Dual boot with shared /home

richard · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2025 9:45 pm Post subject: Dual boot with shared /home

I'm just planning the partitions for my dual boot now I have decided on the distro's and have worked out that I need a shared /home between the 2 as I want an easy way to access all my files without resorting to using one of my external drives.

I have planned to partition the drive as follows before installing the distros and was wondering what sort of problems I might encounter.

sda1 primary 10 gig / openSUSE 10.3
sda2 primary 10 gig / Arch
sda3 extended
sda5 3 gig swap
sda7 70 gig /home
I was also wondering if I would be able to set up identical user accounts on both distro's so I can access my files or would I be better to make 2 small /home partitions of about 2 - 3 gig each and make the remainder into /data drive and mount that in both distro's?

Also what would be the best way to configure GRUB as I have never done a Linux / Linux dual boot before as I have only ever done Windows / Linux dual boots before.

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Windows Vista / Ubuntu 8.10

mmmna · . . . . Joined: 21 Apr 2025 Posts: 7224

I know it has been done, but there are drawbacks.... My reason for avoiding this was when one distro had one version of KDE and the other distro used an older version... the configuration was just different enough that I'd have been editing my KDE folder every time I switched distros.

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-Kubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta2 on Celeron D desktop
-PCLinuxOS 2025 LXDE on EeePC 900A with Atom n270 (modded with 32G SATA drive and 2G ram).

tlmiller · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2025 9:56 pm Post subject:

You can share the /home drives. I've known many people that have done it. I myself have not. The only thing I would envision possibly causing issues is if 1 distro upgrades a program that then changes the way the configuration files are done, which causes the older version in the other distro to become unusable. I'm sure there are others.

I would install whichever distro's grub you want to be the primary grub in mbr, install the others on it's / partition. That will allow you to chainload into it. I do this with sidux and Arch all the time.

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Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

richard · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2025 10:26 pm Post subject:

jada · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2025 10:31 pm Post subject:

config
sda1 swap
sda2 /boot 32-64MB
sda3 /arch
sda4 /openSUSE
sda5 /home

this is what I did a time ago. It doesn't work Wink

I changed sda5/home to /xyz** (what ever you like to name it) and moved all stuff what i like to my share to this partition. The reason is, the desktop settings from arch /home/user conflicts with the settings from openSUSE /home/user/ Smile

with this setup I was good to go

config
sda1 swap
sda2 /boot 32-64MB /ext2
sda3 /arch /ext3
sda4 /openSUSE /ext3
sda5 /xyz** (what ever you like to name it) /reiserfs

I recommend to make a extra /boot partion in ext2!

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openSUSE 11.1 Desktop KDE 4.3.1 buildservice Factory
Linux Mint 7 Desktop Gnome

richard · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2025 10:35 pm Post subject:

Why the extra boot partition jada as I'm not sure as to why its needed?

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Windows Vista / Ubuntu 8.10

jada · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2025 10:49 pm Post subject:

If you running a dual boot, you easy can mess up your Operating System. If /boot is separated from the another partitions, you always can reinstall the Operating Systems with out mess up your boot partition. In your configure boot is on the Arch or on the openSUSE partition. If you want to clean the partition with format then boot is gone. It is just for the security. This is why i format my /boot ext2, my OS with ext3, my shared with reiserfs. It is also just easier to identification.

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openSUSE 11.1 Desktop KDE 4.3.1 buildservice Factory
Linux Mint 7 Desktop Gnome

richard · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2025 11:01 pm Post subject:

So I would install each with a separate / partition but use the same /boot partition for both? Or is this a copy?

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Windows Vista / Ubuntu 8.10

jbilas · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2025 12:16 am Post subject:

I have a small /boot partition (10 MB) just for grub. During new install I pick "install grub into the partition" (which will be your /), then I look at distro's configuration and add manual entries into my "real" grub config. That way it's always protected and I don't have to worry about it being screwed by the installation.

And I always share /home with all distros. Never share the same users though...I don't think it's a good idea.

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Arch Linux 2.6.24-ARCH

pbharris · Member Joined: 02 Jul 2025 Posts: 320 Location: chicago

hello,
um why not just edit menu.lst or grub.conf?
here is what i had for a while/

richard · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2025 8:10 am Post subject:

Okay so I seem to have got the boot bit sorted but what about the pro's and con's of the shared /home versus the separate /data that is accessible from both distro's?

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Windows Vista / Ubuntu 8.10

mushroom · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2025 4:05 pm Post subject:

When I did boot 2 Linux distros on the same machine I found having a separate partition "/data1" for all my personal files accessible from both distros
and a small "/home" for each distro the best way to go Idea

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SuSE 8.0, 8.2, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 11.0, 11.1
Live CDs Mepis 8.0, Puppy 4.3.1, netbook- Zenwalk 6.2

jbsnake · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2025 4:35 pm Post subject:

i have it the way jbilas says... the /home is shared... but i have a different user on each install... /home/jbailey is my ubuntu partition (i havn't used it in quite some time... but it's still there) and /home/jbsnake is my arch partition... you could also setup the same users... just have their home directories different... but share the same /home...

like:
/home/jbsnake - user jbailey on arch
/home/jbailey - user jbailey on ubuntu

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laptop: Arch Linux - Kernel 2.6.24-ARCH
server: Arch Linux - Kernel 2.6.33-ARCH

richard · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2025 5:03 pm Post subject:

I'm have gone with the separate /data partition and a small home partition for each distro but at present its redundant as I don't have a second distro.

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Windows Vista / Ubuntu 8.10

jbilas · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2025 5:19 pm Post subject:

Whatever you do with '/home', richard, is not set in stone forever. If you find a need for bigger /home partition in the future you can always create one (providing you have some unpartitioned space on the hard drive), mount it and transfer user folders there.

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Arch Linux 2.6.24-ARCH

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