Need some advice for installing DSL as a dual boot

SuperK · 06-06-2006, 08:10 PM

Hi,

I want to try DSL on my Linux box but need a little advice first. I have a 2.5 GB master HDD (hda1) with Winbloze2000pro on it, the slave HDD is 10 GB (hdb1) with Ubuntu Breezy on it with grub as the bootloader. Now since a hardware change of the MoBo, RAM and CPU Win2000 will not boot- BSD- but Ubuntu is fine. Since I never use windows on this machine anyhow ( I have my gamer for that) I was hoping to get some experience with another Linux distro.

I have had problems with getting the grub 16/17 error in the past (after trying to do a apt-get dist-upgrade) and it caused me to have to reinstall, which is something I wish to avoid this time.

So what would I need to know, especially when is pertains to the grub bootloader or the MBR, to be able to have a Ubuntu/ DSL dual boot system?

Any advice is greatly appeciated, thank you!

alunduil · 06-06-2006, 08:21 PM

Well, since you are just overwriting windows...create your partitioning scheme the way you like format and install DSL on /dev/hda*. After that, add the lines to your grub menu.lst so it can find the DSL kernel, and away you will go.

If you have questions about any of the above be specific and we'll do our best to help you out.

Regards,

Alunduil

SuperK · 06-06-2006, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alunduil

Well, since you are just overwriting windows...create your partitioning scheme the way you like format and install DSL on /dev/hda*. After that, add the lines to your grub menu.lst so it can find the DSL kernel, and away you will go.

If you have questions about any of the above be specific and we'll do our best to help you out.

Regards,

Alunduil

Thanks,

Ok I am really not overly familiar with the command line so...how exactly would I do that? I assume in a console. I tried grub menu.lst in my console just now and just got intructions to press tab for a list of commands, I was thinking I would see something with a list of my Linux kernels or something similar.

What would the line or text I need to add look like?

Like I said, I'm not entirely comfortable with the command line and console yet, so I tend to need things spelled out step by step until I either see them done once or do them myself- although the latter tends to lead to much frustration and nashing of teeth on my part.

Thanks again!

alunduil · 06-06-2006, 09:41 PM

That's alright. I'm assuming you only need help with editing grub from your post. menu.lst is actually just an ascii file that GRUB reads to make the boot menu, and handle the loading of the kernel. To open that file use your favorite text editor (I like vim, and that is what is in the example).

Code:

vim /boot/grub/menu.lst

You will need to add the info for the DSL kernel (should look similar to the following).

Code:

title=linux-2.6.16-gentoo-r7
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /boot/bzImage-2.6.16-gentoo-r7 root=/dev/hda3 video=vesafb:mtrr,1024x768-32@85

The above is an actual entry from my menu.lst, and should provide you with a good guideline.

Good luck, and post back if you have more questions.

Regards,

Alunduil

SuperK · 06-07-2006, 05:50 PM

Hi,

I put the first command you posted into a terminal and got kind of weird result (at least to me) I got a bunch of text-including something that looked similar to your distro information- but the funny thing was that I had to expand the window itself to get to the bottom of the text, in other words the scroll bar would not work to be able to view all of the stuff that came up, so I don't know if I got to see all the readout or not. Hope that makes sense to you.

So once I install DSL do I go back and put the information in that same window or what? And where do I find the proper text to insert? Is there someplace to look so I get it correct? Will I be given a choice to install grub or LILO perhaps during the install and if so do I do it or not? I don't know if it was a thing with vim or what as to why the scroll didn't work but I didn't want to do it until I knew I had seen all the information I needed.

Thanks for the help so far, I appreciate it!

alunduil · 06-07-2006, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperK

Hi,

I put the first command you posted into a terminal and got kind of weird result (at least to me) I got a bunch of text-including something that looked similar to your distro information- but the funny thing was that I had to expand the window itself to get to the bottom of the text, in other words the scroll bar would not work to be able to view all of the stuff that came up, so I don't know if I got to see all the readout or not. Hope that makes sense to you.

That's just how vim works. You can really use any text editor you want you just need to be able to add your DSL info to the grub file.

If you want to learn more vim try the tutorial:

Code:

vimtutor

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperK

So once I install DSL do I go back and put the information in that same window or what?

Yep, and then you will not need to install grub or lilo again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperK

And where do I find the proper text to insert? Is there someplace to look so I get it correct?

A good reference is

Code:

man grub.conf

, but something a little more basic is http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handboo...p=10#doc_chap2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperK

Will I be given a choice to install grub or LILO perhaps during the install and if so do I do it or not? I don't know if it was a thing with vim or what as to why the scroll didn't work but I didn't want to do it until I knew I had seen all the information I needed.

Thanks for the help so far, I appreciate it!

Regards,

Alunduil

cmk77 · 06-09-2006, 08:30 AM

If you put DSL on the hard disk (frugal grub install), it will probably overwrite the existing grub (ie Ubuntu's) and install the DSL grub (unless you have changed the script so it doesn't).

Once DSL is installed, easiest thing to do is add the lines corresponding to the Ubuntu kernel in het DSL menu.lst. You can simply copy and paste them from the existing Ubuntu menu.lst. Copy them before installing DSL, just to be sure. You won't have to reinstall grub. After editing the DSL menu.lst reboot and you will be offered the choice between DSL and Ubuntu.