Dual boot Phoenix and KDE 2010.1

[Far North]

I have KDE 2010.1 installed and running. It works great. However, I actually want to run Phoenix. KDE was installed under pressure...

I tried a search for running KDE and Phoenix via a dual boot and came up empty. There must be numerous other users who have the choice to run either system. I understand that adding Xfce to KDE as a "task" from Synaptic gives a plain-jane version of Xfce and not Phoenix.

I assume that if I add Phoenix to my system, I will be given the choice when booting for the two KDEs (forget what they are right now) and a choice or two for Phoenix. I then log in and my choice loads. It sounds logical to me.

If I install Phoenix, does it mean that I have two versions of OOo on my hard drive? One will run under KDE and the other under Phoenix. I assume they need different versions of OOo. My /home partition will hold all my date irrespective of the OS.

Am I correct in my thoughts? Is there anything that I need to watch for?

[longtom]

Hi Far North,

I assume that if I add Phoenix to my system, I will be given the choice when booting for the two KDEs (forget what they are right now) and a choice or two for Phoenix. I then log in and my choice loads. It sounds logical to me.

If you download the Phoenix iso, burn it to a CD and load and install it into an empty partition (not the one KDE or any other vital system or data resides), you will indeed afterwards be able to boot to the distro of your choice.  It will be a similar process as the one you experienced with the KDE version.  Quite simple really.

Once you have installed Phoenix you will have to get another version of Oo - which is essentially the same as you got for KDE, but Phoenix can not use KDEs Oo and vice versa (or any other application).  That doesn't mean that you have always to download Oo for every distro you are testing - you could have a look this thread to learn how to reuse your Oo (and Java) download.  If dl speed and traffic limitations do not apply to you you probably won't bother.

All you need to watch for is that you don't, by accident, wipe any of your other OS or data partitions - the rest should be easy.

Best of luck - Phoenix is a wonderful PCLinuxOS flavour and I get to love it more every day.

[Far North]

Thanks, longtom. You have essentially verified what I suspected re installing Phoenix. I know that it requires it's own partition and will "do the math" to assign a portion of my hard drive for it. I do not, however, have an "empty" partition. I assume that Phoenix will require minimal space in relation to KDE, so I'll have to fiddle around with one or two of the large partitions on the drive.

I also thought that OOo for KDE would not be the same as the version for Phoenix but, again, needed to have this verified. The KDE version of OOo seemed to be huge -- I think it took about ten minutes to install. Phoenix shouldn't really require the same amount of time.

I was under pressure, as I stated in my original post, to go with KDE. When setting up my 'clean' hard drive for the install, I didn't plan ahead to leave some "empty" space. This is going to be a learning experience, eh.

Far North

[flan_suse]

Sharing the same user home folder between distros is not always recommended, especially with the possibility of permission conflicts. You might have better luck with two version of PCLinuxOS, though, since they share the same "engine" under the hood.

What you can do safely is use the same /home partition, with two separate user home folders. You can also sym-link common folders like Downloads, Pictures, Music, Videos, etc, so that you can access the same files from the same folders, no matter which distro or flavor you boot into.

Here is an example of how this can be done:

Code: [Select]

# Remove the empty folder first
rmdir /home/phoenixuser/Pictures

# Create a new sym-linked folder, that will point to the kdeuser Pictures folder
ln -s /home/kdeuser/Pictures Pictures

Now, whichever flavor you boot into, /home/kdeuser/Pictures and /home/phoenixuser/Pictures will contain the same exact files, every time, and they can both be treated as normal folders. So if you're booted into KDE, you would see all your pictures under your Pictures folder, and if you reboot into Phoenix, your Pictures folder will show the same files.

[longtom]

I also thought that OOo for KDE would not be the same as the version for Phoenix but, again, needed to have this verified. The KDE version of OOo seemed to be huge -- I think it took about ten minutes to install. Phoenix shouldn't really require the same amount of time.

Far North

You misunderstood, Far North.  Oo is Oo, whether in KDE or Openbox or XFCE.  The download will be the same independent of the desktop environment.  What I meant is, that Phoenix will have it's own programs running and can not share programs with the other OS with a different DE.
Hence the tip of the GetOpenOffice thread in Tips and Tricks.  I have my Oo and java on a memory stick and install it on any PCLinuxOS ditribution without having to wait for a download to finish - really fast.

Hope I could clarify this.

From the far South....