setup Grub to chain load both Windows Vista and Mac OS X, so that is not a problem.

My main question is that if I put all of my Linux installs on Primary Partitions within a Logical Partition will it render the installs unbootable?

Also, I do have EasyBCD 1.7.1 installed in Windows Vista. It has an option to add Linux Operating Systems to the Windows Vista Boot Loader. Will that boot the actual Linux operating system, or will it just chain load to Grub and then boot the Linux operating system?

Thanks,
Cody

1)It is the other way around Inside a primary partition you can create as many logical partitions as you please. All your Linux installs will be bootable, provided that GRUB is installed to each root (/) partition, AFAIK.
2)I wouldn't know, because I hate Vista.

1. I had a feeling I probably mixed that up. It think the series is: Primary > Logical > Extended. So yeah, if I put the Linux installations in the Extended partition it should boot?

2. You don't hate Vista, that is too strong of a word. You just dislike.

why don't you just use grub? it boots even a coffee pot

LOL, I know my toaster has been booting via Grub for the past 6 months...

I am going to use Grub, I just wanted to make sure that I could boot a Linux installation from an Extended partition within a Logical partition. I ask because I know you can't do that with Windows or Mac.

yeah, the last disk structure is pretty nonstandard, but you should manage to boot everithing normally, if not, have a look at the "map" grub command, i'm sure you'll find it useful

Ok, thanks