Setting up a Slackware/OpenBSD dual boot
 

Using fdisk on my Slackware DVD I set-up the following partitions during the install process. I set-up my openbsd partition(set OpenBSD partition as type A6), then edited lilo.conf. Next I installed openbsd to /dev/sda4. Re-booted into slackware and then ran /sbin/lilo.

sda1 swap
sda2 root
sda3 home
sda4 OpenBSD

This addition is added onto my lilo.conf at the bottom

other = /dev/sda4
label = OpenBSD
table = /dev/sda

P.S. I've noticed that newer versions of lilo generate errors when trying to add my addition to the bottom of lilo.conf, that is, when running lilo the addition is not recognized. I fixed this issue by running lilo like this:

Everything now works as expected and I have a functional dual boot of Slackware64-current and OpenBSD 5.9.

Good to know.
Thanks!
:hattip:

i ran into the same problem. the culprit is fdisk.

using "lilo -P fix" is risky, as it rewrites the partition table. using cfdisk for creating partitions solved that problem for me in the first place.

I ran into the same problem adding my OpenBSD addition with cfdisk, that is, lilo errors out. I suspect that something is different with the newer versions of lilo.

Do you happen to have the lilo errors? This way, if someone is trying to search for those they can find this thread.

Hi bassmadrigal,

When I went searching for a solution I found this user, cobalt, had a similar error as I did.

For dual booting OpenBSD, I use "ignore-table" in my /etc/lilo.conf

It still generates warnings, but I ignore them.

Thanks, mate! I'll try that out when 14.2 is released. Can you please post your lilo.conf so I can see where you put "ignore-table"? :)

Nice work. For me, I extracted the OpenBSD partition boot record and put it into my Slackware's /boot partition, so I can have this in my lilo.conf:

I also just run `lilo`, with no errors or warnings.

Unfortunately that page has a dead link for describing the dual booting of Linux, OpenBSD using lilo.

Actually I was just looking for the link that describes getting the OpenBSD PBR via dd, e.g.

which, incidentally, was on the "Windows NT" section of that page :D

I just put it near the top of the /etc/lilo.conf
And when I run lilo I get these warnings which I ignore:
My lilo is running from the master boot record (MBR) of /dev/sda (boot = /dev/sda)

On boot when I choose "openbsd", then lilo simply loads and runs the partition boot record of /dev/sda2 (created by the OpenBSD installboot program)

Here is more information about the OpenBSD boot process on the amd64 (x86_64) machines:

http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq14.html#BootAmd64

Thanks for that, man. Marking this thread as solved. We now have several solutions on how to dual boot Slackware and OpenBSD.
Many thanks to you folks for your contributions! :D

Wondering about dual booting a fully encrypted openbsd install with lilo
 

Hi All,

I was going to do a new thread but saw this one and thought my question was close to this one. Basically I have a new laptop and intend to dual boot slack and openbsd. My plan is to do 3 primary partitions, one for /boot, two for lvm on LUKS and three for openbsd. I’d like to fully encrypt the openbsd install so would be interested to know if anyone else had succeeded in doing this.