# Multiple kernels ... can be done?



## Giorgos (May 2, 2010)

Hi, all I was wondering if it's possible (and usable) the following:
 I have limited space on my hard disk but i want to experiment with several linux distribution (basically i want to install 2 linux and freebsd). Would it be suitable to install the kernels of each system but make a common user partition to hold my user files? Also what about window systems (kde, gnome, etc) is going to be a problem if i share a /home partition? Any proposals for correct configuration?
 thanks.


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## Carpetsmoker (May 2, 2010)

FreeBSD is not Linux, FreeBSD can run Linux binaries, but to a limit.
In any case, the only filesystem both systems can read and write to is FAT32. It's not impossible I guess, but I would not recommend it.

Sharing a /home/ partition would probably get you into trouble because some .dotfiles are different for FreeBSD and Linux, this would not be impossible but it would not work out of the box and some tinkering may be required.


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## ondra_knezour (May 2, 2010)

Additionally, FreeBSD is able to work with ext2 Linux filesystem, check ext2fs(5).

But as Carpetsmoker already stated, I don't recommend mixing multiple OSes on one place. I would recommend installing each system in separate partition/slice, multiboot between them and use one additional disk partition as storage for shared user data using filesystem, which all installed systems can read/write.


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## Giorgos (May 3, 2010)

Ok the feedback i got is to install systems on separate partitions, but to dedicate one partition of the disk for sharing/common data such as video, musix, pdfs, etc. From what system to declare this partition, i mean from what installation (linux, freebsd, independent?). Also what about xen? Do you suggest the virtualization?


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## ctaranotte (May 3, 2010)

Or you can renounce the good side of the force and make a pact with the devil. 

You will be then able to use his creature  Debian GNU/kFreeBSD


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## Carpetsmoker (May 3, 2010)

Giorgos said:
			
		

> Ok the feedback i got is to install systems on separate partitions, but to dedicate one partition of the disk for sharing/common data such as video, musix, pdfs, etc. From what system to declare this partition, i mean from what installation (linux, freebsd, independent?). Also what about xen? Do you suggest the virtualization?



There is no easy answer as far as I know:

As I mentioned before, both Linux and FreeBSD have stable FAT32 read and write support, however, FAT32 does not support file permissions, is not terribly good at crash recovery, and the maximum filesize is 4GB.
Especially the 4GB limit bites a lot of people, a DVD is 4.7GB ...

You can use ext2, Linux support is stable (obviously), but I'm not so sure about FreeBSD write support stability, Last time I used it was FreeBSD 4.something. The manpage makes no mention of stability (Or the lack thereof) ...

I believe there is also UFS support in Linux, I know even less about the stability of that.

Another solution I know of is using a network drive with NFS and/or SMB. This is what I do and it works pretty good for me. The disadvantage of this is that you need a second computer/server.

Last but not least, one very fine solution is choosing between Linux and FreeBSD and install just one OS.


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## Giorgos (May 3, 2010)

Basically i use FreeBSD, but i cannot install Matlab and i want to experiment a little with linux kernels also. Basically, i will do different partitions with one dedicated to common data. But i would like to know how is better to declare this partition, from freebsd installation procedure?, or from linux's one? (or another way)?


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## ondra_knezour (May 3, 2010)

Carpetsmoker said:
			
		

> You can use ext2, Linux support is stable (obviously), but I'm not so sure about FreeBSD write support stability, Last time I used it was FreeBSD 4.something. The manpage makes no mention of stability (Or the lack thereof) ...



I used FreeBSD support for ext2/3 about one year ago (not sure about FreeBSD version, but I usually track stable or last release) for reading and writing from/to ext2/3 fs images and filesystems on compact flash cards. Any heavy duty usage, but I never seen any errror in form of error message or data corruption.


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## Carpetsmoker (May 3, 2010)

> Basically i use FreeBSD, but i cannot install Matlab and i want to experiment a little with linux kernels also. Basically, i will do different partitions with one dedicated to common data. But i would like to know how is better to declare this partition, from freebsd installation procedure?, or from linux's one? (or another way)?



If you just need it for toying around and one "serious" application then VirtualBox might be a solution. The speeds/usability will depend on your hardware though.


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