Re: dual boot Debian computer

[dman <dsh8290@rit.edu>]

On Thu, Feb 07, 2002 at 05:25:00PM -0800, Paul E Condon wrote:
| I want to rearrange my computer so that I can dual boot Patato and Woody.
| I want a separate partition for each, so that I can have a full set of
| appropriate software for each. 

Just be sure that any modules (in /lib/modules) for the kernel are the
same for both systems -or- that you use separate kernels for each -or-
that you use no modules at all.

| I need advice on how to set up partitions, and how to configure lilo, etc.
| I've looked at my /etc/lilo.conf, which was created during an installation of
| Potato, and at lilo documentation. It seems to me that the instructions cover
| the case where one has several Linux kernels in the same partition, and the

This is the case you want to look at.  Just change the root= and
you'll boot a different partition.

| Do I need to have boot sectors at the beginning of two different partitions?

No, as long as you have a boot loader that loads :-).

| How do I do that if I need that? When I tried to mark two partitions as 
| bootable, the software (fdisk?) refused to accept the command.

AFAIK that's a MS-DOS thing and linux won't care.

Checking my home system (debian only, 1 system) there is no "bootable"
partition.  My work system (debian and win2k) has only the FAT
partition as "bootable".

| What do I do about the master boot record (MBR)? Do I need to put
| something sepcial there? How?

Nothing more special than any other system :-).  (you need a boot
loader, but you knew that already)


Here's a more concrete example.  Suppose
    /dev/hda1   =>  /boot
    /dev/hda2   =>  /  for system 1
    /dev/hda3   =>  /  for system 2
    /dev/hda5   =>  /home
    /dev/hda6   =>  <swap>

I don't use lilo so here's the config for grub, assuming same kernel
is used for both systems and modules are taken care of (either by not
having any or by mirror /lib/modules on the two root partitions) :


title   System 1
root    (hd0,1)
kernel  /boot/vmlinuz-<version> root=/dev/hda2 read-only
boot

title   System 2
root    (hd0,2)
kernel  /boot/vmlinuz-<version> root=/dev/hda3 read-only
boot


(this assumes that you have a symlink in /boot named "boot" that
points to "." (which is called "/boot") -- the reason is explained in
the grub faq and is related to lack of a mount table)

HTH,
-D

-- 

A violent man entices his neighbor
and leads him down a path that is not good.
        Proverbs 16:29