Re: OK to install across 2 HDs?
> I am writing my questions in between the text, if anyone can
> answer them I would appreciate it.
>
> Why are you not using hda and hdb? what determines which one
> you use?
I would use hda and hdb. I don't have an eide controller so I don't have
an hdc or hdd. Some might prefer to use hda and hdc, since both
drives could be masters, but if you have an ide cdrom, I would use
hda, and hdb, as I believe the cdrom can slow down the other side,
ie cdrom on hdd slows down hdc.
>
> I have two HD's. Right now only one is hooked up -- it is my
> hda, a 1.6G Western Digital, running Redhat. I wish to hook up
> in addition a 340 Meg Connor. I would like that to be the
> slave so that I can keep my WD stuff where it is. I want to
> install Debian on the 340 Meg drive until I convince myself if
> I want Debian on the 1.6G drive. I would like to boot up on
> either one. How do I arrange that?
Install Debian, then you need to let lilo know were both versions
are. You can do this two ways, 1, modify the etc/lilo.conf on
the debian version (while running Debian), and run lilo, or 2, modify the
etc/lilo.conf on Redhat, while running Redhat. The tricky part is
that the partition that has the zImage (or vmlinuz) on it must be
mounted (this isn't needed for dos, it is handled a little differently).
I would make sure I had a boot disk for Redhat before I started.
At least this is how I did it when I converted from Slackware to
Debian.
The lilo.conf may look something like this. When running Redhat, but
the debian partition is mounted on /mnt.
boot=/dev/hda
root=/dev/hda1
compact
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
delay=20
#Redhat
image=/zImage
label=Redhat
read-only
#Debian
image=/mnt/zImage
root=/dev/hdb1
label=Debian
read-only
The second one would be
> hdb, would it not? . Each drive will be partitioned by using
> linux fdisk, and each drive has a small DOS partition on hda1
> and hdb1. I do not wish to use both disks for one distribution
> just yet (I understand the merit of doing that, however). I
> want to get Debian running on my "test" 340 meg drive, without
> disturbing my "running system". Can I get lilo to boot from
> either drive? How?
I am not sure what you mean. Bios reads the MBR, which will have
lilo installed in it. lilo then goes on from there. You can configure
lilo from either program, and but lilo on either MBR, but BIOS reads
from hda.
> >
> > You bet. If possible, stick to hda and hdc. I saw a 10 to 1 performance
> > improvement in Win95 ScanDisk when I moved my second 1.2G Western Digital
> > to secondary master from primary slave (primary master is an identical 1.2
> > WD).
>
> I don't understand this statement. What exactly is the relation
> between hda, hdb, and hdc? Do you have one controller
> that runs two HD's? What is your hardware configuration?
He probably has an EIDE controller. It's kind of like having to
pairs of IDE controllers. hda (master) hdb slave drive.
hdc (master) hdd slave drive.
This configuration information is in the lilo documents, but it won't jump
out at you, so read it slowly, and multiple times.
Mark W. Blunier
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