File system upset by added IDE drive
 

Running RedHat 6.2 on a PC using a boot manager to coexist with Win98. Windows is running on a single IDE drive. Linux is running on a SCSI drive, with swap and an ext2 filesystem on two other SCSI drives.

I want to add another IDE drive to the system for Win98 use. But when I do, I can't get Linux to boot properly because the new IDE drive causes changes in the device numbering for the SCSI drives. What can I do to remedy this situation?

Thanks,
Jerry

What boot manager are you using? It could be that your boot manager needs to have some changes made to it because of the new drive.

I'm using System Commander 2000.

-Jerry

well i'd suggest using lilo instead, much nicer imho. also though you change your fstab file to use labels rather than partition numbers. using the e2label command you can call each linux partition by a set name, which you can then set in /etc/fstab

LABEL=/usr /usr ext2 defaults 1 1

so you don't need partition numbers, which will make it more flexible

I'm not familiar with System Commander 2000. See if it has a setup option that will allow you to see all the drives and partitions on your system. Make sure you have your new drive installed so that it can detect it. Then see if you can reselect your linux system.

Thanks for the tips. I'll give them a try.

-Jerry

Revised info and more questions
 

The problem doesn't seem to be with System Commander. I get so far as to see LILO trying to start but it gets stuck. And I don't actually know that the device numbering is changing - that's an assumption.

So what do I need to do to /etc/lilo.conf to get it to boot properly? Is there a command to add to lilo.conf to make it more verbose? I need a clue as to what it's getting stuck on.

If I use the e2label command to create labels for my root and boot partitions, changing lilo.conf appropriately, how does this make a difference? Since the label is attached to a specific device, doesn't that still assume that the device doesn't change?

Could my problem have anything to do with the fact that the new IDE drive I'm trying to add is 14GB and my system BIOS doesn't go past 8GB without something like EZdrive?

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Jerry