Dual booting with 2 hard drives using Lilo. Please Help..

[Johan]

This is my last hope for info...please help. I have went to every other webpage to find nothing.

I haven't installed linux yet. I want to put win98 on my smaller drive and linux on the larger. Linux will be using the master drive. I don't have the slightest idead how the strings work inside the lilo config file. If anyone can help be with a reply or even a (working) link to a help file which explains it, I would greatly appreciate it

[ 01 March 2001: Message edited by: Johan ]

[FyberOptyx]

I have 2 drives for my setup.
I have Win98 on the master drive and Linux on the second drive. This is probably the best option as you may have difficulty boot win98 from the second drive.
Install Linux as normal on the second drive hdb and install LILO on the MBR (Master Boot Record) when asked.
When you have a working install it will automatically boot into Linux until you edit the /etc/lilo.conf file.
At the bottom of the file you should see something like:
# other /hda4
label=HERD
etc.....
remove the '#' from the other and label and change the hd4 to hda1. Change the 'HERD' to Windows
I think there will be an alias = 3 as well or similar, you can leave this or change it to 2 as I did. This is just a shortcut to launch the OS of your choice eg:
LILO: 1 (for Linux) or (2) for windows.
You may also want to increase the delay time period to something like 40 to give you a couple of more seconds to select your OS.
There will also be a line that says something like DEFAULT = Linux. You can leave this if you want to boot to linux as default or change to Windows.
There should be a lot of comments in the file to help you.

ps. I am writing this from memory as I am in Windows at the mo (sorry guys, using ICQ) if the syntax is incorrect I'm sure I will be corrected.

Anyway have fun and if you get stuck post your questions

pps. Almost forgot. You must run 'lilo' when you have finished for the changes to may effect
:)

[ 01 March 2001: Message edited by: FyberOptyx ]

[Charles-K]

Hi, I have something like that setup now.
Setup now:

10gig master Linux
2.5gig sec. WinME

Frist thing I did is... setup the 2.5 as a master and left the 10gig out. Installed windows, drivers, and everything. Then opened the computer and added the 10gig as the master and moved the 2.5gig to slave. Installed linux (Man7.2) and grub found the windows install and set it up to boot. I hope this helps. :)

[ 02 March 2001: Message edited by: Charles-K ]

[keating305]

Hi;
I'm running Corel Linux on a 600Mhz Duron box.I've got Win95 OSR2.1 on my 15 Gb Maxtor H.D. and Corel on my 8.4 Gb. Maxtor. Corel set up the Dual-boot during install, and I've ad no problems whatsoever booting to either OS. I know lots of folks look down their nose at Corel, but its an easy transition to Linux. I probably won't stay with it too much longer as I'm getting pretty interested in Debian, but as an intro to Linux it's been painless and it allowed me to setup my dual-boot without tearing my hair out.
I will say that I think having a up-to-date motherboard with a flexible BIOS helps.
Don't give up, once you get a distro up and running, you'll love it.

[Lorithar]

*swats fibreoptyx*

licq, gnomeicu etc etc etc etc...
*grins*

Dual booting is not for the faint of heart, but it IS doable (hmm... I hear a pun in there) ..
Keep in mind a few minor points. Versions matter when it comes to the application with which you are multibooting. Due to the recent advances in disk technology, there are now some monster drives out there. Older versions of Lilo, Grub, NtLoader, BootMagic, etc etc may not comprehend drives of >8gig.

Windows is a *pig* it MUST HAVE first partition, drive 0. Which is crock .... but that's just the way it behaves.
Linux doesn't care about what drive its on, but (see the first point) the entire partition that contains the kernel to boot *may* have to be below a certain point on the drive that you are booting off of.

...provsios are thus.

a)first drive will contain windows in partition one. Or at least the startup components thereof.
b)second or higher drive will contain a boot partition for linux.
c) lilo/grub/ntloader/bootmagic/joesosloader are certified for drives > [sizeof largest installed drive]
d) when laying out linux install on drive x ..drive x's geometry is such that a partition of XMB will fit below 1024cylinder ... (this one is the kicker...) YES .. lilo and grub new versions can handle this problem. NOT ALL rescue disks outthere can .. I like the idea of being able to yank a disk off hte net in winders, rawwriting it to floppy and recovering the linux partition. Dammit ... I couldn't keep track of my floppies in the bad old dos days...
*grin*