Hi, I am trying to install and new linux system on my gf's computer along with mandrake 9 and win2000, its called redflag chinese desktop, things have gone well except for the fact that the display is not worth writting about, but then I have downloaded the driver for intel 82830 card, it requires kernel 2.4.11 up whereas my redflag system is 2.4.9...
Now I have a few questions if any guru can help me:
1) I can mount hda4 which has the redflag system after changing the fstab on my mandrake system in hda2 but I cannot do the same vv, when i installed mandrake it had a windows entry in the fstab which on which i installed the new os and changed the fs to ext2 and its working cool but red flag didnot even have an entry for hda2 I added the entry but its not working
here are the fstabs:
=========================================================
hda2 (MANDRAKE)
=========================================================
/dev/hda2 / ext2 noatime 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hdc,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c vfat iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda3 /mnt/win_d vfat iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda4 /mnt/win_e ext2 defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

==========================================================
hda4 (Red Flag Chinese Desktop)
==========================================================
/dev/hda4 / ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,owner 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/.SWAPFILE swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/Win-C: vfat defaults,ro 0 0
/dev/hda2 /mnt/Linux ext2 defaults,ro 0 0
/dev/hda3 /mnt/Win-D: vfat defaults,ro 0 0
===========================================================



I have a boot disk for redflag and thats fine but i think it would be great if I could use the lilo on the mandrake system to boot into red flag as well, my gf would be impressed.........

heres my lilo.config on hda2 (mandrake)
===========================================================
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
default=2419-16
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux
root=/dev/hda2
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="quiet devfs=mount"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux-nonfb
root=/dev/hda2
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=failsafe
root=/dev/hda2
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe devfs=nomount"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label=windows
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/fd0
label=floppy
unsafe
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.19-16mdk
label=2419-16
root=/dev/hda2
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.19-16mdk.img
append="quiet devfs=mount"
vga=788
read-only

===========================================================

Is it possible to use the kernel source of linux 2.4.19-16mdk with red flag as i have got a nice linmodem thingy going here (search for pctel in the forum) and it would be extremely convienient.
Infact i have compiled the kernel source for 2.4...mdk in redflag but
then i dont know what to do after i copy bzimage to /boot everytime i put the floppy and it boots to the same ole kernel,
Your help will be highly appreciated

Is this a silly question ???

I think few people know anything about redflag and are probably confused in general. Why is floppy in lilo.conf and why do you have four entries for /dev/hda2, three of which are for the same kernel?

And Mandrake's fstab describes four primary partitions, 3 of which look like Windows file systems and one of which is Mandrake. (I thought all 3 *were* Windows - why are you mounting redflag as 'win_e'?

I'm kind of confused about the whole arrangement. Try copying the redflag kernel to Mandrake's /boot as 'vmlinuz-redflag' and adding

image = /boot/vmlinuz-redflag
root = /dev/hda4
label = RedFlag
read-only

That *may* work - if what you're after is a triple boot. Or maybe somebody else will come along with a better answer. If it doesn't, just reboot and select your original Mandrake - shouldn't cause any harm.

Either way, I'd look into cleaning up both fstabs and lilo.conf though - a lot of confusing and unnecessary stuff, I think - I'm kind of surprised everything works.

It says win_e becoz that particular partition was a vfat one when I installed mandrake, I later changed it to ext2 after installing redflag .
Man this redflag isnt much of linux the way i know it, I think even the kernel sources the kernel is 2.4.7-2 and I tried to patch it with patch 2.4.8 and it doesnt seem to find half of the stuff am i doing something wrong here??
And can I use 2.4.19-16mdk for red flag?? Do u think they have fiddled with the kernel to get more chinese language support in?? If they are using the standard kernel I think it should be possible for me to install the desktop
and the chinese language support into mandrake right??
I actually wouldnt need the whole system. Moving the vmlinuz seems to be THE cutting edge solution thanks, where can i click to rank you??

Well, nothing's worked yet and may not. Let's see about the triple boot first. And I'm not sure about the ranking stuff anyway. Okay - I see. The directory was being mounted as vfat and then got redone. Makes sense. It's not a problem, anyway - just looked confusing. You can call it 'Bob' if you want. I've never actually applied a kernel patch - just compiled from scratch. I'm pretty certain those are kernel-specific though. And you mean use your Mandrake kernel to boot redflag? I don't think so - everything on the system's going to be set to work with the older kernel. You can try upgrading this redflag, I guess. And I think, as far as Chinese language support, that'll be redflag specific, so i wouldn't know. Most Linux distros are very good about internationalization, though, and redflag *is* Chinese, isn't it? So that should be fine. But as far as crossing it back into Mandrake, again, I doubt it. Mandrake should have that support or there's probably an rpm for internationalization you can plug in.

okay I've setup my lilo lets see what happens I am not too hopeful though coz there are other parameters like system map and intrid etc. any way i'll get back after the reboot

okay its said init thing is midding now I am going to copy the init rd to the /boot as well and see what happens

Ah, cool. After you didn't post for awhile I was getting worried. I didn't know redflag used an initrd - not every system does that. I'm not positive but I think renaming that and copying and adding the new name to lilo.conf should work, similar to the kernel. *fingers crossed* Maybe try passing 'noinitrd' at the prompt if not?

I would pass the no initrd option only if i could get a prompt from where to pass it, this lilo of mine just shows a menu from which I have to choose its not like the one with the redmenu that lets you pass options

Hm. Actually, the noinitrd thing is wrong, anyway. (I think.) Well, go ahead and boot into whatever you can boot into. Then edit your actual lilo.conf to say 'initrd=/boot/name-of-initrd' in that section - maybe that'll do it. You might also be able to edit lilo.conf to remove the menu or add a prompt, but that might be risky if you edit the wrong stuff. I'm not sure what controls the prompt but including the word 'prompt' in the global section of lilo.conf probably doesn't cover it or it wouldn't pause at all. Usually you do get a colon at the bottom of the screen in addition to the menu. Hm.

And if anybody knew any better than me (*not* hard) they could post up to help devashish out, too.

Haven't heard from you in almost 24 hours. Hope everything's okay. I now see from another thread that you were compiling a new kernel as well as all this stuff.

I'm going to quit posting indefinitely - I wanted to see you triple-booting before then, but I guess I won't.

So hopefully some others will come along and help you out if you need it - if not, start a new thread.

i ended up getting redflag4, i setup lilo to boot redflag as a forgein OS(i installed lilo for redflag4 on HDA4) with root = /dev/hda4 table =hda
now i have to go through two lilo menu but it works just grt.......
Last thing how do i set up what is the abbreviation for reiser filesystem in fstab file system column??

Oh, there you are. Cool and congrats. 'reiserfs'.

Take care.