Re: RH 6.0 & other Linux, Multi-boot

["Technoslick" <technoslick norwich net>]

I finally got around to adding RH 6.1, after loading TL 3.0.1, about a week
ago. This time, I must have walked away from the RH installation for too
long because when I came back, I only remember being asked to make a boot
floppy and then I was done. I never got asked where I wanted the booting
process to be controlled from, and this in an 'expert' install!

Because I was never asked to place LILO in the MBR, it appears that only
with the boot disk can I get into RH. The systems boots normally only with
Turbo Linux. I played around with modifying lilo.conf on the TL drive, but
every time I tried to update LILO, it told me it could not see the RH
partitions on the second drive. So.....I looked at my dual-boot XP/Mandrake
system and think now that I am seeing the path to take on this one. I can
either load System Commander (which I have) and let it deal with the boot
choice, or I can continue on hacking away at this. If I continue, it appears
that I will need to mount the RH partition (located on the second drive) in
fstab to give LILO a point of reference in lilo.conf. If I can get LILO to
recognize both drives, I should be able to dual-boot, or at least move on to
the next set of inequities.

Any comments? I can give you the address for sympathy cards, if need be...

Thanks for you help,

T

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob McClure Jr" <robertmcclure earthlink net>
To: <redhat-install-list redhat com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: RH 6.0 & other Linux, Multi-boot


On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 10:57:19AM -0500, Technoslick wrote:
> Thanks for the hand-holding. OK. I am going to install over, following
your
> advice. If I come to a point where I don't understand the results, I will
> stop there and let you know what happened. Success or failure, I will post
> my results so that you and anyone else who cares will know what came
about.
>
> Still one question and concern. I understand everything you are telling me
> here. In truth, you haven't told me anything that I wasn't already
thinking
> should be the case. but, it wasn't working out as it should have. Now,
here
> are my questions/concerns:
>
> I did not ask for RH to overwrite and replace the lilo.conf of TL3 on the
> /dev/dha1, nor did I do anything that I can see that would make it want to
> place its kernel image in the TL3's /boot directory. In addition, TL3's
boot
> image and supporting files for this directory were missing. Clearly, RH
was
> doing what it thought I wanted done, not what I wanted to be done.
Secondly,
> the formation of partitions in fdisk were done very 'by-the-book' and
looked
> good. Once  I viewed them in the 'graphical' version (I just can't
remember
> the name RH gives to this applet), I see that things are messed up. RH
> thinks that I am adding additional partitions to an 'existing' setup. It
> sees the slave drive as 'hdb', but...a big but...wants to sequentially
> partition according to the order of the previous distro's labels! This,
for
> whatever reason is happening, must be what is causing RH to malign the
/boot
> directory and lilo.conf on the TL3 drive. As you would imagine, /boot and
> lilo.conf are as they should be on the slave drive where RH is suppose to
> fully be.

My only guess is that you let it automatically do the partitioning.
Don't do that.  :-)  Insist on manually partitioning and establishment
of mount points.

> And, what about those labels? '/tmp/hdb1 & 2'?

I still don't know.

> So...
>
> How do I get RH to ignore the master drive's partitions and stay in its
own
> backyard?

Do not allow automatic partitioning.  May also want to specify a
custom install (as opposed to workstation or server).

> When it comes to where it asks what I want for bootable options, I want to
> include both drives, right?

If it identifies two bootable partitions, good.  But don't fret if it
prompts only for RH61.  You can (and should, IMHO) fix it after the
installation.  It's not rocket science.

> When this came up, it said that there was the
> first drive (ST-blah-blah model number, then a blank label) and the second
> was similar (I have two Seagate drives) and then the label 'linux', which
> was for the RH installation. I went and changed these two 'TurboLinux' and
> 'Redhat61', respectively, thinking that when LILO booted up, I would hit
> <TAB> and have a choice. All that came up was 'Redhat61'. Could this be
> where I screwed up, when I started reassigning kernel image labels?

Could be.  If it mucked with TL3's boot directory, then it's hard to
say what was going on.

> OK. I will get back you when I have something to report. Thanks for the
> help.
>
> T

Cheers,
--
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
robertmcclure earthlink net  http://www.cumbytel.com/~bobcatos/
Linux: because I want to get there today.  Without rebooting.



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