lilo vs grub, dual-booting

binkgle · 05-12-2005, 10:59 PM

so i'll be installing hoary soon, but it will be a secondary os, with win xp my main work, primary usage os. i have one hd (a 74 gb raptor) with a 64 gig partition that windows is installed on and an empty, unformatted, 10 gig partition that i want to install hoary on. i have been reading a hoary installation guide (http://archive.ubuntulinux.org/ubunt...oc/manual/en/), and it was unclear as to whether i would be able to use this 10 GB partition for ubuntu.

also, should i use lilo or grub as a boot-loader? i would prefer xp to boot as default, and for ubuntu to only boot if a specific floppy in inserted at boot (that's how my friend has his rig set up). how would i do this?

freakyg · 05-13-2005, 03:21 AM

I boot GRUB off a floppy, way easier than goofing around with the MBR!!..........windows has no idea that Linux is installed on this box.........and vise-versa

Simon Bridge · 05-13-2005, 07:44 AM

Which is cute until you want to share files between the OS's...

GRUB is supposed to have some advantages over lilo, but small setups probably won't notice. In general, stick to the evil you know.

I have GRUB in a boot partition, set up by default, and linux shows first in the boot order. It is simple to change them round - a matter of cut and paste. The first one is the default, hit enter iffin you don't want to wait.

I tried Lilo a while back, but changed back to GRUB 'cause it looked nicer

binkgle · 05-13-2005, 10:47 PM

i've discovered that i might not even need to install grub. instead i could have it on a floppy and whenever i wanted to boot linux i would just reboot with the floppy inserted. how would i creatre such a floppy in windows?

should i use grub legacy or grub 2 (which is still under development)?

binkgle · 05-14-2005, 04:32 PM

anyone?

Simon Bridge · 05-16-2005, 01:23 AM

You don't create such a floppy under windows.
Also, this is not something you want to do when you are new.

jschiwal · 05-16-2005, 01:39 AM

There are several messages on this board and the internet on how to use XPs NTLDR to boot into linux. If you don't want to replace the windows mbr, you could do this instead.

A boot floppy would be created in Linux. Instead of using /hda as your boot device, you will use a floppy instead. Then the boot loader would be written to the floppy disk by Lilo or Grub. A traditional boot floppy that contains the kernel is not possible for 2.6 version kernels because they are to big to fit onto a floppy disk.

You might want to visit the www.tldp.org website, as it has howto's for lilo and grub duel booting. Also search this site.