grub and lilo on MBR with Windows xp
 

Hello All,

I've carefully read a lot of threads about dual booting and the MBR on this forum and still haven't quite got the idea.

I have Windows XP on my first partition and Libranet on the second. Libranet uses Grub amd when I boot up my computer it gives me a choice between the two OS's.

I now want to install Vector on a third partition but Vector uses Lilo. How do I install Vector so as I don't damage the other two? Where do I place Lilo? Can I get a choice of the three OS's on boot-up?

Thanks,

LILO and Grub can´t be installed in the MBR parallel.
You should prefer Grub.
Just add the necessary information in /boot/grub/menu.lst to boot Vector as a third OS.

Hi,

Thanks for the info. How do I do what you suggest? Do I open a terminal and enter the command before I try to install Vector? Or do it in the middle?

Install Vector and install lilo to the root partition of Vector; not to the MBR. Once installation is complete, edit /etc/fstab to add the device and mount point for the other Linux OS. Save the file, then mount that partition. Open a terminal window and cd to /mnt/point/boot/grub (where /mnt/point is the mount point you've created) and edit menu.lst ( or /etc/grub.conf for RedHat based distros). The example given below will guide you in making the proper entries for grub to pass the boot process to lilo.

When I installed Knoppix onto hard drive, I had the same problem. My main OS is SuSE (which uses grub), but Knoppix uses lilo. I had quite a time figuring out how to get grub to boot Knoppix.

This is from my /boot/grub/menu.lst; my solution:

title KNOPPIX 3.8
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

where (hd0,0) is the grub designation for hda1 (where Knoppix is installed). Chainloader +1 passes the boot process off to lilo to boot Knoppix.

Treat it as you would trying to boot xp. One bootloader starts the process, then hands off to the next bootloader.

Hello bigrigdriver,

Thanks for a very detailed reply. I'll give that a try tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

Best wishes,

Blotch

the other option is during installation, it should give you the option to not install lilo -- take that. then when you re-boot, boot into linspire and edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and tell it to boot the vector linux directly.
I added slamd64(slack-based) to my ubuntu(debian based) installation like so:

title Slamd64
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 ro quiet
boot

This is assuming that the vector linux root is on /dev/hda5.

remember; the root (0,4) is the way that grub sees your partitions so it would be:

hda1 = 0,0
hda2 = 0,1
hda3 = 0,2
hda4 = 0,3
hda5 = 0,4

and so on.

a second hard disk mounted as /dev/hdb is recognised in grub with a 1 instead of the zero first.

GRUB and LILO always conflict with Windows. And GNU GRUB is not so robust, causing many problems during boot.

So try GRUB for DOS please. It is a cross-platform boot loader based on GNU GRUB. The GRUB.EXE can be started from DOS/Win9x; and GRLDR can be started from BOOT.INI of Windows NT/2K/XP/2003; and even more, the GRUB.EXE can be started from LINUX via the KEXEC tool.

By using GRUB.EXE or GRLDR, you don't have to touch your MBR. It is the safest way coexisting with DOS/Windows.

You needn't install GRUB for DOS. Just run GRUB.EXE from DOS, or append a line of "C:\GRLDR=START GRUB" into your BOOT.INI(restart and select the "START GRUB" menu item), that will do.

Download GRUB for DOS here: http://freshmeat.net/projects/grub4dos/

There is a fat12grldr.img file with the GRUB for DOS release. You can create a GRUB bootable floppy with this fat12grldr.img file.

Or, you can just copy GRUB.EXE to your DOS floppy and run GRUB.EXE to enter the GRUB environment.