lilo.conf help for new installation
 

Hello, I've got mandrake and slackware installed and need to know how to alter lilo so I can choose which to boot. My lilo.conf file currently says

image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda2
label = linux
read-only

Mandrake root is on /dev/hda1 so what do I need to write so I get a choice of both? I tried just adding another root label which it didn't like, so I'm not sure what I need to do. Thanks.

Just to clarify the above, I already had mandrake, and I partitioned the drive and then installed slackware. The lilo.conf file above is how it looks in slackware.

Add another stanza to your lilo.conf, along the lines ofMount hda1, re-run lilo, and reboot. From the sounds of it, you had Mandrake installed, after which you installed slackware (incidentally, where is your swap partition ?), overwriting the existing lilo setup from Mandrake.

Cheers,

mj

My swap is on /dev/hda5. It might have been easier to install slackware first but I wanted a safety net. I'm not sure about the mnt/hda1/boot/vmlinuz line. Are you saying I need to remount hda1 ? That is where the boot image for mandrake is. My hda set-up is:
hda1 mandrake root
hda2 slackware root
hda4 extended
hda5 swap
hda6 mandrake home
hda7 slackware home

Yes I see what I've done. I've overwritten the MBR. So I need to sort that out. I've been trying to get slackware to boot into a graphical environment. I used pico to change the run level from 3 to 4. However although I'm using KDE it launched into gnome. Not sure why. It did that last time I tried briefly to get going with slackware.

The sound is now going, better than Mandrake actually, I think I should have chosen to use the root partition instead of the MBR for booting.

Help appreciated.

When you run lilo, it will need to read the kernel image for Mandrake - thus the reason for it to be mounted. (Obviously, it can be unmounted straight after). It is possible that you may also need an initrd entry, depending on whether the Mandrake kernel was set up for intrd. The easiest way to check whether your entry is correct, incidentally, is to read the /mnt/hda1/etc/lilo.conf entry for Mandrake.

Cheers,

mj

Actually, I prefer to use the Mbr over the root partition for the boot loader, as that way you have one system managing the entire boot process. True, if you had installed Slackware's lilo into root you wouldn't have overwritten the existing bootloader, but instead would have been left with a two-tier boot loader (annoying, IMHO).

Cheers,

mj

This is a bit embarassing but I can't work out how to log in to gnome as root so I can alter files. How do I do it? Say I want to alter /etc/inittab. Do I need to type su at the terminal to use file manager?

To get a root console, yes, just type "su" and enter (exit once finished). To use a gui file manager as root, there will probably be an entry on the Gnome menu -- I'm on KDE at the moment, where it's at System -> More apps -> File manager (super user mode).

Otherwise, you can usually just type "gksu <programname to get root access.

Cheers,

mj