Dual boot-Dual disk woes

xgm · 06-03-2005, 03:37 AM

To make it short:

hda: Mandriva 2005 LE, doing well, full throttle.
hdb: SuSE 9.1 Personal, just installed, running OK, GRUB in hda

Startup: boot ----> SuSE . Cannot access 2005LE.

I have checked all forums on the issue, but get lost in a sea of (contradictory) instructions.

Any kind soul around to guide me thru a step-by-step repair /install?

Tons of thanks in advance from a

musicman_ace · 06-03-2005, 03:55 AM

I imagine the question is how to mount the Mandriva partition when you've booted Suse.

if that is the question,

mount -t filesystem /dev/hda1 /mnt/mandriva

I'm almost positive I didn't read the question right (mainly because I don't see a question).

xgm · 06-03-2005, 04:45 AM

Thanks, musicman_ace.

Let me rephrase: I want to be able, at startup, to choose to boot Mandriva or SuSE. From all I have read, it looks like a problem with the GRUB or Lilo config.
Seems to me that, on installing SuSE, I should have done something to keep the boot-loader out of Mandriva's path, and then somewhat "doctor" Mandriva's Lilo config to show both options.
That's what I don't know how-to, and what I ask you, or anyone else around, to tell me.

Thanks !!

musicman_ace · 06-03-2005, 05:08 AM

Ok, now that I understand the question I can help more. To create the entries you'll require, I'll need to know your partition layout. Please post something like this:

/dev/hda
#1 /boot
#2 swap
#3 /

/dev/hdb
#1 /boot
#2 swap
#3 /

Once I know that, I can reply with the entries that you should be able to copy into grub and boot up.

xgm · 06-03-2005, 05:26 AM

Thanks, Adam

dev/hda
#1 /boot
#2 /swap
#3 /Mandriva 2005LE

dev/hdb
#1 /boot
#2 /swap
#3 /SuSE 9.1 Personal

(Needless to tell you that, actually, SuSE GRUB is at dev/hda1/boot, right?)

musicman_ace · 06-03-2005, 06:23 AM

title MANDRAKE
root (hd0,0)
kernel /bzImage root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd

title SUSE
root (hd1,0)
kernel /bzImage root=/dev/hdb3
initrd /initrd

I would assume that you need to edit the menu.lst from hda since it should be the drive that is getting booted. You'll need to change the bzImage to whatever you name your kernels. There is a chance that you don't need the initrd lines. I don't use them, but your distro's may. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

xgm · 06-03-2005, 01:00 PM

Thanks, Adam !!!
And furthermore, it worked definitely without the initrid lines
Now I have "the best of both worlds"