dual booting slackware and 2nd distro

stevielawson · 01-09-2006, 07:24 AM

I've got Slackware 10.2 running on my first partition - the rest of my disk is free space ready for regular testing of other distros.
But, what I don't want to do is mess up Slackware/LILO so here's my question: If I install a second distro into the free space and install it's bootloader into its root partition (rather than MBR where LILO is), can I then start up using a boot floppy from the second distro to launch me into the second distro's bootloader? And will this leave LILO/Slackware well-alone on the MBR/1st partition.
I'm happy to use boot floppies if it means I can change distros on the second partition regularly and leave my Slackware intact - I really don't want to be editing LILO.conf to add the second distro every time.
Thanks!

heltreko · 01-09-2006, 07:54 AM

Quote:

But, what I don't want to do is mess up Slackware/LILO so here's my question: If I install a second distro into the free space and install it's bootloader into its root partition (rather than MBR where LILO is), can I then start up using a boot floppy from the second distro to launch me into the second distro's bootloader?

Yes, Works fine.

Quote:

And will this leave LILO/Slackware well-alone on the MBR/1st partition?

Depends on the installed system and how user friendly it is. :-)

A good idea is also to make a boot floppy for your slack install so you always can boot into slack and rerun lilo if the new installed system does something unexpected. You can of course use your slack CD for booting as well. Try it first before installing any other system.

simcox1 · 01-09-2006, 07:56 AM

You could not install a bootloader at all for the second distro, and then add a section for that distro to lilo.conf to boot it. I think. Or sometimes, say with mandriva, you could choose the 'install bootloader to floppy' option, and then just insert the disk when you want to boot it. As long as floppy is first in the bios boot order.

cwwilson721 · 01-09-2006, 08:02 AM

My preference is to use lilo to boot them all. After the install of the new distro, run liloconfig in expert mode, and point out where the new distro is (i.e. /dev/hda2, /dev/hda3, etc..). Then lilo can give you a boot menu, you choose what you want to boot.

stevielawson · 01-09-2006, 08:19 AM

Thanks for the advice guys - not sure which option I'll go with but like the idea of the bootloader on a floppy for the second distro as the whole idea was to leave LILO alone wherever possible.

b0nd · 01-09-2006, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevielawson

Thanks for the advice guys - not sure which option I'll go with but like the idea of the bootloader on a floppy for the second distro as the whole idea was to leave LILO alone wherever possible.

I don't see any problem in editing the lilo.conf.
Just have a backup of it for your sake.

Install the new distro. Don't install there boot loaders anywhere.
Switch to slackware. Make an entry in /etc/fstab to mount the drive of newly installed distro.
Now in lilo.conf of slackware just give the path for vmlinuz and root etc of the new distro.

Thats it !!!

regards