I am new to Linux and just got some foggy idea of partition tables. To be precise here it is:Model: ATA ST3500418AS (scsi)Disk /dev/sda: 500GBSector size (logical/physical): 512B/512BPartition Table: msdosNumber  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags 1      1049kB  1001MB  1000MB  primary   ext4         boot 2      1001MB  3002MB  2001MB  primary 3      3002MB  18.0GB  15.0GB  primary   ext4 4      18.0GB  500GB   482GB   extended 5      18.0GB  53.0GB  35.0GB  logical   ext4 6      53.0GB  93.0GB  40.0GB  logical   ext4 7      93.0GB  500GB   407GB   logical   ext4$ uname -r -v3.2.0-41-generic-pae #66-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 25 03:50:20 UTC 2013$ dfFilesystem     1K-blocks   Used Available Use% Mounted on/dev/sda3      14419440  4397832  9289144 33% /udev         1015728     4  1015724  1% /devtmpfs         410376    908  409468  1% /runnone           5120     0   5120  0% /run/locknone         1025940    584  1025356  1% /run/shm/dev/sda1       961528  161488  751196 18% /boot/dev/sda5      33643288  2435112 29499172  8% /var/dev/sda6      38448788  180232 36315432  1% /usr/local/dev/sda7      391315084 365544552  5892800 99% /home/home/arun/.Private 391315084 365544552  5892800 99% /home/arunAnd now I want to install OpenSUSE 12.2 alongside it. I also want to share /usr/local and /home partition among both OSes.What changes to this partiton setup would get me going with the best usage of my hard disk space?I will be doing kernel development later and thus want to share the /boot partition too.
Rearrange partitions to install a second Linux distribution
linux;partition
Best... I don't know.I use gparted when my partitions no longer fit my need, gparted helps me create , copy, move, resize, delete partitions. It's with a GUI, really easy to use.I have modified my partitions more than a dozen of times on my current laptop since the beginning... and each time it was to fit my needs the best with new constraints.Modifying the /etc/fstab file you can tell all your installed distributions to point on the same /boot /var or /home partition. You have to do it for each /etc/fstab file ( i.e. for each distribution).I personnally would start with a simpler plan than yours. /, /home, and maybe /boot if you really really really think you will need it. And then, create symbolic link and mount partition to them as the need appears ( this is done with /etc/fstab).For my current debian/ubuntu distro, I happen to have full 15GBytes / with all my installed tools, so I must allocate a bit more than that. Additionnal data are stored on other partitions, mounted as /home and /databases.