Is there a way to run multiple versions of LINUX on the same machine? If there is not a software solution to this, how about hardware? Perhaps change which drive boots?
Your question is not clear as to whether you want to run multiple versions from within one another or to chose at boot time among them.
I'll try to answer it both ways.
If you want to run a version of Linux from within another, your best bet is to use VMWare or User Mode Linux. See http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/ for details on User-Mode-Linux, or the VM Ware page at www.vmware.com.
If you want to pick and chose among distros at boot time, then partition your hard drive for multiple partitions and use lilo or grub.
The easiest way to do this is to partition the disk as one swap partition and as primary partitions and install each distro into its own / partition using a common swap partition. My hard disk has /dev/hda1 as the swap partition, and then /dev/hda2, /dev/hda3, and /dev/hda4 for Fedora, Slackware, and Red Hat 9, respectively. I use grub as my boot loader, so when I installed Fedora I set up grub as the boot loader into the MBR. When I installed the other distros I did NOT install a boot loader, but used grub under Fedora as select at boot time. My grub.conf file thus looks like this:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Yarrow
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi rhgb
initrd /initrd-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl.img
title Slackware
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hda2 hdd=ide-scsi
#initrd /boot/initrd.img
title Red Hat Linux 9
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-20.9 ro root=/dev/hda3 hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-20.9.imgMake sure if you use this method to make a boot disk floppy for each distro to allow you to get to the distro if grub fails.
BFD
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