Hello all,

I have a dekstop computer with 500Gs of hard drive fully dedicated to slackware 13.1 , but since last week I decided to install ( duel boot ) windows 7 so my lil brother can play games. using gparted i shrank my partition for 30Gs to give to windows and I installed windows. Here is my problem :
Now that I have 2 Os's installed but I cant choose which 1 to boot from. Windows automatically boots up and I dont know how to get into my slackware.
Plz help .

Thank you

Just use any Live distribution to install grub on it.

Edit:
Sorry did not read the post correctly. My bad. You have Slack. It runs LILO. Either you can do what repo said, or else if you are not familiar with Lilo then can install grub. You may find Grub easier to manage.

Open this file in vi editor

Chnage default=0 or 1

default=0

0=first label in file

1= second label in file

Sample file :In this file default=1;so sytem boots in Windows XP

can you guys guide me how to do it on lilo ? since slack still uses lilo ?

Hi chymeira, i think you have LILO if it has LILO thn you have to do this:

so you need to edit
/etc/lilo.conf

in taht make default=slackware (label of os)

Windows does overwrite the MBR.
Boot from a live cd
Edit /etc/lilo.conf
rerun lilo
reboot


Kind regards

Im still having problems ... this is what my lilo.conf looks like :

append= "vt.default_utf8=0"
boot = /dev/sda

default = slackware

....
....

timeout = 200

...
...
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda3
label = linux
read-only


is lilo -v the command for rerunning lilo ?
because the live ubuntu doesnt have that command

thank you

Hi,

Please give us the whole file and change the default option to slackware...It will work

Note:It should be slackware label (i dont know what's the label in you file)

Did you run lilo command? It could either be /sbin/lilo.

Insert your slackware cd.
Sfter it comes to root prompt.
use liloconfig.

#liloconfig
There wiil be a menu,
select Simple
The next part of the LILO configuration is selecting where you want it installed.
Choose MBR here.

I hope this helps.

this is my lilo.conf

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append=" vt.default_utf8=0"
boot = /dev/sda

default = slackware

# Boot BMP Image.
# Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8
bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp
# Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted
# foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow):
bmp-colors = 255,0,255,0,255,0
# Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of
# columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many
# entries must be in the first column before the next begins to
# be used. We don't specify it here, as there's just one column.
bmp-table = 60,6,1,16
# Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color,
# background color, shadow color.
bmp-timer = 65,27,0,255

# Standard menu.
# Or, you can comment out the bitmap menu above and
# use a boot message with the standard menu:
#message = /boot/boot_message.txt

# Wait until the timeout to boot (if commented out, boot the
# first entry immediately):
prompt
# Timeout before the first entry boots.
# This is given in tenths of a second, so 600 for every minute:
timeout = 200
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda1
label = Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

I tried using liloconfig... I didnt have such a utility on my slackware 13.1 disk.

Im using live ubuntu ... and when I want to rerun lilo it says that It cannot locate lilo file ... my hard drive is mounted on /media/88-2212 ...

thank you again

Hi,

default= slackware was used only for example (reference)

make/change
(Your lable is Linux not Slackware)

After thsi reboot the system.It will boot in Slackware by default

Don't forget to rerun lilo, after you made the changes.

Then boot into slackware, add windows to your lilo.conf, and rerun lilo


Kind regards

Thank you every1 for all your replies.

I worked on the problem and this is how I fixed it.

I boot up with my Slackware cd , mounted my /dev/sda3 ( my slack partition ) and edited my lilo.conf the way you guys told me. After that I reran lilo and then I ran fdisk /dev/sda and toggle boot on /dev/sda3.

And now both work.

Thank you again . God it feels good to be back on slack ... windows makes me .... u know

Great you got it working and thanks for posting the solution.

I understand.