Re: LiLO and Multi distributions

[Brad <lists@anomie.dhis.org>]

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On Tue, 28 Sep 1999, Ben Collins wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 28, 1999 at 10:19:38PM +0100, Joao Pissarro wrote:
> > Hello all,
> > 
> > I have isntalled two distributions of Linux (Reh Hat 6 and Debian 2.1) on
> > two hard disks, just like the following:
> > 
> > hda1: Win98
> > hda3: Debian
> > hdc5: Red Hat
> > 
> > I have the joined lilo.conf file, and when I run "lilo" I get the message
> > "/boot/bzImage-2.0.37 not found". Like this I can not boot Debian at the
> > moment.
> > 
> > Any one has an Idea how can I put the two Linux distribuitios working?
> 
> You have to run lilo from only one of the distributions and the kernel(s) for
> both also have to be on that distribution. Lilo requires access to the kernel's
> location on the harddrive in order to setup the boot block. So just copy them
> both to the RH partition (since that's the one you can get to) and setup the
> lilo.conf that way (keeping the root partitions different for each one).

Here's a thought i have, but i don't know if it'll work or not. If it
wouldn't, please tell me why.

First, have the other system's /boot mounted (e.g. mount RedHat's /boot in
Debian, and Debian's /boot in RedHat). The mountpoints don't even need to
be the same between distros.

Create a symlink from the /boot of each distro to the vmlinu[xz] for
both distros (e.g. vmlinuz.Debian, vmlinuz.RedHat) and use these in
identical lilo.conf files between the two distros.

This is an extention of the way Debian's kernel system works now: vmlinuz
is a symlink to the proper kernel image, so that lilo.conf doesn't need to
be edited every single time. So, at least for the Debian kernel,
vmlinuz.Debian->vmlinuz->vmlinuz.x.y.zz. i don't know how things work on
RedHat (the one time i upgraded a kernel on a RedHat system i copied
linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage over by hand), but at the worst set up the
same system.


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