My question is about being able to dual boot with different hard drives. I will be dual booting using windows 98 and Red Hat Linux 6.1. I was told to add these three lines of code to linux.conf:

other=/dev/hda1
label=dos
table=/dev/hda

where the 'other' is windows.
By adding this code to the lilo.conf, will I be able to dual boot with different hard drives? I'll be using win 98 and redhat 6.1. WILL THIS INTERFERE WITH THE WINDOWS MBR, OR THE WINDOWS INFORMATION? WILL LILO BE ON MY WINDOWS DRIVE? Thanks for the help, and I think I am finding the information that I have been looking for! :-) PLEASE, SOMEONE, ANYONE, PLEASE RESPOND TO MY QUESTION! I am VERY desperate right now! Any help that can be provided is appreciated!

*****Colonel Panic*****

There are some good docs about LILO at MandrakeUser (Mandrake derived from Red Hat, you know ):

http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/install/iboot.html

I like GRUB, don't know LILO but you might also want to look at man lilo and man lilo.conf. Pretty sure you have to run lilo after modding the conf file. Good luck.

Here's a story.

If you had a Windows-only machine, the code in the mbr would boot Windows.

If you had a dual-boot, the MBR would run LILO, which will allow you to start either Win or Linux. This is of course assuming that you set up lilo.conf properly (and re-ran /sbin/lilo).
The part that says boot=/dev/hda tells lilo to write to the MBR on the first ide drive. The label "linux" will boot Linux from the third partition (/dev/hda3) of the third logical drive and "windows" will boot from the first partition (/dev/hda1) on the first drive.

There will be two mbrs. on hda, which is windows, there will be a windows bootloader. on hdb, which is linux, there will be lilo. want to edit lilo.conf to dual boot with different drives. Something like this:

#begin lilo.conf
boot=/dev/hdb
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
image=/boot/vmlinuz-xxxxx #(kernel here)
label=linux
root=/dev/hdb
read-only
#add this to boot win
other=/dev/hda1
label=dos
table=/dev/hda
#end lilo.conf

Now, by adding this, will this interfere with the windows mbr, or the windows information? will lilo be on my windows drive? Thanks for any help that can be provided!

*****Colonel Panic*****

By doing "boot= /dev/hdb", you would be putting lilo MBR of the second drive, not the Windows drive. However, I think you actually want to put it on the / partition of the second drive (not the MBR) by specifying "boot= /dev/hdbx", where "x" is the partition number of /. Also, Redhat versions prior to 7.0 used an older version of lilo which as the dreaded 1024 cylinder limitation; you might want to go with a newer version.

Also, read theLilo mini HOW-TO and the Dual-boot NHF.

Why should I not put LILO on the MBR of the second drive? I'm kinda getting confused. WHAT SHOULD DO???

K E R N E L P A N I C!!!

*****Colonel Panic*****

the name colonel panic is word play, if you haven't figured it out.

Oh, when you say installing lilo on the / partition, do you mean by the superblock? Is lilo going to be in the /boot partition? I want to have /boot partition. So, I would like to know what to do. Thanks for any help that can be provided!

*****Colonel Panic*****

If you put it on the MBR of the second drive, how will your BIOS know which system to boot?

That's why I use new "Lemon Fresh" LILO! I just tell it what OSs I want to boot and squirt a little dab of it on the MBR of my first drive. Then I select my choice of operating system from the handy boot menu. It's yummy.

Is there any way to NOT put it on the first drive? Don't really want it to rewrite the MBR of the first drive because it would be interfering with windows. I don't want either OS to interfere with each other.

*****Colonel Panic*****

I do it all the time, but if you don't want it on there I guess you are stuck booting linux from a floppy or do the old bios swap boot drive trick.

Really the MBR lilo on the first drive is the logical way to go. LILO is designed to boot Operating systems, it's not an operating system.

Egg-Zacchary. DPhillips just put it in terms even I could understand.

Think it is possible for me to install Linux and LILO on the slave, edit lilo.conf to be able to boot into Windows on the master, and change the BIOS so that it will boot the slave drive? Then, when the computer starts up, it goes directly do hdb, and allows me to boot either Linux on the slave or Windows on the master. Do you think this will work? If I put lilo on the MBR of windows, and I'll have to reinstall windows, I will get a lilo prompt? Happened when GRUB overwrote my MBR. Had to do a complete trash. How would I reinstall Windows When LILO is on the MBR of the first disk?

*****Colonel Panic*****

It wouldn't have trashed your Windows drive. All you needed to do was re-write the MBR with the DOS bootloader. From a DOS boot disk:.

Assuming that you have fdisk.com on that boot floppy.

What you are planning to do is...

...well it's kinda...

kooky.

But I guess it might work.

If I install LILO on the MBR of the windows drive, then if I get rid of it, will I still be able to boot into linux with a floppy? Does it take a long time to boot with a floppy? How can I get LILO on the Windows drive? Thanks!

*****Colonel Panic*****