Hello all, recently picked up Slack64 14.0 and decided to redo my entire PC with dual-booting SSDs as I had the hardware laying around and wanted to put it to good use.

Currently this is my set up (not sure if this will help, but here it is anyway)

MB: Asus P8Z68-V Pro
CPU: i5 2500K - stock clocks after BIOS update
Ram: 16GB GSkill 1333MHz (run a lot of VMs in Win7)
GPU: SLI GTX 580
SSD1: Windows 7 - GSkill Phoneix 240GB
SSD2: Slack64 14.0 - OCZ Vertex3 120GB
HDD1: Extra programs and Win7 games - WD Raptor 450GB
HDD2: Storage - (RAID 1) 2x 1.5TB Seagate 7.2K

This is the process that I attempted twice now and has not worked.

1) installed win7 on SSD1
2) went through the install of Slack on SSD2 while installing Lilo using simple and to the MBR.

#cfdisk
/dev/sde1 boot linux 119GB
/dev/sde2 linux-swap 1GB

After reboot computer boots into win7. Change the boot process to boot from SSD2 first and still boots into win7, override selection of SSD2 boot and get a "Missing Operating System" message. I have completely cleansed SSD2 through a F/W update and flashing the NAND via OCZ toolbox to make sure there isn't any remnants of Linux or Windows on it before the second install. Still no luck.

I get no Lilo screen whatsoever in any of the boot processes.

Windows 7 still boots fine (currently typing on it now)

Any suggestions would be most appreciative.

-Tony

Hi, try disconnect the sata drive (win7) SSD1 from the mobo.

install linux, save grub to mbr of linux drive (SSD2: Slack64 14.0.) when asked.

once you have setup slack, re-attach the SSD1.

on reboot you should be able to select which drive to boot from,

with the bios menu, F12 on my box.

grub will be on slack

win7 should work normally.

All of this can be changed by re-installing grub to SSD1 mbr using grub(tools in slack).

lilo? Did you have to manually install lilo?

hth, Glenn

I do not use Grub. I use Lilo exclusively when installing Slack.

As to your method, I tried the following:

1) Unplugged all drives
2) Secure wipe of SSD2
3) Reinstall of Slack64
4) Was able to successfully launch Slack64 from Lilo menu - froze loading into KDE (expected as I have 3 monitors and 2 graphics cards)
5) Plugged back in SSD1

A) Selected SSD2 to boot from - Lilo prompt comes up
B)"BOOTMGR Missing C-A-D to restart" message when entering Win7
C)Restarted tried entering Slack -

Quote:

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 FS. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 FS (and no swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock An error occurred during the root filesystem check. You will not be given a chance to log into the system in single user mode to fix the problem. If you are using ext2 filesystem, running 'e2fsck -v -y <partition>' might help.

What I attempted to do to fix this.

Booted off of Slack64 DVD
Mounted SSD2
Edited Lilo.conf
I tried booting again and same thing.

Tried editing lilo a second time

Same results.

So now this is where i stand...I have a non working Windows OS that is irreparably damaged even with windows boot disc and Slack64 install that is hosed.

Anyone got any ideas?

Hmm...Have you checked the device naming after reattaching the other ssd?


If you unplug the windows drive again does the Slack install boot?

SSD1 was comes up as /dev/sda and SSD2 changes to /dev/sdb. Had to make the necessary changes in lilo.conf.

I have not tried to unplug the SSD1 to see if slack comes back up or not.

There are a number of ways to setup dual booting with Win 7.
Check out the post by Erick_FL in this link:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...13-1-a-845373/

lukameen, while I appreciate the help, that post goes over pretty much everything I have tried. Did you happen to read all of the posts I made as well as that I am not booting off of a single drive, but multiple? Erick's post, however helpful and useful, doesn't seem to go over anything I haven't already tried.

As a side note, why does everyone seem to think I am going to make a switch from using Lilo to Grub or that I am currently USING grub?

I AM USING LILO

captkrill, I dual boot win7 and slack-current. You don't have to use grub. I use Lilo, although I haven't dual booted with separate drives. Seems to me, if you want to use your windows bootloader to give you the choice of booting windows or slack (and use Lilo to boot slack) then the linux mbr should be installed to the superblock of your / partition. If you dd your linux mbr and make the bootsect.lnx file and copy that to the / of your windows partition it should work after you use bcdedit to configure the windows bootloader. I wanted you to see the post on dd'ing, bcdedit, and dual booting, which is why I thought my previous post might be helpful to you.

I am not wanting to use the windows bootloader. Only wanting to have Lilo give the option of Windows or Slack.

thats all i have for my windows entry and it works for me.

partition layout:

/dev/sda1 * 2048 718847 358400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 * 718848 91971583 45626368 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 * 91971584 96855343 2441880 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 96855344 312581807 107863232 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 96855407 121274143 12209368+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 121274207 145692943 12209368+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 145693007 204281998 29294496 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 204282062 209165758 2441848+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda9 209165822 312581807 51707993 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Don't know why i have so many bootable partitions, ignore that!, anyway looks like I have lilo is pointing to my system reserve partition or w.e windows calls it.

Alright I got it fixed.

Seems that the issue was the System Reserve partition the entire time.

Steps for installing on 2 drives for a dual boot with Lilo and NOT Windows Bootmanager

1. boot Slack installer and format Windows drive to a single ntfs partition (opt 07 type) Use entire drive space nothing should be left over.
2. install windows normally. Make sure that the installer does not create a second partition. If you chose FS type 07 then it should be ready to install without having to do anything else.
3. boot Slack installer and install normally. Install Lilo simple to MBR. reboot.

Worked like a champ. No lilo.conf editing either. boots right up into lilo and slack64.

Thanks all for the help. Cheers

-Tony

PS. Note to self. Send very unappreciative note to Micro$h!t about adding a "system reserve" partition when XP and 2000 did it all in ONE partition.

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