How can I dual boot another linux with LILO?

vijayan · 11-20-2006, 07:11 AM

I have Slackware 10.2 and am thinking of moving to 11.0. My boot loader is LILO. I also have Wndows XP and LILO has correctly detected it. But after I installed PClinuxOS (with boot loader in its root partition), I can't configure Slackware's LILO to detect it. What to do?

arubin · 11-20-2006, 08:18 AM

You need to edit the file /etc/lilo.conf and then run lilo (as root).

So assuming that you are in your slackware installation

You need to mount your PCLinuxOS partition for example to /mnt/pclinuxos

The lines that you add to lilo.conf will depend on how your pclinuxos set up but will be something like:

image=/mnt/pclinuxos/boot/vmlinuz
label=PCLinuxOs
root=/dev/sdb4
read-only

check what you have in /mnt/pclinuxos/boot/ and whether you need an initgz file

If you have an /etc/lilo.conf or a /boot/grub/menu.lst in the pclinuxos partition you ought to be able to work out how to do it.

I much prefer grub as a boot loadder because you can make these changes simly by editing the file menu.lst without having to re-install grub

onebuck · 11-20-2006, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vijayan

I have Slackware 10.2 and am thinking of moving to 11.0. My boot loader is LILO. I also have Wndows XP and LILO has correctly detected it. But after I installed PClinuxOS (with boot loader in its root partition), I can't configure Slackware's LILO to detect it. What to do?

Hi,

You can include a stanza in the current Slackware lilo.conf file for the 'PClinuxOS' then run 'lilo' to update the MBR.
Such as;

Code:

# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
  label = Windows98
  table = /dev/hda
# Windows bootable partition config ends
# << PClinuxOS Linux bootable partition config begins >>
image = /boot/vmlinuz-PClinuxOS           #kernel for PClinuxOS 
  root = /dev/hda4                        #partition
  label = PClinuxOS 
  read-only
# <<PClinuxOS Linux bootable partition config ends>>
#
## Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.13
  root = /dev/hda3
  label = Linux2613
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
#

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.13
  root = /dev/hda3
  label = Linux2613
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
#

You could modify your lilo.conf as per the above example. Notice that I did not include the complete lilo.conf just the stanzas.

After you modify the lilo.conf then;

Code:

lilo -v -t -b /dev/hda               #test the lilo.conf
lilo -v -b /dev/hda                  #write the lilo to mbr

arubin · 11-20-2006, 08:38 AM

Quote:

image = /boot/vmlinuz-PClinuxOS #kernel for PClinuxOS

For lilo doesn't this have to be a path to somewhere that lilo can see when you run it, ie via a pclinuxos mountpoint?