Dual Booting
 

I have a hard drive with a Windows 98 partition on it, and I am going to get another hard drive so that I can put Linux onto it. I would like to dual boot with LILO, but I do not want to rewrite my windows MBR. How would I be able to dual boot with out either OS interfering with each other? Also, I would like LILO to stay with the Linux partition. How would I do this? Any help is appreciated.

******Colonel Panic*****

I have done some investigation in the past but never got the chance to actually do it.

However, please check the url below. It contains some useful information.

http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO.html

Hope this helps!

Hi
Two options that I used when I had the same setup (windoze now gone from that machine :) ).

1 Change BIOS boot sequence between C and D (or whatever your drives are called)

2 Have one OS as default, and use a boot floppy to start the other.

Or even better, use Linux all the time, mount the windisk, copy everything important and get rid of M$.

Jim

I saw the coolest thing in the latest Tiger Direct calaloge. http://www.tigerdirect.com It is a switch that goes in a 5.25 slot and lets you change between up to three different drives. You could set one to Window$ and another to Linux, then it's just a matter of press the right switch and boot up. I think you should buy one and try it out then send me an e-mail and tell me how it works before I spend any of my money on it ;-) .

Hi. Havent been able to get up here in a while. Anyway, how would I change the BIOS boot sequence? Thanks!

*****Colonel Panic*****

Hello
As the machine starts to boot, you will see a prompt that says "press delete to enter setup" or something similar. This gets into BIOS setup. BE CAREFUL! Go to the bit which says boot sequence, and change the order, save changes and exit.
As long as you mainly use one OS, and don't constantly switch, it's not too inconvenient.
Regards
Jim

Is there a way to not have to change the boot sequence? I would really keep LILO and Linux on the 30 GB hard drive, and keep windows on the 7.5 GB drive. Basically, this is what I would like to happen:

Put Linux and LILO on the 30 gig hard drive(/dev/hda). Keep Win98 on the 7.5 gig drive(/dev/hdb). When I turn on the computer, I will get the LILO boot prompt, and LILO will be on the 30 gig, Linux drive. When I choose Linux, LILO will access the Linux partition(s) on the same drive. When I choose Windows, LILO will access the other 7.5 gig drive with Windows98, and boot windows. Also, can I set it up where neither OS knows the other is there? That way, If I trash my Windows partition to re-install it, I will NOT get a LILO prompt (It happened when I was using GRUB with Mandrake.) and will be able to just be able to reinstall Windows on the 7.5 gig disk. If I can't do this, then how would I re-install windows while Linux and LILO is on the other drive, and not let Windows rewrite the bootloader? Please respond if ANY of this makes sense to you. Thanks for your time!

*****Colonel Panic*****

you need execute to this file when in linux.

cat /etc/lilo.conf

you should have in there eight lines of code(or so).

under that you have some thing that will read similiar to this

image=/boot/vmlinux-xxxxx (depends on what kernel you use)
label=linux
root=/devxxx (depends how your partitions are)
initrd=/boot/initrd-(kernel version) .image
read-only

this is what tells to boot linux.

now depending on what partition your windows is on you need to add this. (mine reads this because I have win on 2nd partition)

other=/dev/hda1
label=dos
table=/dev/hda

in linux hda is the 1st part and adds from there. so change your other to read what ever hda# your dos mbr is on.

also if you dont totally understand this type this to read more.

man lilo.conf


hope this helps.

Take care!

Being that I am a BIG newbie and that I don't know too much about Linux, I didn't understand too much of what you said. Sorry, but it was just over my head a bit. Do you think you can explain it a little simpler? (don't use big words. I am often confused if a word is over two sylables...). Also, I did not know what you meant when you said 'cat' in cat /etc/lilo.conf . Sorry, but I'm a newbie, so don't go too hard on me! Thanks for the help, though.

*****Colonel Panic*****

Okay, did my homework. Found out what it is. Thanks for the help. So, even if my lilo.conf doesn't look the same, then I should be okay by adding that code at the end? THANKS!

*****Colonel Panic*****