Dual boot slack & win 7 on different disks

wufo · 06-22-2014, 08:54 PM

I have a Slack 14.1 system and want to add Win 7 on a second drive. I installed WIn 7 on the drive alone in the system. I want to leave Slack on sda and Win 7 on sdb. How is the best way to setup lilo to do this?

tj

allend · 06-22-2014, 10:05 PM

Should be as simple as adding this stanza to /etc/lilo.conf and rerunning lilo.

Code:

# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/sdb1
  label = Windows7
  table = /dev/sdb
  boot-as = 0x80
# Windows bootable partition config ends

gegechris99 · 06-23-2014, 04:50 PM

I'm not sure it's possible to boot Windows 7 with LILO as the primary boot loader.

But you can do it the other way around (boot Linux with windows 7 boot loader). Refer to this blog entry by Alien BOB: adding-linux-to-the-windows7-boot-menu

Personally I have a dual-boot Windows Vista/Slackware that I configured using these instructions: dual-boot-linux-and-windows-vista-windows-bootloader (similar to the above blog entry).

Didier Spaier · 06-23-2014, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gegechris99

I'm not sure it's possible to boot Windows 7 with LILO as the primary boot loader.

It is. I have this in /etc/lilo.conf:

Code:

boot = /dev/sda
[...]
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda3
  label = Linux
  read-only  # Partitions should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends
[...]
# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/sda1
  label = Windows
  table = /dev/sda
# Windows bootable partition config ends

Z038 · 06-23-2014, 11:20 PM

Didier, does that work with UEFI and Windows on a GPT partition?

Didier Spaier · 06-23-2014, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Z038

Didier, does that work with UEFI and Windows on a GPT partition?

Lilo can't be used with UEFI. Use grub instead.

I don't think that using a GPT instead of MBR partition table matters for Lilo, but am not completely sure about that.

Z038 · 06-23-2014, 11:58 PM

Ok, thanks, Didier. GRUB it is, then. A little more bother to set up than LILO, but not too bad.

I have a new HP ZBook 15 that I want to try this on. I plan to install Slackware to a 500GB Samsung Evo drive that I will add to the mSata expansion bay. Win 7 is on a 500GB HDD. I'm really kind of lost with Windows, so I may eventually just wipe it out and use the HDD for additional storage. But first I want to see if I can get the dual boot working. If I can, I'll probably keep Windows, since it might come in handy for certain things.

ReaperX7 · 06-24-2014, 05:16 AM

You could also use the UEFI/BIOS disk selection menu as well. Grub can still chain load without overwriting the NTLDR in this method and you can use multiple format styles between disks such as MBR and GPT equally.