Re: Using LILO to boot Linux/Win98

[Alan Chandler <alan@chandlerfamily.org.uk>]

On Thursday 26 September 2002 4:49 pm, Anand Parikh wrote:
> On booting up with Win98 on HDA and Linux on HDB it goes to Win98 without
> any choice. 

Not sure what you mean - have you used the 

prompt
timeout=50

type command (this prompts with all the possible boot options and waits 5 
seconds for a key press before continuing to boot the default image)

and the 

default=Linux

where Linux is the label on the stanza that boots linux



If I disconnect HDA, LILO tries to start booting Linux but
> doesn't go anywhere (due to boot=/dev/hda ??).
> Looks like catch-22 trying to switch around...How do I get around it?


I think maybe you should boot linux from floppies, mount your linux root 
directory on /mnt (or whatever) and

lilo -r /mnt

does a chroot to /mnt before running lilo,  thus allowing you to install lilo 
on a different device from the current root.


[As an aside, I went back and checked a lilo script I had for making a 
bootable floppy disk.  I mounted the image on /dev/ram and then ran lilo on 
it.  In that case the I had boot=/dev/ram but root=/dev/fd, so it is possible 
to run lilo in an environment which is different to that in which you are 
ultimately going to use the device.  I think this relates to that fact that 
you are writing a bootstrap to a device (/dev/ram) and when it runs it will 
have to look on another device within the context of when its running for the 
root (/dev/fd)]  

-- 
Alan Chandler
alan@chandlerfamily.org.uk