Dual Booting 10.1, 10.0, winXP

[dickohead]

I succesfully installed mandrake 10.1 RC1 onto a 20 gig hard drive at hdb, it overwrote my bootloader, which was fine, i booted into 10.1 and Xorg looks great! Changed my lilo config so i could get into 10.0 again, it worked fine, then added an entry for 10.1 into my fancy-as 73Lab boot loader using 10.0... now i can't get into 10.1 anymore... so what i am really asking i guess is - what do i have to do to be able to have two different linux versions on two different hard drives.... this is how it's set up:

 

hda1 - Windows

hda2 - Windows

hda5 - / (mdk10)

hda6 - swap (mdk10)

hda7 - /home (mdk10)

 

hdb1 - / (mdk10.1)

hdb2 - swap (mdk10.1)

hdb3 - /home (mdk10.1)

 

I have lilo entries for:

/dev/hda5 - Linux

/dev/hdb1 - Linux_RC1

/dev/hda1 - Windows

 

So what do i need to tell lilo to do so that i don't get errors when booting into:

A. Mandrake 10.0 some things like /proc give fail messages

B. Mandrake 10.1 won't boot at all (i think it's trying to link too things in hda cos of the way lilo boots it....)

 

Any help with dual booting two linux o/s's from two hard drives would be greatlyu appreciated!

Edited September 28, 2004 by dickohead

[Ixthusdan]

I am quad booting. All my kernels are in the /boot of Mandrake 10.1 Here is my lilo.conf

# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

default="Mandrake"
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-10mdk
label="Mandrake"
root=/dev/hdd1
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.8.1-10mdk.img
append="noapic nolapic devfs=nomount acpi=ht splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hdd1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="noapic nolapic devfs=nomount acpi=ht"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hdd1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe noapic nolapic acpi=ht devfs=nomount"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.21
label="Libranet"
root=/dev/hdd8
append="noapic nolapic devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdd5 splash=silent"
vga=normal
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22-32tex
label="PC_Linux"
root=/dev/hdd9
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.22-32tex.img
append="noapic nolapic devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdd5 splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="windows"
table=/dev/hda

[dickohead]

I have two completely independant hard drives, and wish to keep it that way. the hard drives should and hopefully will run independantly of one another, i.e. if i was to put the mdk10.1rc1 hard drive into another machine, it would work, and vice versa.

 

I am planning on setting up a server, but wish to test it on my machine before putting together my server.

 

Is there another way of making lilo boot two different linux kernels on two different hard drives without having to put the kernels in /boot of the first hard drive..... ?

:unsure:

 

also.... is it normal for there to be boot errors when trying to set something like this up?

Edited September 29, 2004 by dickohead

[bvc]

well, they're just kernel images. I haven't used lilo in a long time...and I never use a /boot 'partition'...YUK! If you run 8 distros, compile 20 kernels, and they all go to /boot it can get a bit confusing

 

Say, the controlling lilo is in ML-10....

your ML-10.1's kernel and initrd images are not in ML-10's /boot dir (why would they be?).....and that's where lilo fails. It just needs a copy of the kernel and initrd images from 10.1 in 10's /boot dir as well. BUT, you still point it to the kernel and initrd images in 10.1's /boot. Silly, huh? I don't recall if lilo needs the config and System.maps or not. Grub needs none of this as it knows it's way around :P

Edited September 29, 2004 by bvc

[dickohead]

i have lilo in my MBR.... of the first hard drive, does that change anything?

 

can i use themes with grub? Anytime i have tried to use grub it's all been text based..... i have bootsplash themes installed... do they work withg rub? (i'm a linux-visuals freak, if it doesn't look good - i don't use it :D )

Edited September 29, 2004 by dickohead

[Guest nimman]

I succesfully installed mandrake 10.1 RC1 onto a 20 gig hard drive at hdb, it overwrote my bootloader, which was fine, i booted into 10.1 and Xorg looks great! Changed my lilo config so i could get into 10.0 again, it worked fine, then added an entry for 10.1 into my fancy-as 73Lab boot loader using 10.0... now i can't get into 10.1 anymore... so what i am really asking i guess is - what do i have to do to be able to have two different linux versions on two different hard drives.... this is how it's set up:

 

hda1 - Windows

hda2 - Windows

hda5 - / (mdk10)

hda6 - swap (mdk10)

hda7 - /home (mdk10)

 

hdb1 - / (mdk10.1)

hdb2 - swap (mdk10.1)

hdb3 - /home (mdk10.1)

 

I have lilo entries for:

/dev/hda5 - Linux

/dev/hdb1 - Linux_RC1

/dev/hda1 - Windows

 

So what do i need to tell lilo to do so that i don't get errors when booting into:

A. Mandrake 10.0 some things like /proc give fail messages

B. Mandrake 10.1 won't boot at all (i think it's trying to link too things in hda cos of the way lilo boots it....)

 

Any help with dual booting two linux o/s's from two hard drives would be greatlyu appreciated!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I am trying to run win xp and mandrake 10 on seperate hard drives, using lilo booter however mandrake wont boot into graphical mode --has message re BIOS EDD facility v0.13 also fails to boot xp as well ( no valid partition on disk)

[dickohead]

That means you haven't specified the correct /dev/hdaX location for your /boot/vmlinuz when choosing linux from the lilo menu (had the same error last night :D)

 

To fix that... you will need to boot into linux (this is where a boot disk or cd helps) and change your /etc/lilo.conf file so that the section referring to linux points to the correct partition on your hard drive.

