laptop dual boot
 

I need some help with lilo.
I want to install Slackware 9.1 as a second OS on my NEC Versa laptop with XP.
I have a 30 GB drive which after cfdisk now has:
hda1 2 GB Fat32 hidden (XP backup)
hda2 21 GB XP ntfs - bootable
hda3 5GB linux (primary)
hda5 256 MB linux swap (logical)

Does this look OK so far
I am going to install Slackware on hda3 as root, no other partitions with reiserfs
How do I set up Lilo and where do I install it to. This laptop does not have any floppy drive, so rescue disks are a problem if I get it wrong

Just install the LILO bootloader to the MBR of the FIRST partition (your hidden fat in this case) and make sure you FIRST install winxp, so you can let slackware overwrite your WinXP MBR, then add an option to boot WinXP to lilo. ( You have to install winxp FIRST otherwise your slackware MBR will be overwritten).

I already have XP installed and working.
Do I have to make hda3 bootable too?

Yes, you should make hda3 bootable as well. Just pop in your slack cd and run cfdisk. You can set the flags in there.

good luck
kM

t is not important you mark your Linux root partition as "bootable" as the latest version of LIlo have a "trick" that can boot partitions not marked as bootable as well.
Take care to overwrite NTFS partitions as they are very "sensitive". This could became a problem for future overwiting of MBR due to some upgrades to your system.
I'd suggest you read first
http://www.linuxgazette.com/node/view/8750
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289022
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+NT-Loader.html
Hope this helps
Ciao

I like the idea of using the NT loader to avoid problems when MS overwrite it. No I have to figure out how to follow the howto without a floppy drive.

Copy the bootsec.lnx file into your fat 32 partition that should be recognized by XP
or if available onto an USB pendrive.
Hope this helps
Ciao