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dual boot - hda & hdb - both Linux

Hey folks...

I'm gonna take a break from this project for a few days, So I decided to post my
question, and hope someone answers it before I get the energy to continue.

I have slackware 10 on hda1
lilo on mbr of hda - slackware works great (AS USUAL :) )

I have suse 9.1 on hdb1
Grub on mbr of hdb - works fine if I physically disconnect hda
(or change the boot sequence in the MB bios.)

I can not get lilo to either boot suse or pass control over to grub.

If you boot 2 versions of linux, 1 on hda and the other on hdb,
PLEASE post your lilo.conf.

Thanks for you time - tw

I've got Windows on hdb & linux on hda. The portion in bold is what makes windows think that its on hda. Maybe this will help you

# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hdb1
label = windows
table = /dev/hdb
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
# Windows bootable partition config ends

Mine looks like this:-
# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

boot=/dev/hda
default="263-4"
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-4mdk
label="263-4"
root=/dev/hda1
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-4mdk.img
append="quiet noapic devfs=mount acpi=ht splash=silent"
vga=791
read-only
image=/drive2part1/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.26a
label="Slackware-2.4.26a_hdb1"
root=/dev/hdb1
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only
image=/drive2part1/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7c
label="slack-2.6.7c_hdb1"
root=/dev/hdb1
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only

I've managed to get Mandrake 10 and slackware working together nicely (along with XP and ME)
what I had to do because modules and stuff were loading from drake when starting slack:

First, the main (Mandrakes) lilo is on MBR.

slackware has its own lilo on its own root partition, which has no delay (boots straight to slack)

and add this partition as 'other' in the main lilo.

what I also did, but sent the system a bit iffy was have a /mnt/slack/ in mandrake to get to my Slack root., and a /mnt/drake so I could read my Drake root in Slack. I think something happened to the permissions though and thing went strange, so now they just share the /home partition and I removed the /mnt's

does any of this make sense?

I "solved" this with a little trickery....
Dragon (see below) has 6 hard drives. Each drive is a different version of a Slack based install and each drive has its own kernel.
hda is the master/rescue install. It also controls the boot of ANY of the other installs and drives. hda carrys all the kernels by proxy of the other installs.
hda has the lilo.conf and passes the root off to the other drives

Well, I have had no luck so far - but thanks to those who replied for the suggestions. I currently have
2 sections trying to boot suse - both kinda going different directions, and both being modified a number
of times from what is seen here.

1-
# Linux bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hdb
label = SuSe
boot-as=0x80
read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends

2-
# Linux bootable parition config begins
#image = /suse/boot/vmlinuz
# root = /dev/hdb1
# label = Suse-direct
# read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

I am sure someone is doing this using lilo. (somewhere in the world) - If you have the solution or an idea,
please let me know. I have stumbled upon anather issue, but I would like this one resolved first (since I am
already working on it).

Thanks in advance - tw

Check if suse doesn't use a initrd image (take a look at vdemuth code to boot mandrake).

OK folks, here is where I am at now. This is the content of the section to boot suse:

Code:

disk=/dev/hdb bios=0x80

boot=/dev/hdb          

map=/suse/boot/map  

install=/suse/boot/boot.b 

prompt                    

timeout=50      

image=/suse/boot/vmlinuz

label=linux              

root=/dev/hda1        

read-only

and I have also this (currently remarked out):

Code:

# Linux bootable partition config begins

# boot = /dev/hdb        #overwrite MBR of hdb

# disk = /dev/hdb        #tell how hdb will look like

#  bios = 0x80        # the bios will see it as the 1st drive

# delay = 0              # don't wait

# vga = 314              # Suse's grub uses vga = 0x314 so I put this here

# image = /boot/vmlinuz  # where to find the kernel

# initrd = /boot/initrd  # Suse uses initrd and this is its location

#  root = /dev/hda1    # Use hda1 here becuase of the 0x80 line above

# label = SuSe          # what this is called

# read-only              # as usual 

# Linux bootable partition config ends



NOTE:If I remove the 'boot' and 'disk' lines, I then get an error running lilo that

says "/boot/initrd is not found"  - obvoiusly 'cause I am running lilo from hda and

the initrd is on hdb at the time.

This is getting worse every time I try it. Now when I run lilo (to save my changes to the mbr),
if the "boot" or the "disk" option is first, I get a "syntax error on line xx" message.

Here are 2 sites I have referenced:
http://www.linuxselfhelp.com/HOWTO/m...e/prepare.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...e/LILO.html#s4

Any more ideas/help would be appreciated. I hate to be a pain, and rehashing the same issue,
but this seems like it would be possible... but I am having no luck so far...

Thanks again - tw