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Old 09-27-2003, 01:08 PM   #1
petarsabev
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Registered: Sep 2003
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Lilo and MBR of the second hard disk


This is the list of my hard disks:

hda1
hda5
hdc1
hdc5

The first is hda - with windows xp
The second is with linux slack.

When installing lilo I do this:

I open my PC case and unplug the first hard disk - hda.
Then I have only hdc.
I install lilo in the MBR of hdc

I reboot and Lilo runs.

After this I shutdown my pc and plug the other hard - hda.
The PC starts winxp - wich is ok.
If I want linux to boot I denied access to the first hda in BIOS (CMOS settings). And this is how I want the things

BUT I HAVE TO UNPLUG MY FIRST HARD - hda.

Is there another way . I don't want every time (installing Linux) to disconnect my first hard from the PC.

Please help !
 
Old 09-27-2003, 02:29 PM   #2
Skyline
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Have you tried installing LILO on the MBR of your 1st hard drive?
 
Old 09-27-2003, 03:38 PM   #3
codegomer
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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Arizona, USA
Distribution: Red Hat 9, Mandrake 9.2, SuSE 8.1
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I'm estimating you want a dual boot machine - Windows XP and Linux from your comments.

SuSE 8.1 allowed me to create dual boot machine during setup and provided the option to boot from a floppy. Remove the floppy and I boot to Windows XP, insert the floppy and a Linux boot menu gives me the choice of Linux and Windows with the default boot to Linux.

I have two physical hard drives and one USB hard drive. I was not allowed to install XP on one drive and Linux on the second. I had to partition the first physical drive with Windows and Linux partitions.

You may have a similar issue in that Linux and Windows XP must both be installed on separate partitions on but on the FIRST physical drive in your system. When you unplug your Windows drive, that makes your Linux drive your first physical drive so you boot.

That's been my experience and it works well for SuSE 8.1 and Windows XP.

codegomer
 
Old 09-27-2003, 03:50 PM   #4
petarsabev
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That's why I unplug the first - hda . My hdc gets first . And the I have linux on the second drive . And I choose what to boot only by "access moode" from the bios - my two hard drives are already connected.
So I have windows xp on the first and linux on the second
I don't want lilo to be installed on the first device becouse I don't want nothing on windows drive from linux and other way .

Thank you for your answers.
 
Old 09-27-2003, 04:05 PM   #5
codegomer
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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Arizona, USA
Distribution: Red Hat 9, Mandrake 9.2, SuSE 8.1
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If you can use a boot floppy to choose which OS to boot than it may work. SuSE created the boot floppy for me during install but I believe I could have used Partition Magic to do the same.

Your Linux distribution may not allow you install Linux on your second physical drive and boot from that drive on demand. Having Windows XP on the first physical drive in the system and Linux on the second physical drive in your system with the option to boot to either one may not be possible. Changing the BIOS at boot seems like it raises the hassle factor considerably.

codegomer
 
Old 09-27-2003, 04:31 PM   #6
Phathead
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Registered: Sep 2003
Distribution: Slackware 10.1, Slamd64 10.1, IpCop 1.4
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I don't understand why you don't want the MBR for lilo on the Windows drive. It has worked perfectly for me in the past.

If you're freaked out by the idea for some reason, you'll have to use a boot floppy. I've never done this before, but I think if you either use Slack setup or read the man pages for lilo and lilo.conf, you'll figure out how to do this.

Phathead
 
Old 09-27-2003, 06:11 PM   #7
Skyline
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Phathead's right - its a common scenario round here - Windows on the 1st hard drive - Linux on the 2nd hard drive - LILO on the MBR of the 1st hard drive - typically, if configured right, there's not a problem - however, if you're still concerned, wait for more opinions.
 
Old 09-28-2003, 08:38 AM   #8
Rodrin
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Location: Upstate NY, U.S.
Distribution: Slackware
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If you can't set your BIOS to boot from the second hard drive while the first one is still hooked up, then you could make the Linux drive hda and just have an option in Lilo to boot to the Windows drive, hdc, when you wanted. Of course, to do this you would have to reconfigure some files in Linux to point to the opposite drives.
 
Old 09-29-2003, 05:11 AM   #9
The_DoubleU
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Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Dublin
Distribution: Slackware 9.1
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I have a simular scenario.

/dev/hda -> windows XP
/dev/hdb -> Slackware 9.1

I have placed LILO on /dev/hdb (not on MBR)
In my bios I have the option set to boot from HD2 (/dev/hdb)

My Lilo conf looks something like this (doing this from work, might contain error)

boot = /dev/hdb6 (this is /)

other = /dev/hda1
label = windows
tabel = /dev/hda

Image = /boot/vmlinuz
Label = Linux
Root = /dev/hdb6

So my machine boots HD2, display's LILO with option windows and Linux, both boot fine.
The big advance of this is that if I remove my Linux HD, Windows will still be able to boot.
The same if I remove my Windows HD.

Hope this helps.
 
Old 09-30-2003, 11:35 PM   #10
slacard
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Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Upstate NY
Distribution: OS X, Zenwalk. Sabayon x64, Debian 4.0 x64
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I have a similar issue in that grub on SuSE has been very hard to configure for my system Win ME on ist partition of Master drive SuSE on the 2nd partition; debian and slackware on the slave or 2nd hard drive. I found that gujin (look at freshmeat.net or sourceforge) has a lot of features for boot loading.I still haven't mastered it yet but it does see all the drives/partitions and booting options and it doesn't touch your MBR unless you want it to. Hope this helps.
 
  


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