hi, this is what i got so far: hda xp, hdb1 swap, hdb2 mdk 9.2, and 10 G free space for slack 9.1 (which i'm gonna install soon once i figure this out)



there's a lot artical about dual boot linux + win, but what about dual boot linux + linux?

when install slack (or any other linux(s) ) there will be a point it ask me if i wanna install boot loader. in my case, i already got lilo from mdk, what should i tell slack's installation? should i say "no", then just copy the vmlinuz and System.map and such to and point root to /dev/hdb6 ?

thanks

Choose to not install one. Make a mount point while in Mandrake to point to the Slack root partition (unless you have a seperate /boot, then point to the /boot). Ex: mkdir /mnt/slack
Edit your /etc/fstab to include that mount point, using the same flags and permissions you have for what you already have in there:
/dev/hdb6 /mnt/slack user,ro 0 0 #or whatever you want

Then, edit your /etc/lilo.conf to point to the boot image for slack:

image="/dev/hdb6/{whatever_your_slack_kernel_is_named}
label=blablabla
etc {whatever appends you want and whether its RW or RO, etc}

I think that'll do the trick.

yes, you only need one bootloader, so if the one you've got already works, choose "no" to install another one (which would probably only overwrite the one you have anyway ). then just edit your /etc/lilo.conf to contain the info for the other operating system/distro, run /sbin/lilo, and you should be good to go.

I just installed Red hat, Mandrake and SuSE on separate partitions. I had to go through the process myself and learned through trial and error. I made a lot of mistakes and had to re-install several times but I finally got it working.

I used Grub. If I am not mistaken Lilo is older software.

Now there maybe a simpler way, I do not know.

Before you install your second version, make sure you get the code for booting Mdk9.2 and XP. Slackware will write over the boot loader of Mdk and Slackware boot loader will become default because you installed it last.
You will have to re-enter all your boot info into the new boot loader of Slackware.


For me, Booting Mdk 9.2 was as follows. I do not know if it is the same for you because I am a newbee to linux.

Bootloader sequence:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 devfs=mount acpi=ht resume

initrid (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above command (hd0,4) refers to hda5 which is the first partion of my Extended partition. Grub starts at hda5.

(hd0,4) - the four is the fifth number starting at zero because zero is included in the count. You probably already know this if you installed XP and MDK 9.2

By the way, where did you get slackware.

After you install slackware, boot it. Go into Control Center as root login. It would probably be in the boot section or the System section where you can Add and enter your other boot entries. I do not know how to help you anymore because I do not know Slackware.

Again, it is important to get the bootloader info for each OS. I suppose you can boot into Mandrake and get that info from the same area before you install slackware.