Red Hat 7.2 and Red Hat 9 sharing bootloader

[snorlaxx]

Hi!
Just a quick question... is it possible to install 2 releases of RH in one PC? and both are using the same boot loader? I tried doing this and it seems to be impossible. Maybe there is a restriction I failed to read or there might be a work around on this one.

Background: I am doing this because I have RH9 originally installed and HardHat dev kit i got is compatible with RH7.2 only. so i have to "downgrade" my OS to 7.2. Since many files are already in RH9, i got another HDD and installed RH7.2 there having GRUB bootloader of Enigma on MBR. I expected it to behave like RH + WinXX where i can choose which OS to boot, but it wasnt.

Thanks everyone!

[Loki3]

First off... I don't really know why you'd want to downgrade your system to work with one piece of software. Isn't there an updated version of HardHat dev that will work with RedHat 9? In my mind that would be a much better solution than running old and possibly insecure and buggy software.

Since you already have Red Hat 9 installed and using one hard drive I would just install Red Hat 7.3 on the other hard drive but when you get the part in the installation process which asks how you'd like to boot your system decline to install a bootloader. I'd still make a boot floppy for caution's sake. Then I'd boot into Red Hat 9 and edit your bootloader's config to allow you to boot your Red Hat 7.3 installation. Which ever bootloader you use (Lilo or Grub are the most common) this process should be explained somewhere in their documentation.

[snorlaxx]

Originally posted by Loki3
First off... I don't really know why you'd want to downgrade your system to work with one piece of software. Isn't there an updated version of HardHat dev that will work with RedHat 9?

Hard Hat Dev i have is only a preview version and works for 7.2 only. I have to buy the full version to make it compatible with Shrike.
Off topic: I cant make dhcp work in shrike so i figured ill make it work on Enigma since it is what the software initially asked for.

[Loki3]

Whoa, whoa. Slow down there. I can't keep up with all these tricky code-names. :D Red Hat 9 = Shrike and Red Hat 7.3 = Engima right? Hopefully I got that right.

Is the only reason you can't get Hard Hat to work under Red Hat 9 is that DHCP is broken? We can fix it! That might be a possible solution.

If not... I still recommend you just install Red Hat 7.3 onto your separate hard drive, make a Red Hat 7.3 boot disk, then add a entry into Red Hat 9's bootloader for 7.3.

[snorlaxx]

Originally posted by Loki3
Whoa, whoa. Slow down there. I can't keep up with all these tricky code-names. :D Red Hat 9 = Shrike and Red Hat 7.3 = Engima right? Hopefully I got that right.
9 = Shrike
8 = Phoebe
7.3 = Valhalla
7.2 = Enigma
..:)

Originally posted by Loki3
Is the only reason you can't get Hard Hat to work under Red Hat 9 is that DHCP is broken? We can fix it! That might be a possible solution.[/B]
I tried doing that already... for the past 4 days.. :(

[Loki3]

Originally posted by snorlaxx

I tried doing that already... for the past 4 days.. :(

I assume you've already posted a thread and are continuing to try and solve the problem? If not I can do my best to answer your question. I'm just gonna guess that you need DHCP to obtain internet access correct? It's often easier (at least in my view) to do that staticly. I would still recommend you try to get DHCP working first.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Loki3

Since you already have Red Hat 9 installed and using one hard drive I would just install Red Hat 7.3 on the other hard drive but when you get the part in the installation process which asks how you'd like to boot your system decline to install a bootloader.

You still need to install a bootloader for every os installed or they will not boot.

If you plan on using the RH9 bootloader, install it in the mbr or a separate /boot partition and when you install RH7.3, install it's bootloader in it's own /root partition. Add a entry to RH9's bootloader config for RH7.3.

[Loki3]

Originally posted by mdwatts
You still need to install a bootloader for every os installed or they will not boot.

If you plan on using the RH9 bootloader, install it in the mbr or a separate /boot partition and when you install RH7.3, install it's bootloader in it's own /root partition. Add a entry to RH9's bootloader config for RH7.3.

Whoops. Sorry about that. However for my own edification do you mean you install Lilo on both the RH9 and RH7.3 hard drives? You just only use the one on the RH9 hdd?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Loki3
Whoops. Sorry about that. However for my own edification do you mean you install Lilo on both the RH9 and RH7.3 hard drives? You just only use the one on the RH9 hdd?

I have my main distros bootloader (Grub) installed in /boot (the active partition) while all the other distro bootloader are installed in their own root '/' partition. I then add the additional distros to Grub in /boot.

title SuSE 9.0 (Rescue)
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz-2.4.21-144-smp4G root=/dev/hda3 acpismp=force apm=power_off idebus=66 ide0=autotune hdb=none vga=0x317 splash=silent desktop hdd=ide-scsi hddlun=0 showopts
initrd (hd0,0)/initrd-2.4.21-144-smp4G

title SuSE 9.0 (Development)
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.21-144-smp4G root=/dev/hda5 acpismp=force apm=power_off disableapic idebus=66 ide0=autotune hdb=none vga=0x317 splash=silent desktop hdd=ide-scsi hddlun=0 showopts
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd-2.4.21-144-smp4G
# apm=realmode_power_off apm=off acpi=off disableapic

title SuSE 9.0 (Production)
kernel (hd1,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.21-166-smp4G root=/dev/ataraid/d0p5 acpismp=force apm=power_off disableapic idebus=66 ide0=autotune hdb=none vga=0x317 splash=silent desktop hdd=ide-scsi hddlun=0 showopts
initrd (hd1,4)/boot/initrd-2.4.21-166-smp4G

title Gentoo
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 vga=0x317 splash=silent desktop idebus=66 ide0=autotune hdb=none apm=realmode_power_off apm=off acpi=off disableapic hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi hddlun=0 showopts
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd

title Debian
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7 vga=0x317 splash=silent desktop idebus=66 ide0=autotune hdb=none apm=realmode_power_off apm=off acpi=off disableapic hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi hddlun=0 showopts
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd

title UnitedLinux (SCO 4.0 Server)
kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 vga=0x317 splash=silent desktop idebus=66 ide0=autotune hdb=none apm=realmode_power_off apm=off acpi=off disableapic hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi hddlun=0 showopts
initrd (hd0,7)/boot/initrd

title Mandrake 10 Beta
kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.2-0.rc3.1mdksmp root=/dev/hda9 acpismp=force apm=power_off vga=0x317 splash=silent desktop idebus=66 ide0=autotune hdb=none disableapic hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi hddlun=0 showopts
initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd-2.6.2-0.rc3.1mdksmp.img

title Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1