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lilo questions.......

DISCUSSION neil t 2 participants 2 messages Nov 25, 2002

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neil t

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#0 lore raw

Hi Chuck--

Quoted 2 lines · Chuck Gelm

Are you looking for a better Debian Woody 3.0 regular install than the one you copied? Which one did you copy?

I am not sure I understand. I had a copy of the installation procedures for Woody 3.0, it looked like to me that they were setting it up for something other then a normal, everyday type of person. This is a quote from the article..."The options we select in this procedure are more appropriate for a server system..." I copied it from www.aboutdebian.com/install3.htm (I think that is correct)

Quoted 1 line

But you never mentioned running /sbin/lilo !!

I have seen in other books to just run 'lilo', but I did run /sbin/lilo.

Quoted 3 lines
Quoted 1 line

Ok, so I guess if I install Debian 3.0 or even Red Hat again, it will replace my existing bootloader but I will still have the option to make Mandrake the default. This is determined when I edit /etc/lilo.conf.

...and run /sbin/lilo.

OK, let me see if I understand this.....I have Mandrake installed already.
If I decide to install another distro on another partition, it will install 'lilo' and be the default system. If I now want to add the already installed Mandrake, I will first have to (in the other distro) do this:

------------mkdir /mnt/*mandrake*
then edit:

------------/etc/lilo.conf
add below "other distro" info:

------------image=/boot/vmlinuz

      -------------label=*mandrake*
      -------------root=/dev/hda3
      -------------read-only

save and run /sbin/lilo

Is that right?....I hope....!!!
I went ahead and cleaned out the hd that contained RH 7.2 yesterday. I installed Deb woody 3.0 (didn't set up X yet) I had the options to make the system bootable, or it says Install LILO in the MBR (I made a boot disk). I mounted it from mandrake (as a practice) and edited /etc/lilo.conf and ran /sbin/lilo and it was added to the lilo list. I understand that it will run from there, but not really perfect. That is why I have the disk. I am not sure, but is it because I copied the "kernal" there? I know it contains important info from the installation there ie: when I boot from floppy, wvdial works 'fb', but from lilo, I get disconnected. Am I on the right track? !!
I am enjoying tinkering with this stuff....kinda like building my own qrp rigs.....
72 es tnx om
Neil wa4chq

Quoted 16 lines
Quoted 1 line

secret is mounting all your disks/partitions where "lilo" can

reach them all in one go, you can define any partition "in use or not" as long as it is mounted.

         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

<snipped to end>
So,
if all the partitions you want to choose to boot from are mounted, run /sbin/lilo.

HTH, Chuck
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Signature · 14 lines
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#1 lore raw

Your "How do do it?" description is almost right. But details count here. So let me make some suggestions.

At 06:46 AM 11/25/02 -0500, neil t wrote:
[...]

Quoted 1 line

If I decide to install another distro on another partition, it will install 'lilo' and be the default system.

Typically, yes. It might not (your other comments reminded me that with Debian, at least, you can skip this step in favor of making a boot floppy). And a distro *might* use a bootloader other than lilo (grub is the other common one) or load from a DOS partition (with syslinux, for example). But you are unlikely to encounter these exceptions, based on what you've been talking about actually doing.

Quoted 3 lines

If I now want to add the already installed Mandrake, I will first have to (in the other distro) do this:

------------mkdir /mnt/*mandrake*

*Making* this directory is not enough; you then need to *mount* the appropriate filesystem on it. (And using *s in directory names is bad practice, BTW.)

Quoted 9 lines

then edit:

------------/etc/lilo.conf
add below "other distro" info:

------------image=/boot/vmlinuz

      -------------label=*mandrake*
      -------------root=/dev/hda3
      -------------read-only

Not sure how the --------- bits got here, but they do not belong

I can't say whether or not the image= line is correct. You have several alternatives here ...

1. Use the same kernel image for all distros. This is your best choice *if* you compile your own kernel, but probably a poor choice if you use a distro's stock kernel. Even then, you need to remember to put the right modules in /lib/modules for *each* distro's root filesystem (or, just conceivably ... I've never actually seen this done ... make /lib/modules a separate filesytem and mount it for each distro).

2. Make a separate filesystem (probably on /dev/hda) that all distros mount as /boot, and put all the kernels in it. Their names need to be dsitinct, of course ... if I did this, I'd use names like vmlinuz-2.4.19-deb and vmlinuz-2.4.19-mandrake. Then use the appropriate names on the various image= lines.

3. Retain separate /boot diretories for each distro, and edit the lilo.conf you install from appropriately. For example, if you were installing lilo from Debian, your various entries might look like this --

        image=/mnt/mandrake/boot/vmlinuz
                label=*mandrake*
                root=/dev/hda3
                read-only
        image=/boot/vmlinuz
                label=Debian
                root=/dev/hdb2
                read-only
Quoted 1 line

save and run /sbin/lilo

Save /etc/lilo.conf, you mean ... yes.

Quoted 2 lines

Is that right?....I hope....!!!
I went ahead and cleaned out the hd that contained RH 7.2 yesterday. I installed Deb woody 3.0 (didn't set up X yet) I had the options to make the system bootable, or it says Install LILO in the MBR (I made a boot disk). I mounted it from mandrake (as a practice) and edited /etc/lilo.conf and ran /sbin/lilo and it was added to the lilo list. I understand that it will run from there, but not really perfect. That is why I have the disk. I am not sure, but is it because I copied the "kernal" there? I know it contains important info from the installation there ie: when I boot from floppy, wvdial works 'fb', but from lilo, I get disconnected

This paragraph is kind of hard to follow.

I'm unclear on what some of the references to "it" refer to.

I can't figure out where "there" is in the sentence about copying the kernel (not "kernal", BTW).

And "not really perfect" is not very descriptive as a trouble report.

Nor do I know what "'fb'" means in "wvdial works 'fb'" ... I can't even be completely sure which distro you are talking about at that point (I think Debian) ... but I think it odd that whether you boot Debian from floppy or lilo affects wvdial (unless, of course, they are either running different kernels or mounting different root partitions, either of which would have enormous potential for creating differences in the application versions, whether kernel modules load properly, and how the init process itself proceeds).

--
-------------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"--------
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, California, USA [email protected]
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