Re: lilo and moving IDE drives for dual booting?
Too many typos in my first posting. I hope this makes better sense:)
Windoze are notorious for install inflexibility. Linux can be real easy
and can be moved with minimal change (/etc/fstab /etc/lilo)
M$ OS never behaves well when it is installed on 2nd/3rd drives in my
previous experience.
I tend to put lilo in /dev/hda1 while installing debian multiboot mbr or
other mbr boot loader on /dev/hda. This way, any stupid program such as
windows installation program can overwrite mbr and still no serious
damage. Well this is just my taste:)
Below procedure is what I may do to make system dual boot (Other options
are possible but may require more knowledge.)
________________________________________________________________________
Move Debian installed HDD from /dev/hda to /dev/hdb (slave on IDE).
Install New HDD as /dev/hda (Master on IDE). This slave / master are
selected by the jumpers on the back of HDD. They hang from same IDE
cable in this case.
Boot with MS boot disk, stop install by F-something. Run FDISK from
prompt to create a small partition (about 10-50MB) as MSDOS at the start
of disk. (This ensures stupid M$ FDISK compatible partition boundary)
Shut-off and reboot with Debian boot CD/floppies (Rescue/root)
Type "rescue" at boot prompt. (Or press ALT-F2 at the installation
menu), to get into the bash shall prompt on Linux.
At the shell run "fdisk /dev/hda". Change type of above created partition
(/dev/hda1) to ext2. "sync". Shut-off power.
Do normal windows install (FDISK&FORMAT) of win98 on Master HDD (C:) If
it is huge disk (>10GB), you may create another partition 10%-30% for
data (D:) so scandisk on them runs faster on data. Just do not touch
ext2 partition.
This gets you to a working WIN98 system on /dev/hda2. /dev/hda has WIN
installed MBR. Shut-off power properly in windows.
Now let's start reactivating Debian. Boot with Debian boot CD/floppies
(Rescue/root) again.
---- OPTION 1 ----
Type "rescue" at boot prompt. (Or press ALT-F2 at menu), to gain shall.
Assume your Debian root partition (One contains /etc) is now located at
/dev/hdb1: (For potato boot disk)
# cd /
# mount /dev/hdb1 /target
# cd target/etc
# ae lilo.conf
# ae fstab
# cd /
# lilo -r /target
# install-mbr /dev/hda -e 12 -i a
# umount /target
Shut-off power
This is painful since "ae" is a BAD editor. (Also not sure you have
install-mbr command on root floppies)
----- OPTION 2 ------
Easier way is at boot prompt, enter "rescue root=/dev/hdb1". This
boots your already configured Debian system.
If you have /usr in different partition, few programs may break but you
get more functional system than using boot floppies only. Also you can
mount those manually. For example "mount /dev/hda5 /usr" if /usr was on
/dev/hda5.
Then you can edit with "vim" or use "mc" as easy way.
In this case, as a root:
# cd /etc
# vim lilo.conf
... change contents to point to new location.
... Install it to /dev/hda1
# vim fstab
... Adjust it to reflect new configuration.
# lilo
# man install-mbr
# install-mbr /dev/hda -e 12 -i a
# shutdown -h now
--- Starting Debian / Windows98 ---
At boot prompt, type 1 or 2 at the prompt.
If boot from /dev/hda1 (1), Debian on /dev/hdb1 is booted.
(With proper /etc/lilo.conf, you may boot Win98 from here too)
If boot from /dev/hda2 (2), windows98 is booted.
Some more interesting information on boot / configuration of debian is
on http://qref.sourceforge.net/quick/.
Above waists /dev/hda1 for lilo since Debian standard MBR only boot from
/dev/hda (As I remember). But if you install LILO as MBR at /dev/hda,
you may not need it. But you never know when Windows overwrite it or,
some virus detection program may complain. So I tend to install
minimalist MBR on /dev/hda while keeping LILO safe in /dev/hda1.
Alternative is to install MBR bootloader such as GAG. It is graphical
and can boot from /dev/hdb1 directly. Configuration is interactive.
See http://www.rastersoft.com/gageng.htm
This boot loader can boot any partition including /dev/hdb1 and comes in
nice graphics and easy self configuration ability :) Good for personal
use.
--
~\^o^/~~~ ~\^.^/~~~ ~\^*^/~~~ ~\^_^/~~~ ~\^+^/~~~ ~\^:^/~~~ ~\^v^/~~~
+ Osamu Aoki <debian@aokiconsulting.com>, GnuPG-key: 1024D/D5DE453D +
+ My debian quick-reference, http://qref.sourceforge.net/quick/ +
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