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How can I manage (install packages, manage packages, check for updates and the like) for another Linux installation on another partition in the same machine?

I would be doing this from Ubuntu, and the second could be Fedora or Debian. Is that a kind of remote administration too, but on the same computer? And it would not be a one time shot, but regular work.

Quora Feans
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    Please give us some details on your partitioning scheme. If you simply have all other systems on their own, single partitions (/etc, /usr etc on the same partition) it is very easy to do with chroot. – terdon Jan 03 '14 at 01:58
  • Yes, I have each system complete in its own partition, even with its own swap. – Quora Feans Jan 03 '14 at 13:06
  • In that case, my chroot suggestion should work for most use cases. – terdon Jan 03 '14 at 13:07

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In the simplest scenario where each distribution has its own partition and everything necessary for the system to run is within that partition (you don't have separate partitions for /usr for example), you can do this with chroot:

I assume you have the partitions mounted somewhere, let's say they're at /Debian and /Fedora. Set up a chroot environment:

sudo chroot /Debian

That will move you into /Debian, running a shell that thinks you are root and running the installed Debian system. At this point, you can use apt-get as you would normally. When you're done, you can return to your session by running exit.

This should work perfectly well for simple software management but I wouldn't run major updates or changes to important packages this way.

terdon
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    I think i miss interpreted some events on my system. I will follow your suggestion it would be useful for me if it works fine. Here i remove all objections. and thanks for your explanations. – Slyx Jan 03 '14 at 03:32
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    @Slyx you may have been thinking of pivot_root. that would fit the results you described. – strugee Jan 03 '14 at 03:42
  • @strugee : Strongly probable ! It was many years ago. I don't have a real elephant memory to confirm for sure :-) I'll try both mechanisms soon and put a feedback. – Slyx Jan 03 '14 at 03:52
  • @Slyx don't try them without reading the manpages. chroot is ok to play with but pivot_root is dangerous – strugee Jan 03 '14 at 03:56