Linux can happily co-exist with other operating systems on the same computer. Other operating systems may have constraints on which partition and, if more than one hard drive is available, on which drive they can be installed. Linux has no such constraints and can be installed on any partition(s) on any drive.
Since Linux plays nicely with other operating systems during an install, it is best to install it last. Other operating systems will often wipe the master boot record during install, causing grief if Linux is already installed.
Depending on what operating systems are installed, you may be able to have several installed OS’s make use of the same partitions. For example, if your laptop has several different versions of Linux installed (perhaps Fedora, SUSE, and Debian) then at a minimum you could create a single shared swap partition that is mounted by each of the three Linux installations.
Even if you were booting between completely different operating systems (such as both Linux and Microsoft Windows) you still may choose to create a data partition that will be mounted by both operating systems. In this case, it is recommended that you create the partition and filesystem while booted to Windows. Linux tends to be more versatile and flexible in the partitions that it will accept and should be able to mount whatever the Windows partitioning program creates.
If you are unsure what changes an installer might make to your master boot record, then you can create a backup of the boot record before starting the install. The procedure described here uses the GNU dd command. If you already have Linux installed on the system, then issue the command from a terminal as root. If you do not have Linux, then use a bootable Linux disk or CD:
# dd if=/dev/hda of=MBR bs=446 count=1
Then copy the resultant MBR file to a safe location. If you need to restore the master boot record later, you can issue the following command after copying the saved MBR file into the current directory:
# dd if=MBR of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1
Since Linux plays nicely with other operating systems during an install, it is best to install it last. Other operating systems will often wipe the master boot record during install, causing grief if Linux is already installed.
Depending on what operating systems are installed, you may be able to have several installed OS’s make use of the same partitions. For example, if your laptop has several different versions of Linux installed (perhaps Fedora, SUSE, and Debian) then at a minimum you could create a single shared swap partition that is mounted by each of the three Linux installations.
Even if you were booting between completely different operating systems (such as both Linux and Microsoft Windows) you still may choose to create a data partition that will be mounted by both operating systems. In this case, it is recommended that you create the partition and filesystem while booted to Windows. Linux tends to be more versatile and flexible in the partitions that it will accept and should be able to mount whatever the Windows partitioning program creates.
If you are unsure what changes an installer might make to your master boot record, then you can create a backup of the boot record before starting the install. The procedure described here uses the GNU dd command. If you already have Linux installed on the system, then issue the command from a terminal as root. If you do not have Linux, then use a bootable Linux disk or CD:
# dd if=/dev/hda of=MBR bs=446 count=1
Then copy the resultant MBR file to a safe location. If you need to restore the master boot record later, you can issue the following command after copying the saved MBR file into the current directory:
# dd if=MBR of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1
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