Re: simple questions
Howdy!
Let's tackle the LILO question first. After we get your system booting the
way you want, then we can deal with X.
>
> I didn't get a satisfactory answer before, so I will try again. I know
> about LILO, it is on my boot diskette. How do I get it into the
> partition so my System Commander can call it?
There are a couple of scenarios for using LILO to boot your system.
1: It can be on your boot disk's MBR (Master Boot Record) - this
disk is often your first IDE drive.
2: It can be on a primary partition on your first drive - usually
it's on the partition that Linux is going to use as root (/).
When LILO is on your MBR, it receives control of the boot sequence from the
BIOS. LILO provides a primitive "menu" that would then allow you to select
which OS you want to boot. When DOS/Windows is selected it passes them
control and they boot normally. The down side to this is that Windows 95
wants to control the MBR and will wipe that area out every time it's installed.
Also, from the sound of your post, you have a boot manager, so it too would
be out of the boot sequence.
This leaves installing LILO on a primary partition on your first drive.
/etc/lilo.conf is the file that controls how LILO behaves. This file
will (or should) have two lines of interest:
boot = /dev/hda?
root = /dev/hda?
Where ? is the partition number being used for Linux. If DOS/Windows 95
are installed on the first partition (which is usual) you might want to
set it up so that /dev/hda2 is both the boot and root device.
Once this is done you run LILO by typing "lilo" at the command-line prompt.
This will do what's needed for LILO to boot your system into Linux *if*
/dev/hda2 is marked as the active partition in the partition table. To
boot to DOS/Windows 95 the first partition on that device would need to
be made the active partition.
How does this integrate with your partition manager? I don't know - I
only use Linux. I would assume that current partition managers either
control the MBR or setup their own tiny DOS partition that must be made
the active partition. Either way they are going to need to know which
partitions have which OS installed on them. Once that's done they will
hand-off to the OS of choice or boot the default OS upon timeout. At
least that's how I'd do it if I were writing a boot manager. YMMV.
> My Red Hat installation offers the option of booting from the partition,
> if I wish. How do I get Debian to do that?
There is an option on Debian's install screen for installing LILO on
your hard drive. I don't remember the exact wording, but it's after installing
the base files.
> Unix, or Linux, is new to me, so I have learning curve to go through.
> Also0, how do I call Xwindows?
>
E-mail the list once you have LILO configured the way you want. Then we can
all tackle the X questions.
Chuck
PS I think someone on the list recently mentioned using loadlin as an
option to LILO. Doing so allows you to boot Linux from a running
DOS system without messing with the MBR and partition tables. It
may be something to think about. Fortunately, with Linux there are
always options...
--
Chuck Stickelman, Owner E-Mail: <stick@richnet.net>
Practical Network Design Voice: (419) 529-3841
9 Chambers Road FAX: (419) 529-3625
Mansfield, OH 44906-1302 USA
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