How can I support other distros in LILO with its Kernel ?

brianL · 02-16-2009, 03:39 AM

Nobody's mentioned this, alMubarmij, but why have you got all those quotation marks in your lilo.conf?

Code:

image="/boot/vmlinuz-huge-2.6.27.7"
	root="/dev/hda5"
	label="Slackware"
  read-only  # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins

image="/boot/vmlinuz-huge-2.6.27.7"
	root="/dev/hda2"
	label="Linux-hda2"

Have you actually got a distro installed in /dev/hda2, or is it empty?
This is a very confusing thread.

alMubarmij · 02-16-2009, 06:06 AM

Yes I have one now and I use it until now, but I'll format it again to test another distro on it.
My lilo.conf is generated by Slackware setup tools, I keep quotation marks in file for feature changes and for learning.

hitest · 02-16-2009, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alMubarmij

I keep quotation marks in file for feature changes and for learning.

Huh? I'm confused.
Is the posted lilo.conf a back-up copy or your actual lilo.conf?

w1k0 · 02-16-2009, 08:10 AM

alMubarmij, did you try what I suggested in post #9 and #42?

brianL · 02-16-2009, 08:12 AM

Why have an entry in lilo.conf for /dev/hda2 when there's nothing in it? And if you have a distro installed there, what is it? Why have it indicating the Slackware kernel on another partition? Weird ideas!

alMubarmij · 02-16-2009, 08:16 AM

.....

alMubarmij · 02-16-2009, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hitest

Huh? I'm confused.
Is the posted lilo.conf a back-up copy or your actual lilo.conf?

It's my actual lilo.conf what I use now on this machine what I write from : )

hitest · 02-16-2009, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL

Why have an entry in lilo.conf for /dev/hda2 when there's nothing in it? And if you have a distro installed there, what is it? Why have it indicating the Slackware kernel on another partition? Weird ideas!

Weird indeed. I don't understand why he adds unnecessary characters, entries into a working lilo.conf.

alMubarmij · 02-16-2009, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w1k0

alMubarmij, did you try what I suggested in post #9 and #42?

I just became confused and puzzled from multi methods to handle my problem.
Thank you I'll try it and tell you the results.

Thanks also for others who tried to help me.

brianL · 02-16-2009, 08:50 AM

I think you need to do some reading about multi-booting. Use the Search function on these forums and Google.

alMubarmij · 02-16-2009, 03:27 PM

Thank you, I found these links:

http://www.rt.com/man/lilo.8.html

http://www.brunolinux.com/05-Configu...boot_Lilo.html

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...boot-with-LILO

http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/...de-simple.html

http://www.freeos.com/articles/3482/

http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lilo-cfg.html

http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/lilo.htm

http://linuxquestions.org/questions/...istros-101712/

alMubarmij · 02-16-2009, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w1k0

alMubarmij, did you try what I suggested in post #9 and #42?

Unfortunately, LILO accepted it, but when I boot it failed and returned to LILO menu, and when I pressed it again it booted with Slackware menu also !

w1k0 · 02-17-2009, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alMubarmij

Unfortunately, LILO accepted it, but when I boot it failed and returned to LILO menu, and when I pressed it again it booted with Slackware menu also !

I assume four conditions:

1. Your Slackware's LILO is installed on /dev/hda.

2. Your other Linux LILO is installed on /dev/hda2.

3. You used other = /dev/hda2 section in Slackware's lilo.conf.

4. You configured and installed properly other Linux lilo.conf.

If your Slackware's LILO menu switches you back to Slackware's LILO menu there are two possibilities:

1. You used in Slackware command such as lilo -b /dev/hda2 and in result on /dev/hda2 is installed Slackware's LILO instead of other Linux LILO.

2. Your other Linux lilo.conf is configured improperly.

Now you have two possibilities:

1. Run other Linux using Slackware's CD-ROM or chroot to other Linux, then check if in other Linux lilo.conf is entry boot = /dev/hda2, next run in other Linux simple lilo command, and finally come back to Slackware and run lilo command once again.

2. If it will fail publish here your other Linux lilo.conf.

justwantin · 02-17-2009, 01:53 PM

I have seen people tie themselves up in knots over this before, but it is not difficult.

I wrote something a long time ago to help someone just like you. Later I made a web page out of it.

It is called "Getting the address correct when dual booting with lilo".

You can find it here: http://www.turtlespond.net/help/dual_boot.html

I suggest you read it. The examples may look different on the top but the stanzas for booting the kernels were no different back then when it came to telling lilo where to look for root file systems and kernels

This is not rocket science but you have to understand how to address other kernels and root directories. I just did it again yesterday, I let the slack installer write the lilo.conf and after booting into the new install I added another stanza to the lilo.conf so I could boot another install that was already on the box. I have edited out everything that is unnecessary to this conversation and pasted it in below.

Note that the installation was on /dev/hda10 so lilo was written and run from the root directory on /dev/hda10. That means when I was running the slackware install on /dev/hda10 I had to address the kernel image on the second install with a full address like this: image = /mnt/hda2/boot/vmlinuz and make sure that root was correct like this: root = /dev/hda

Quote:

other = /dev/hda1
label = Win2k
table = /dev/hda

image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda10
label = kde-4.2
read-only

image =/mnt/hda2/boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda2
label = Slack-12.2
read-only

Personally I have never used "other = " for a linux install in a lilo.conf although it seems to be the way when dual booting at least with windows.

Once again I suggest you read my web page if not mine then the other ones you listed... and perhaps remove anything that is unnecesary from your lilo.conf to avoid confusion for yourself as well as anyone on this thread trying to help you.

w1k0 · 02-17-2009, 05:52 PM

I use two machines with two system partitions on each of them plus one partition for data and one partition for swap. On the first machine I installed twice Slackware 12.2 (sometimes I use the other partition for some other Linuces, for example Ubuntu, openSUSE, or Fedora). On the second machine I installed Windows XP and Slackware 12.2.

First machine, first partition:

Code:

boot = /dev/sda
compact
append=" vt.default_utf8=0 resume=/dev/sda4 acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode"
prompt
timeout = 50
vga = 791
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-smp-2.6.27.7-smp
  initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
  root = /dev/sda1
  label = linux.generic
  read-only
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda1
  label = linux.huge
  read-only 
other = /dev/sda2
  label = /dev/sda2

First machine, second partition:

Code:

boot = /dev/sda2
compact
append=" vt.default_utf8=0 resume=/dev/sda4 acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode"
prompt
timeout = 50
vga = 791
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-smp-2.6.27.7-smp
  initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
  root = /dev/sda2
  label = linux.generic
  read-only
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda2
  label = linux.huge
  read-only
other = /dev/sda1
  label = /dev/sda1

Second machine, first partition is for Windows XP.

Second machine, second partition:

Code:

boot = /dev/hda
compact
append=" vt.default_utf8=0 resume=/dev/hda4 acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode hdc=ide-scsi"
prompt
timeout = 50
vga = 791
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-smp-2.6.27.7-smp
  initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
  root = /dev/hda2
  label = linux.generic
  read-only
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hda2
  label = linux.huge
  read-only
other = /dev/hda1
  label = windows

All these configurations work.

I try hard to keep things simple. It's not easy. Human beings tend to complicate things. I'm human being. But I try...