My system has been dual booted for some time. I was using Grub as the boot loader. The Windoze system is Win98, and Linux is Mandrake 9.2. Over time I ran short of disk space on my 10 gig drive, so I installed a 120 gig drive and added three partitions to linux. I had left about 60 gig of free space to add another distro.

I decided to add Mandrake 10.1 Official to the free space. I did the install, and the 10.1 install updated Grub to Grub2, replacing the grub from MDK 9.2. I was able to boot to 10.1 but not to 9.2. I have an older parallel port scanner running on 9.2. Until I can get it to run on 10.1, I want to keep both installs, so I did not upgrade 9.2.

I took me some time to figure out why 9.2 would not boot. Could not find doc on Grub2 and how to configure it. I the process I restored the older Grub from 9.2 (found doc on older Grub) and fixed my booting 9.2 problems. At this point W98 and Mdk 9.2 boot, but now Mdk 10.1 won't boot. I had a super block error.

In a further effort to get Mdk 10.1 booting I switched from Grub to Lilo. Not much has changed. I have tried lots of things with Lilo. Mdk 9.2 and W98 boot, but not Mdk 10.1. That is the long sad tale. Here is the output from fdisk -l.

• Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 * 1 271 2048728+ b Win95 FAT32
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 272 1292 7718760 5 Extended
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part5 272 542 2048728+ b Win95 FAT32
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part6 543 979 3303688+ 83 Linux
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part7 980 1012 249448+ 82 Linux swap
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part8 1013 1235 1685848+ 83 Linux
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part9 1236 1292 430888+ 83 Linux
  
  Disk /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/disc: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
  240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15881 cylinders
  Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
  
  Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part1 * 2 15881 120052800 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part2 6775 7586 6138720 83 Linux
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part5 2 2710 20480008+ 83 Linux
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part6 2711 5419 20480008+ 83 Linux
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part7 5420 6774 10243768+ 83 Linux
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part8 7587 7734 1118848+ 82 Linux swap
  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/part9 7735 15881 61591288+ 83 Linux
  

In short, W98 is on hda1 and hda5. Mdk 9.2 is on hda6 hda7 hda8 and hda9.
Mdk 10.1 in on hdb2 hdb8 and hdb9. Hdb5 hdb6 and hdb7 are linux data partitions.

I have Mdk 10.1 on the second hard drive. What is the best approach to get it to boot? Shuld I be using Lilo, Grub or Grub2 ?

If Grub2 is the way to go, where do I find doc on how to set gub up to boot from the second hard drive?

Just for completeness, here is my current lilo.conf file.

boot=/dev/hda
vga=normal
default="linux-mdk-9.2"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-12mdk
label="linux-mdk-10.1"
root=/dev/hdb2
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdb8 splash=silent hdc=ide-scsi"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22-10mdk
label="linux-mdk-9.2"
root=/dev/hda6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda7 hdc=ide-scsi"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hda6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe devfs=nomount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda7"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="windows"
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/hda1
label="floppy"
table=/dev/hda

If I understand correctly this is the lilo.conf from MDK9.2

Then, in /boot there will be the MDK9.X kernels, but not the MDK10.X kernels, as these would be located somewhere on /dev/hdb2.

To use MDK10 in this setup you should mount your /dev/hdb2 partition so that it is accessible under MDK9, like under /mnt/mdk10

Ten in the MDK9 lilo.conf chenge these lines:

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-12mdk
label="linux-mdk-10.1"
root=/dev/hdb2
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdb8 splash=silent hdc=ide-scsi"
vga=788
read-only


TO:

image=/mnt/mdk10/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.??? (I dont know the mdk10 kernel version)
label="linux-mdk-10.1"
root=/dev/hdb2
initrd=/mnt/mdk10/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdb8 splash=silent hdc=ide-scsi"
vga=788
read-only



Now lilo will read the correct kernel and initrd files to boot MDK10.

WATCH-OUT: I assumed that you have /boot on the same partition as / , if you have /boot on a separate partition under MDK10, then you must change the entries accordingly.

Thank-you for your help. I fixed up the paths to Mdk 10.1 as you suggested, and I started to get the 10.1 splash screen. That was one problem.

I had some error messages. I had to change some of the append. Specifically, devfs=mount to devfs=nomount and voila, the system comes up.

Thanks again for your help.