Want to boot two OS's with three distro's

[Ed]

I have now a dual boot OS in my box. Linux/Win98. I would like to try two distro's (Suse and Mandrake). How would I go about installing and partioning to have to Linux Distro's on the same box with Win98.

Thanks

[DMR]

It would be about the same as what you did to get your current dual-boot system: make room for the third OS (it can share your current distro's swap partition), install it, and modify your bootloader to accomodate it.

What you need to do bootloader-wise depends on which one you're currrently using. If you provide a little more detail regarding your current system, we can give you more specific answers:

-Which distro is currently installed?
-How is your drive currently partitioned?
-Which bootloader are you using?

[Ed]

I am sorry I had my system info in my sig. but apparently it did not get posted.

Intel clone 333mhz Celeron
192SDRAM
SoundBlaster Live Value
Matrox Mellenium AGP G200
Maxtor 8.4G
Mandrake 8.1/Win 98

partioning:
/dev/hda3/ reiserfs 4063MB, 2104MB free
/dev/hda1/ vfat 3586MB, 2142MB free
/dev/hda2/ swap

I hope this is enough info. One of the questions upon partioning I will probably be asked is the mount point. Would this be like /dev/hda4/?

I am using LILO as a bootloader.

thanks

[Okie]

i multiboot Win9x Redhat7.1 & Slackware8...

what i did is during the install of Slackware is i did not let Slackware install lilo, and after it was installed i booted to Redhat, and added Slackware's kernel to Redhat lilo.conf file and ran /sbin/lilo in a shell with root privledges, and rebooted and Slackware was incleded with Redhat's LILO...

i have tryed this with both Mandrake & SuSE, with no joy, it seemed with Mandrake that if i canceled out on installing lilo it would also quit finishing the instal if everything else that comes after lilo, and i would be stuck with a half or 3/4 of the OS, i think Mandrake & SuSE are too automated and not intuitive enough of what the user wants to do...

what i like about Slackware's install is it is not so pretenious about what the user want to do, and if you want to skip part of the install it continues to finish with the install...

[mdwatts]

With the second Linux distro, you need to install the bootloader (Grub or Lilo) into the root partition when installing the 2nd Linux and not the mbr or active boot partition of the first Linux.

[Okie]

hey WattsMD, i did not let Slackware install lilo anywhere, Slackware's install gives the choice to not install it at all, and Redhat's lilo booted Slackware with no problems...

[DMR]

Oops, I missed the distro version in the sig.
/my bad.


A combination of Okie and WattsMD's suggestions should work. Just remember- Have that boot disk ready and tested before you start mucking with lilo !!!

When I installed Mandrake 8.0 on a system which already had Redhat 6.2 on it, I actually installed Mandrake's version of lilo over Redhat's, which was on the MBR of hda (I was installing Mandrake on hdb). I then moved Redhat's kernel to the same location as Mandrake's, added a stanza for Redhat in Mandrake's lilo.conf, and re-ran lilo. After a reboot I was able to boot into either system.

As for the partitioning-
If you create one more primary parition, it will be hda4. However, you can only create 4 primary partitions; if you need more than that, you need to make an extended partition, and then create logical partitions within that. If that's the case, Linux will number the logical partitions starting at hda5.

[ 14 May 2002: Message edited by: DMR ]

[hilophilo]

im also having trouble booting up my 2nd distro linux. i currently have duel boot winxp/redhat7.3 right now using lilo. i also have slackware on a seperate partition, but dont know to bring that up to my :lilo: boot with winxp/redhat.

hda = winxp
hdb1 = boot
hdb2 = swap
hdb3 = redhat7.3
hdb4 = slackware

[stingray72]

Originally posted by DMR:
<STRONG>
When I installed Mandrake 8.0 on a system which already had Redhat 6.2 on it, I actually installed Mandrake's version of lilo over Redhat's, which was on the MBR of hda (I was installing Mandrake on hdb). I then moved Redhat's kernel to the same location as Mandrake's, added a stanza for Redhat in Mandrake's lilo.conf, and re-ran lilo. After a reboot I was able to boot into either system.
</STRONG>

That's exactly what I did and it worked like a charm, just make sure root=/dev/hdxx points to the right partition in lilo.conf. That threw me off for a few minutes

[cage47]

Ive got a tri-boot of Win3.1 Mandrake 8.2 and Debian 2.2.30.
Setup Windows partition
installed Mandrake: installed Lilo to mbr
installed Debian without installing lilo at all
In mandrake mounted the debian partition and copied the debian kernel to mandrake's /boot dir. Then added the appropriate lines to lilo.conf. basically copied the Mandrake section and edited to reflect the debian info
then ran lilo again (all this as root)
bingo. If you'd like to see the lilo.conf I'll paste it in the morn.