 

And then type and run "lilo" after editing the file

 

So if your linux drive is your first drive it will be /dev/hda1 for the first partition on the first drive.

Edited September 29, 2004 by dickohead

[Guest nimman]

That means you haven't specified the correct /dev/hdaX location for your /boot/vmlinuz when choosing linux from the lilo menu (had the same error last night :D)

 

To fix that... you will need to boot into linux (this is where a boot disk or cd helps) and change your /etc/lilo.conf file so that the section referring to linux points to the correct partition on your hard drive.

 

And then type and run "lilo" after editing the file

 

So if your linux drive is your first drive it will be /dev/hda1 for the first partition on the first drive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks. Can you give me the commands I need to type into the console to do this?

[bvc]

i have lilo in my MBR.... of the first hard drive, does that change anything?

 

can i use themes with grub? Anytime i have tried to use grub it's all been text based..... i have bootsplash themes installed... do they work withg rub? (i'm a linux-visuals freak, if it doesn't look good - i don't use it  :D )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

no it doesn't matter. Lilo should be on installed to the mbr unless, like me, you think of it as a virus as some do windows ....but you obviously do not.

 

grub/themes? Well, at firstboot after an mdk, suse, or fedora install with grub it uses the bootsplash theme. I disable is after that because of my video/text being wacked out should I go from X to init 3

[dickohead]

so installing grub will not overcome the issue i am having with booting two linux versions from two different hard drives? I still feel like my issue exists.... or am i missing somethin? :P

Edited September 29, 2004 by dickohead

[bvc]

That means you haven't specified the correct /dev/hdaX location for your /boot/vmlinuz when choosing linux from the lilo menu (had the same error last night :D)

 

To fix that... you will need to boot into linux (this is where a boot disk or cd helps) and change your /etc/lilo.conf file so that the section referring to linux points to the correct partition on your hard drive.

 

And then type and run "lilo" after editing the file

 

So if your linux drive is your first drive it will be /dev/hda1 for the first partition on the first drive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks. Can you give me the commands I need to type into the console to do this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

boot the first cd and at the splash screen press F1, then run

rescue

then choose Mount your partitions under /mnt

then choose Go To Console

 

then run;

chroot /mnt

 

edit /etc/lilo.conf with vi

vi /etc/lilo.conf

save (write the file) and quit vi with

Esc + : + wq and press Enter (ignore the error)

 

again, that's

Esc

:

wq

Enter

 

then run

lilo -v

 

errors? Start another thread and reference this one.

Edited September 29, 2004 by bvc

[dickohead]

this post is about the errors when i boot either kernel, which worked before i installed 10.1 - what i was originally asking is - what do i need to apend to lilo to allow me to boot into both hda and hdb...... hda works, but hdb won't - there are options i need to give lilo, but i am unsure of them.......

[bvc]

so installing grub will not overcome the issue i am having with booting two linux versions from two different hard drives? I still feel like my issue exists.... or am i missing somethin? :P

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

IMO it will, but I hate....I mean hate lilo. You will still have to edit grub because it won't add the other linux's but......same with lilo. Lilo, as long as it's functioning, will do it. You just have to give it all the right info. Same with grub. I think grub is easier. At first it doesn't seem like it because we are used to lilo.

timeout 3
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
default 0

title ML-10.1-CE
kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7 root=/dev/hdb6 devfs=nomount acpi=on splash=quiet vga=normal
initrd (hd1,5)/boot/initrd-2.6.7.img

title ML-10.1-MM-CE
kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7-1.mm.6mdk root=/dev/hdb6 devfs=nomount acpi=on splash=quiet vga=normal
initrd (hd1,5)/boot/initrd-2.6.7-1.mm.6mdk.img

title Game_and_XP
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title RESCUE
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 devfs=mount acpi=on splash=quiet vga=normal
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img

[bvc]

this post is about the errors when i boot either kernel, which worked before i installed 10.1 - what i was originally asking is - what do i need to apend to lilo to allow me to boot into both hda and hdb...... hda works, but hdb won't - there are options i need to give lilo, but i am unsure of them.......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

why haven't you posted lilo.conf yet?

[dickohead]

i think my issue is that when i reference /bot/vmlinuz from lilo to boot into hdb, it is trying to use my /boot/vmlinuz from hda and thus not working....... or is lilo smart enough to figure out that when i choose to boot into hdb, to take all /PATH's as from hdb? It's confusing because lilo has always just worked and i never really needed to know how it worked... now i have an error - i need to know... :(