I'm trying to install Win2K and Red Hat 7.3 on physically seperate drives. I have a 60 GB as my primary, on which I installed Win2k. I then installed Linux on a 10 GB secondary, and chose LILO as the boot loader. When I booted up, only linux was a possiblity.

Any suggestions?

edit your /etc/lilo.conf to have windows as choice to boot from. also after editing lilo, run it to make the changes:

/sbin/lilo


#a sample for making your lilo entry to boot windows

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

#you can make your label whatever you want.. i tend to use something short like win or dos and your other=/dev/hda1 should point to the actual device in which your case if its the primary drive, you probably can just use other=/dev/hda1

Thanks for the help.

I tried what you suggested, but I'm still having problems. When I added that, 'win' was an option on LILO, but when I selected it all it did was go black for a second, then go back to LILO. Here is what lilo.conf is right now:

prompt
timeout=50
default=linux
boot=/dev/hda1
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
lba32

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-3
label=linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-3.img
read-only
root=/dev/hdb5
append="hdc=ide-scsi"
other=/dev/hda1
table=/dev/hda
label=win

Any idea what going on?

Thanks,
KMac

Not sure why it would go blank then back to lilo like that with no errors. Are you sure hda1 is the exact location of w2k ?
Boot into linux and try this:

fdisk -l /dev/hda

and see if you can tell if your w2k partition is listed as hda1...

try remove table=/dev/hda

I believe your problem is this line.

boot=/dev/hda1

This means to install lilo in the boot sector of /dev/hda1. Now /dev/hda1 is supposed to be your w2k partition.

So, not only do you have lilo in the mbr of /dev/hda, but also in the boot sector of /dev/hda1.

When you boot up, the lilo in the mbr of /dev/hda shows up first. Selecting w2k causes lilo to load the boot sector of /dev/hda1 and run the lilo that is installed there. I believe that's why you are not getting w2k. Your boot sector of /dev/hda1 is going to have to be fixed and you would have to change the line to:

boot=/dev/hda

That's the way it looks to me. Does anyone else see something different?

<edit> I thought of one other possibility, Lilo is installed in the boot sector of /dev/hda1 and the partition /dev/hda1 is set as active. When booting up, the lilo in the boot sector of /dev/hda1 is run and you get a prompt. When you select w2k, lilo loads the boot sector from /dev/hda1 and you end up at the lilo prompt again.</edit>

I must be wrong but can't you just put:

boot=/dev/hda1
label=win2k
read-only

And that's it?

HERE is a "how to" for Linux and win2k.

The boot= line tells lilo where to install itself. You use the other= line when you want to specify another os. So, it would be:

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

littlewhitedog, that's the site I give out when someone wants to dual boot with the nt boot loader.

OK I've got it working now.

linuxcool, I think you were right.

When I first installed it, I put lilo on the mbr, and I guess it put it on hda1 (thats where win2k was for sure, btw)

And while I was waiting for responses on this thread, I reinstalled redhat on hda (2-8), and that didnt work, and when i reinstalled it back on hdb, i did what you suggested and it worked

Thanks everyone

You're welcome.