hello,

I've a Linux Mandrake 8.1/ Windows 2000 machine with 20GB of space. I want to add a 120GB hard-drive to this and am planning to install Suse 8.x on this one.

Is it possible to add this drive and have another operating system apart from the other 2.

If so, while installing it how would Suse know of the other and how would the boot-sector be organized. Right now I'm given the linux boot-loader which suggest of Linux, Windows 2000 and waits for my choice.

Can some suggesst me of do's and don't in this procedure.

The other fundemental question : is Suse 8.x a good choice for such a size. My objective is to host an Apache/Linux server. No e-commerce at this point, but expect a decent traffic, not much.

Thanks.
- shanky.

For such a size?

Giving anything 120Gb is still a bit of overkill no matter what the OS.

If you're already using LILO, the easiest way to get SuSe in the boot order is to install it normally, but choose NOT to install a boot loader (You already have one, but it might automagically detect the other two and give you options, if it doesn't see both, don't bother with it).

Boot into Mandrake, mount the SuSe drive, and copy the kernel, almost definately /boot/vmlinuz.suse, over to Mandrake's /boot partition. Then make an addition to Mandrake's /etc/lilo.conf file with something like:

image = /boot/vmlinuz.suse
root = /dev/hdX1
label = Suse
read-only

Where hdx1 is whatever your 120gb drive's root directory is is... my guess is /dev/hdd1, although if you really don't know, just look at the /etc/fstab on the SuSe partition.

Then re-run Lilo with:

/sbin/lilo

Cheers,

Finegan

Hehe, lets hear you say that in 5 years time,,

Ahh, I still remember people saying things like "1gb?? yea right, Who'd want somthing THAT big?"

j/k
RefriedBean

I know I may eat these words in five years, post back if you win in the long run, but look at how disk space has outstripped usage. The Hard Drive boys left Moore's law in the dust.

1992: OS: DOS 3.x took about 28 Mb, my HD: 80Mb! Smokin'! (machine, 386dx 16mhz)
That's about 35% of the disk to OS.
1997: OS: Win95, taking up about 280Mb, my HD: 2Gb!
(machine, P1 200Mhz)
That's about 14% to OS.
2002: OS: Slackware 8.1, taking up about 1.5Gb, my HD: 40Gb (machine, Athy 1.2Ghz)
That's 4%

The drives are getting bigger, but the software doesn't need to... no how much Windows stuffs theirs full of kludge. Come on, you remember when you used to actually have to "think" about how many games you could fit on your machine.

Cheers,

Finegan

Thanks guys,
Proceeding Finegan's idea, I install suse( boot from the suse cd ), don't install boot-loader, boot back on mandrake, copy the kernel - can you tell me what do you mean by copying the kernel ? and won't there be a conflict in here ?

I'm not clear on this.

I'm clear on additing the entry on mandrake part, though.

thanks again.

but then much of slacks 1.5Gb is with applications as well, if it only had the equivalent of win95's contents, you'd not be looking at more than a gig, or even 500mb... 2%

And everything else to store pr0n.

What fin suggested as copying means copying - boot mandy, mount suse partitions, find out which one is your suse kernel - usually vmlinuz in /boot directory, I have no idea where SuSE might hide it and call it. But this is the way how my multi-boot system works mostly mandy and redhat through mandy lilo (sorry I am at work, and my linux workstation here is single boot ), I have in /etc/fstab entries for my redhat partitions
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/redhat/boot ext3 defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb2 /mnt/redhat/ ext3 defaults 0 0
and so forth
and my /etc/lilo.conf
has these entries

image=/mnt/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18athy
label=rh18
initrd=/mnt/boot/initrd-2.4.18athy.img
read-only
root=/dev/hdb2

To give exact directions:

Make a quick and dirty mount point for the suse drive within Mandrake, and mount the SuSe drive:

mkdir /mnt/suse
mount /dev/hdX1 /mnt/suse

You might have to give it the -t ext3 option for ext3 if you're using that.

mount -t ext3 /dev/hdX1 /mnt/suse

Copy the kernel from SuSe to Mandrake:

cp /mnt/suse/boot/vmlinuz.suse /boot/

There won't be a conflict, the kernels will have two different names so you won't be copying over anything important. You can have dozens of compiled kernels on a machine... heck, I do.

Cheers,

Finegan

I like neo77777's way. Just mount the partition where the kernel and initrd are located. Edit lilo.conf giving the complete path to the kernel and initrd. Run lilo and unmount the partition. You're ready to go. No filling up your /boot directory with foreign kernels.