How to install Multi operating systems (Solaris, RHEL, CENTOS, FEDORA, SUSE) on single or multiple hard disks? -- Part1

First of all, few facts:

1. Hard disk can only be partitioned in four primary partition.
2. Solaris & Windows need primary partitions to get installed.

What we are going to do:
We are going to install the following Operating Systems on a "Blank SATA Hard Disk":

1. Solaris 10
2. RHEL 5.3
3. CENTOS 5.2
4. Fedora 10
5. SUSE 11.1

Get prepared to start the installation:

1. Get all operating systems installation CDs or DVDs.
2. Don't forget to keep one bootable CD or Floppy handy.
3. Get one bootable partitioning software's CD, like Paragon Partition Software, Partition Magic, etc..
4. Here i am going to install all these OSs on 500Gb sata hard disk.

Note: You can boot RHEL5.3 from Solaris10 grub by modifying the menu.lst but you can't boot Solaris10 from RHEL5.2 grub, directly. You have to chainload it.

SOLARIS10 + RHEL5.3
1. Create one primary partition (FAT32) & One big extended partition as per the number of linux distros you want to install.
2. Install Solaris10 in the primary partition.

• After installation this partition will be of its own type, solaris.
• Check whether installation is fine or not, Solaris should get booted on restart.

3. Now its the time to partition the extended partition, what we created in the starting itself.
4. First create a FAT32 partition to share the files in between Solaris10 & all other linux distros. Size of this partition you can keep as per your need.
5. Create another partition in the same extended partition as ext3 and swap.
6. Keep swap a bit large, say 1Gb, that is more than enough. We'll be using the same swap for all linux distros.
7. Now install RHEL5.3 in the above created partitions(step6).

• During installation label ext3 partition as / (root) and swap as swap.
• Install the boot loader in the MBR with advanced options "ON".
• Check the list shown during installation, make RHEL5.3 as default bootloader, remove others and add Solaris10 which is in /dev/sda1
• Select all other things in between whatever you want to install in RHEL5.3 or either use the default options.

8. After installation, it will get rebooted.
9. On reboot RHEL bootloader should start, default time is 5 seconds only, so press any key instantly to see the options.
10. You shuold see two options in grub menu, RHEL5.3 & Solaris10.

• On selecting RHEL, it will get booted.
• On selecting Solaris, its grub bootloader will get started. And from there you can start Solaris.

Remember: You can boot RHEL from Solaris grub but you can't boot solaris directly from RHEL grub. So, you have to chainload first and then Solaris grub will get booted.