install-mbr vs lilo
Note: Please let me know if this comes through as HTML (and accept my
apologies) - I'm on a new email client that I'm unfamiliar with.
Can anyone explain to me the difference between install-mbr and lilo?
I've never really understood the Linux bootstrap process, and although
I've read the man pages for these two apps I'm still unclear.
History of Problem I'm Trying to Solve
----------------------------
I recently discovered install-mbr when I did a Potato install on a new
computer; I was VERY pleased with the way it worked because it allowed
me to have a dual-boot with NT and Linux in (what's supposed to be only)
an NT student lab at school (it's okay; I'm the new lab admin, and I'm
experimenting before I openly start trying to introduce Debian to the
lab). install-mbr has a very low-profile presence, so no one knows
Debian is on the box unless they know to watch for the 3-second long
display of the cryptic MBR prompt. Both OSes are on one 4GB drive; NT is
onthe first 2GB partition of /dev/hda1, and Debian is spread across 5 or
6 partitions (/, usr, home, var, tmp, swap) on the second 2GB.
However, when I tried a similar thing on a friend's computer with his
knowledge and blessing, things went horribly wrong. His W2K is on
/dev/hda (one partition); most of his data files are on a SCSI drive;
and we were installing Debian 2.2 on his third drive /dev/hdb (2nd IDE
drive), with 5 or 6 partitions. When it came to installing a master boot
record, the options offered during the install didn't seem to quite fit
what we needed, so we basically guessed, and the follow up reboot
resulted in a bunch of repeating 1's and 0's. Booting off the Debian
floppy that was created during the install allowed us to get back into
Debian, where we experimented over several tries with lilo and
install-mbr. We also tried running W2K's repair option to set the boot
record back to Windows'. However, nothing worked. Eventually something
(I suspect W2K's "repair", but that's another story) totally hosed the
W2K installation.
So we reinstalled W2K. The MBR prompt still appears. It doesn't
automatically boot into Windows, but by pressing A (Advanced), followed
by 1 (first partition on the first drive?), W2K's boot handler appears
and then W2K boots normally. Alternatively, at the MBR prompt, I can
press A, followed by F to boot off the Debian floppy.
So at this point, both OSes work properly, but I'm having to boot into
Debian off of the floppy. I'm afraid to try lilo or install-mbr again
without having a clearer understanding of the two apps.
Any information beyond what's in the man pages would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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