Multi boot problem (2 linux, 1 Win)
 

Greetings!
I have a little situation and need some guidance;
I installed XP (hda), installed a 2nd drive and installed CentOS (hdb).
I installed Grum on the MBR of C (hda) and had no problem booting to either one.
Then I decided to cause total chaos and I installed a third drive and installed Mandrake 10.1 (hdd) on it.
So, on the first IDE channel, I have C(hda) loaded with XP (primary) and CentOS (hdb) set up as secondary.
On the second IDE channel, I have the DVD drive set as primary and the third drive (hdd) set as secondary.

Then I installed XP then CentOS, I configured GRUB to give me the option while booting of going into XP or CentOS. After installing MAndrake 10.1, I was under the understanding that I should install the bootloader for each additional distro.

Mandrake installed the bootloader (LILO) on it's onwn boot sector, and now I have the same menu options as before; Centos (by default) or XP.

I have never configured lilo, and not that experienced with grub.
I know that I have to get the information in lilo and put it into grub; I do not know how to do that; what can I do to resolve this?

Thanks in advance
Tim

Added by edit:
Here is the contents of my grub.conf:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS-4 i386 (2.6.9-11.EL)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-11.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-11.EL.img
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Added by edit again-
Here is the fdisk output for the 3rd hd:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdd1 * 1 203 1630566 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdd2 204 2480 18290002+ 5 Extended
/dev/hdd5 204 967 6136798+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdd6 968 2480 12153141 83 Linux

That's what I do. I also put them into my grub.conf .
The easiest thing to do in your case may be to boot up into Mandrake. Then put the lilo information for Mandrake into the grub.conf which is located on your CentOS system.

I think Mandrake will automount any partitions it finds, so CentOS should be mounted for you.
After you get the Mandrake info into the correct grub.conf, you can chroot into CentOS and run grub from there, something like this....
grub
GNU GRUB version 0.95 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename.]

grub>root (hd1,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub>setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 15 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) (hd0)1+15 p (hd1,1)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/
grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.

grub>quit

Re: Multi boot problem (2 linux, 1 Win)
 

you can do one more thing......
since currently its showing only one linux distro and windows, permanently mount ( i.e make entry in /etc/fstab ) the root partition of the second linux distro in the accesible linux.

now in the lilo/grub of accessible distro make entries for the new distro.

may be like this:

title Mandriva
root(hd?,?)
kernel /path to vmlinuz ( i.e within the parmanently mountd part ) ro root=(again the path)
initrd /path to initrd

it should work
have a look at
this


regards

Thanks for the reply -

Here is my fstab:
# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrecorder auto pamconsole,fscontext=system_u:object_r:removable_t,exec,noauto,managed 0 0

How do I edit this to include Mandrake? By the way, I reinstalled Mandrake (using only that drive) and selected GRUB.
Here is the updated grub.conf:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS-4 i386 (2.6.9-11.EL)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-11.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-11.EL.img
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1


I have to assume that Mandrake is on hd2,0, but I do not know the kernal info (kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-11.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet / initrd /initrd-2.6.9-11.EL.img in Cent).
I cannot seem to access this drive; under dev/ I have hda, hda1, hdb, hdb1, hdb2, hdc, hdc1hdc2, hdc5, hdc6 and hdd. I have the drives set up as follows:
Primary Master: XP (for now)
Primary Slave: CentOS
Secondary Master: Mandrake 10.1
Secondary Slave: DVD drive

Ideally, I would like to completely get rid of XP; install Ubuntu on PM, and retain CentOS on PS and Mandrake on SM. GRUB is currently installed on the MBR, but if I whack it by doing a Ubuntu install, shouldn't that make it easier to configure grub and fstab?

Finally, if there is a site or book that more or less details the different kinds of multibooting, (NT & nix, distro disco) please provide the link or name. I have been googling this, but cannot seem to find exactl;y what I am looking for.

Again, thanks in advance!

Tim

Hello,
i think you haven't read the link i provided to you in my last post.....
thats a complete solution for you.

regards

I read it again, will try the procedures tonight, thanks!