[lug] Dual boot from two hard drives, LILO

[D. Stimits]

Glenn Murray wrote:
> 
> I gave that (boot=/dev/hda) a shot, but then the system wouldn't boot
> any OS, but kept looping through the boot cycle; hitting TAB at the
> LILO 2... (whatever) prompt did not display the choices.  I had to dd
> the boot loader LILO had saved back to /dev/hda.

The idea here is that the MBR on /dev/hda points to the locations named,
and if it fails to load, the named spot is neither a bootable system nor
another loader. What it points to should be examined. But the dd backup
is a very good thing to have :P

Is there a reason why you added this line? If not, try without it (you
can just comment it out).

Also, try a case of replacing "lba32" with "linear". And remove the
"compact" until you get it working, I find it has caused problems for me
in the past.

Most likely change that would help I think is to add an explicit "root="
line to the individual boot sections, name the PBR in those, and keep
the MBR in the global area. E.G.:
# lba32 # try commenting this out, using linear instead.
linear
boot=/dev/hda
# root=/dev/hdb5 # comment out, use only for individual boot sections.
# compact # comment out
install=/boot/boot.b
delay=90
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
################################################# Linux
image=/vmlinuz
        label=Linux
        read-only
        root=/dev/hdb5
        alias=l

################################################# Windoze
other=/dev/hda1
        label=Windows
        root=/dev/hda1
        alias=w
#        table=/dev/hda # comment out till other parts work

> 
> Odd, I thought that having Linux on a separate hard drive would make
> things easier, not harder.  Does grub handle this sort of thing
> better?

It makes other aspects easier, but there is a tradeoff. I have no idea
how grub works with this situation.

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com

> 
> Thanks,
> Glenn Murray
> http://www.mines.edu/~gmurray
> 
> On Thu, 30 May 2002, D. Stimits wrote:
> 
> > Someone already picked up on this, but here is some general info to
> > expand on it. hdb5 is a partition boot record (PBR), not a master boot
> > record (MBR). The MBR is always the initial loader, it can point
> > directly at a bootable area, or it can point at another loader (the
> > latter being chain loading). If you install to boot=/dev/hda, your
> > current boot loader will be overwritten, so have a recovery disk ready
> > for windows (or let it just repair the bootup in its repair mode I
> > think...not sure how XP does that, 2K can repair boot only). Change the
> > boot= line to point at /dev/hda (an MBR), rather than hda5 (a PBR), try
> > again.
> >
> > D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com
> >
> > Glenn Murray wrote:
> > >
> > > Here's the lilo.conf I've been trying to use...
> > >
> > > lba32
> > > boot=/dev/hdb5
> > > root=/dev/hdb5
> > > compact
> > > install=/boot/boot.b
> > > delay=90
> > > map=/boot/map
> > > vga=normal
> > > ################################################# Linux
> > > image=/vmlinuz
> > >         label=Linux
> > >         read-only
> > >         alias=l
> > >
> > > ################################################# Windoze
> > > other=/dev/hda1
> > >         table=/dev/hda
> > >         label=Windows
> > >         alias=w
> > >
> > ...
> > > > >
> > > > > hda1       XP
> > > > > hdb1       /home
> > > > > hdb2       /swap
> > > > > hdb5       /
> > ...