Re: New to Debian, boot problems

[Tom Pfeifer <tplists@optonline.net>]

Booting Debian (or any Linux) from the 2nd drive with Lilo is not a
problem. I'm booting from the 3rd drive. It should be just a matter of
getting /etc/lilo.conf set up right, and then reinstalling Lilo by
running the 'lilo' command as root.

Here's a basic template for /etc/lilo.conf for what you want to do:

boot=/dev/hda          (install Lilo to MBR of master drive)
install=/boot/boot.b
map=/boot/map        
prompt                 (display Lilo prompt on boot)
timeout=100            (boot default after 10 seconds if no keybd input)
default=debian         (set default OS )
image=/path/to/your/kernel
  label=debian
  root=/dev/hdb?       (your root partition such as /dev/hdb1)
  read-only            (mount root read only until fsck runs - standard)
other=/dev/hda?        (location of your other OS such as /dev/hda1)
  label=legacy

See 'man lilo' and /usr/share/doc/lilo/Manual.txt for more details on
Lilo.

Tom



Willy Lee wrote:
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I'm new to Debian, used to use RedHat.  I installed Debian potato (CD
> from LSL) along with a new hard drive (installed as 2nd (slave) IDE)
> recently, and I made the mistake of placing all of Debian, including
> the root partition, on the 2nd drive.  Now, unfortunately, LILO won't
> boot to the slave drive.  I have to boot from the boot floppy I
> thankfully didn't skip making during the install.
> 
> I would strongly prefer to be able to boot from the hard drive, using
> LILO to manage booting Debian and a legacy OS.  I would prefer to not
> reinstall from the CDs, since I would rather not have to configure
> pnp, X, etc. again.
> 
> The only other idea I have is to make an ext2 partition on hda, make
> it bootable, copy all the files that would be in a root partition
> over, then make lilo boot from there.  I already have ext2 partitions
> on hda, left over from a RedHat install.  My Debian install on hdb
> consists of /, /usr, and /home partitions.
> 
> How workable does this sound?  Has anyone else done something like
> this?  Am I completely insane or missing something obvious?
> 
> Yours in Debian,
> 
> =wl
> --
> Albert ``Willy'' Lee, Emacs user, game programmer
> "They call me CRAZY - just because I DARE to DREAM of a RACE of
> SUPERHUMAN MONSTERS!"
>