[DMR]

Originally posted by stingray72:
<STRONG>That's exactly what I did and it worked like a charm, just make sure root=/dev/hdxx points to the right partition in lilo.conf. That threw me off for a few minutes</STRONG>Right, good point. I actually had that in my notes, but forgot to post it- thanks for the backup, stingray.

:)


BTW- cage47: Win 3.1??!! :eek: :eek:

[ 15 May 2002: Message edited by: DMR ]

[cage47]

YES win3.1. I only have Win95 installed on the brio just to have a working win95 box for stuff. But my win3.1 partition holds all my old games. Doom and II (which is networked with the winbox for deathmatches) Tomb Raider, a couple a PacMan clones and A version of Lode Runner for the PC. Oh and Flight Simulator 5. I actually passed on getting Tomb Rader III becuase it needed win98 (Or 95 with enhancements) Also I don't have 95 on the box because with an AMD K6-2 and a via chipset mobo I have to patch Win95 twice to get the system just to work and it'll only hold for around 4 boots then loose the patches. Gave up on that 2 years ago. And I've got no use for win98 or anything beyond. I even found the dos drivers for my 3com nic just to get the Doom Deathmatch to work.

[DMR]

lol! I forgot about how many of my old DOS-based games went *poof* when I upgraded to Win95/98.

;)

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Okie:
<STRONG>hey WattsMD, i did not let Slackware install lilo anywhere, Slackware's install gives the choice to not install it at all, and Redhat's lilo booted Slackware with no problems...</STRONG>

I'm not familiar with the Slackware installer, but I would think it would give you the choice of either installing the bootloader in the mbr or the boot/root partition. One of those is needed either way.

[Ed]

Thank you to all that replied. AS for this newbie ...I will wait to try this until I have a little more experience.

[2damncommon]

Okie says: hey WattsMD, i did not let Slackware install lilo anywhere, Slackware's install gives the choice to not install it at all, and Redhat's lilo booted Slackware with no problems...
I have to 2nd this. I only have Lilo on the MBR that I run from Mandrake. It will boot SUSE, Progeny, Slack, Peanut-Lite, and a newer install of Mandrake. I always make boot disk
May be smarter to have LILO for every distro(?).

And maybe I'd better add; I do find I need to mount every Linux partition I wish to include on the LILO boot menu before running /sbin/lilo.

[ 15 May 2002: Message edited by: 2damncommon ]

[Linuxcool]

hilophilo, there are three ways that I know of to boot your slackware distro from red hat.

1. Copy your slackware kernel to the /boot directory of red hat. First, boot into red hat and make a new directory to mount the slackware partition. Mount the partition and then copy the slackware kernel. Next, edit red hat's /etc/lilo to add a section for slackware. Then run /sbin/lilo and unmount the slackware partition. Reboot.

mkdir /tmpslack
cp /tmpslack/vmlinuz /boot/vmlinuz-slack

Now edit red hat's /etc/lilo.conf and add these lines:

image=/boot/vmlinuz-slack
root=/dev/hdb4
label=slackware
read-only

Run /sbin/lilo and then unmount the slackware partition. Reboot.

2. Leave the kernel where it is and point to it. Boot into red hat. Make a new directory. Mount the slackware partition. Edit the /etc/lilo.conf file and run /sbin/lilo. Unmount the slackware partition and reboot.

mkdir /tmpslack

Edit red hat's /etc/lilo.conf and add these lines:

image=/tmpslack/vmlinuz
root=/dev/hdb4
label=slackware
read-only

Run /sbin/lilo and then unmount the slackware partition. Reboot.

3.Treat slackware as if it's not linux. Install slackware's lilo into its root partition ( /dev/hdb4 ). Make sure the contents of slackware's /etc/lilo.conf file is correct. Boot into red hat and edit /etc/lilo.conf. Run /sbin/lilo snd reboot.

Edit red hat's /etc/lilo.conf and add these lines:

other=/dev/hdb4
label=slackware

Run /sbin/lilo and reboot.

[ 15 May 2002: Message edited by: Linuxcool ]