Re: dual-booting with debian

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

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Sunday 27 October 2002 6:28 pm, Charles Thomas Harris wrote:
> I currently use redhat linux, but I am interested in trying debian linux.
> I am a graduate student and have recently purchased a laptop with
> Windows 2000, which I need for research applications.  However, I would
> like to dual boot the machine with debian.  The linux boxes I
> maintain are devoted to linux, so I'm not too familiar with dual
> booting.  Where can I find the necessary documentation for this task?

This is not the only way - but assuming you can get as far as creating some 
empty partitions (one for swap and one or more for the linux root and other 
parts of the file system) - just install debian into one of the partitions 
(hda3 in this example) and edit /etc/lilo.conf and run /sbin/lilo somewhat 
like the following


First put lilo in the MBR - using the boot parameter in /etc/lilo.conf

# Specifies the boot device.  This is where Lilo installs its boot
# block.  It can be either a partition, or the raw device, in which
# case it installs in the MBR, and will overwrite the current MBR.
#
boot=/dev/hda

You want to be able to select one or other of the operating systems and have a 
default

prompt
timeout=50
default=Linux

then use stanzas of the form

image=/vmlinuz
        label=Linux
	root=/dev/hda3

and

other=/dev/hda1
  label="Windows"


to specify all the boot options.

- -- 
Alan Chandler
alan@chandlerfamily.org.uk
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE9vDe9uFHxcV2FFoIRAoZyAJ43F0PKDpzZzIPxpRc9FlxVRjngrQCggyrB
6LV8tTgiw8iMA0YvEDMT/V4=
=DfKV
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----