[NTLUG:Discuss] lilo question

[Chris Cox]

ddaupert at csc.com wrote:

> I am trying to boot into either suse 7.2 or mandrake 8 on my machine. I had
> installed suse
> 7 originally, then partitioned my hd to load Mandrake, which I was
> successful in doing, but
> in the process mandrake overwrote the MBR with its lilo.conf, so I could
> only boot into
> Mandrake. Later, I upgraded suse, and it overwrote MBR. (I gotta learn how
> to stop that :-)
> I'm trying to learn to set up lilo.conf to let me boot into either distro,
> but so far, mandrake
> won't boot up. I list three copies of lilo.conf below, my attempted hack
> first, then the
> separate lilo.conf's the distro installs wrote; then output from fdisk.
> Mandrake and Suse
> both have things in their respective global sections that do not appear in
> the other's; for
> example, mandrake has the line: lba32. Also, suse's boot in in /dev/hda1
> and mandrake's
> stuff is in /dev/hda2. I'm a little confused about what things you can put
> in global vs the individual
> sections. Can I put boot = /dev/hda2 in mandrake's little area? as well as
> the lba32 declaration? Or do I need to but both suse and mandrake
> boot files in the same /boot directory?
> 
> Thanks for your guru assistance.


The way I normally do something like this is:

1. Install the first Linux... let it configure LILO (create a boot
floppy too).  Create a /boot partition to hold kernels for all
Linux installs on the machine.

2. Install the second Linux BUT DO NOT let it modify LILO, create
a boot floppy for this one.  Take note of the partition that
holds the kernel image.

3. Boot up the first Linux and mount the partition of the second Linux
that has the kernel and copy the kernel image to your /boot partition
of the first Linux.

4. Edit the lilo.conf on the first Linux and associate a NEW entry with
the kernel image you just copied in step 3.  Run "lilo".


5. Reboot and you should be able to boot into either Linux safely.

There may be an easier way to do this, this is just the way that
I normally do this.

Many folks will have the second Linux mount the same
/boot area.  Just be warned that a distribution could make assumptions
about the ownership of the data there... and this is why I prefer to
not do a shared /boot at this time.

Hope that helps in the future,
Chris