I have been placing multiple distros on a large HD using openSUSE 11.1 as the 'master distro' and its menu.lst for booting additional distros.

This has proven to be a good fit when using distros which also use a /boot/grub/menu.lst to boot up. But now I'm attempting to do the same thing with Zenwalk and am confronted with Lilo in Zenwalk, not grub.

Which file in a LiLo distro does the boot system use? Usually in using a /boot/grub/menu.lst one would say something like:

title SmashLinux 100
root (hd0,nr.)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

I assume that in LiLo, one of the files under the LiLo distro's /boot partition would be used....but which one? I know it isn't the config file.
There are several.

Thanks for any data on this.

Rusty2

Hya,

I hope I understand your question correct.

root partition: root=/dev/whatever <- may be global
title: Label
boot image: image="your kennel"

Happy Penguins!

Hi kaz2100;

Well, perhaps I'm not phrasing it correctly. I am looking at a representative /etc/lilo.conf file which has apparently all correct entries. The Zenwalk partition is sda14 (I can install up to 15 of them) and, in grub, assuming the following would work, and assuming the loader is on sda14, the menu.lst file under openSUSE would read:

title Zenwalk 5.2
root (hd0,13)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

Now, that makes the assumption that Zenwalk is using Grub and there is a menu.lst file. However, Zenwalk uses LiLo and there is no menu.lst file. So, I have to find the appropriate files in Zenwalk's /boot partition to use in the above 'configfile' line. Such as eg., 'configfile /boot/LiLo/xxxxx'.

And, that assumes that the execute word 'configfile' will work under LiLo and that the second partition, if there is one, is named 'Lilo".

Thanks again.

You can't force one products (sub-)commands on another like that.
Install lilo to the root directory of the zenwalk partition and chainload to it.

Rusty2, if you need some help installing Lilo to the boot sector of your Zenwalk partition, you might want to look at this page:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p4.html

Once you do that, you can do as syg00 says and just boot Zenwalk by chainloading it:
Let us know how that goes or if you run into problems.

Hi;

OK. First I reinstalled Zenwalk 5.2 to make certain that it was set up to boot from partition 14 with the swap set at partition 3. Partition 3 is the swap for all the previous distros. The Zenwalk installer immediately recognized partition 3 as the swap and the install was set at Partition 14 which was one of the partitions offered by it. I created partition 14 using Parted Magic 3.0 and also formatted it to ext3 which the Zenwalk installer also re-formatted to ext3.

The language in the openSUSE menu.lst file:

title Zenwalk 5.2
root (hd0,13)
chainloader +1 does not work.

I noticed that in menu.lst the XP partition uses 'rootnoverify (hd0,X)' so I replaced the above 'root (hd0,13) with 'rootnoverify (hd0,13)'. That also does not work.

The error message which is returned in both cases is "invalid or unsupported executable format".

I tbink that, for kicks, I'll use (hd0,14) in the above and see what happens and I'll get back with that. (I'm 95% certain that won't work.)

Any ideas?

Many thank you(s).

Sounds like you didn't install lilo to the boot sector record. I did an install prior to Christmas, and grub chainloads it o.k.
I've since thrown it away - I may try it again when I get back to work. Stay tuned.

Rusty2, in order to see whether you were successful installing lilo to your Zenwalk boot sector, and also to get more booting info about your setup, how about downloading the "boot_info_script.txt" to your desktop, and then do the following as root user, but replace <username> with your username:
That will create a "RESULTS.txt" file in the same directory from where the script is run, namely your desktop; please copy/paste the contents of that file to your next post. That should help clarify your setup and whether you have lilo correctly installed.

Thank you very much for your help on this issue...which would have culminated successfully yesterday had I been more awake. After countless attempts to load Zenwalk in Part. 14 I hit the pillow and awoke this morning with a stunning epiphany.

Gee, what if the lilo.config file really wasn't there at all? Guess what, it wasn't. So said Parted Magic 3.

After reinstalling once again and watching very carefully and noticing that some of the install screens weren't 100% clear, I have reached success and have installed the distro on Part. 14 along with my global swap of Part. 3. The following language works perfectly using openSUSE's menu.lst:

title Zenwalk 5.2
root (hd0,13)
chainloader +1


I have partition 15 left and I think that I'll put Absolute 12.2.0 in it tomorrow. This is a 500g ATA drive and is backed up with another 500g ATA drive by cloning it after everything goes ok with the next install. Then, of course, one by one, I shall exploit and build each OS.

Thanks all very much.

Happy New Year from southern Oregon.

Rusty2

Rusty2, congratulations on your success; I'm really glad to hear you sorted out the problem. Cheers and Happy New Year to you too.

HEy everyone!I have the same problem.with an add!I need noapic... I m asking,where shall i put the noapic,and should I install lilo at all???