Dual-boot RH 7.0 and 6.2?

[Silent Bob]

Can this be done?

I want to use the same machine to boot RH 7.0 and 6.2 from separate hard-drives. The thing is that they can't share any system stuff between the two. IE when I run 6.2 it has to be 6.2 and only 6.2.

(we need this for software testing)

Is the only way to guarantee this to plug one HD in at a time? or can I use the fact that they are on separate HD's to configure LILO to use only one HD at a time?

[bdg1983]

Lilo can support booting something like 16 operating systems, all Linux if you like.

You can share the same swap partition and I would advise you to use Lilo from 7.0 as it will have a better chance of booting past the 1024 cylinder (if applicable) and from a 2nd HD.

[Sawz]

I am going to do the same thing but - I want to install debian on a spare drive on my current system - It is currently duel boot with win2k and redhat 7.1 -

I use win 2k so i can build my webpage and play with photoshop thats it - so please don't hate me for usin Microsoft.

I actually think win2k is there best OS made, it is definitley the most stable(or it has been for me)

But how often should I expect it to crash on me when I only use it for a few hours a month

lol

hahahahahaha

[Silent Bob]

OK so I hook up the second HD as a slave on the first IDE channel, put in the RH 6.2 CD and tell it to install to the second HD. When it comes to choosing boot options should I just go for making a boot disk?

Then I boot into RH 7 and open up lilo.conf.

As I understand it linux boot disks are raw data, so where do I find the necessary info to set up lilo for RH6.2 as well?

This is what my lilo.conf looks like right nowboot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
linear
default=RedHat7

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.16-22
label=RedHat7
read-only
root=/dev/hda5

other=/dev/hda1
label=WindowsXP

So all I should need to do is leave the global stuff (boot=/dev/hda, timeout, prompt, linear, default) at the top, move the rest of the stuff (map, message etc.) to the RedHat7 image declaration bit and make a new one for RedHat6.2?
Or is there more to it than this?

The lilo docs weren't very clear on how to dual boot two Linux OS's

[ 24 July 2001: Message edited by: Silent Bob ]

[bdg1983]

Something like this

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.5-15
label=rh
root=/dev/hda2
read-only


image = /mnt/cald/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.5-modular
label = cald
root = /dev/hda5
vga = 274
read-only
append = "debug=2"


image=/mnt/deb/vmlinuz
label=deb
root = /dev/hda6
read-only

This example boots 3 distros. You should be able to install lilo the the hd without having to use a bootdisk.

[Silent Bob]

To use an image from another HD I have to mount it first. Is it enough to mount it, run /sbin/lilo (after modifying lilo.conf) and then never have to mount it again (for booting purposes)

Thanks for your patience

[ 24 July 2001: Message edited by: Silent Bob ]

[Silent Bob]

w00t :D :D :D

I have a working dual boot with RH6.2 and RH7

6.2 is causing me grief with its X-server and "issues" but I can turn that into a wednesday problem :)

I'm just happy to have the dual boot going at the moment :cool:

Thanks for the help mdwatts the 3rd

[bdg1983]

Always a pleasure. Enjoy.

If you still have the space, then what's stopping you from installing other distros? ;)