From: bobk@dogear.spk.wa.us (Bob Kirkpatrick) Subject: Re: [LILO]: Bootup choice between DOS/Linux... How-to? Date: 23 Oct 1992 15:08:35 GMT
mpevans@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mark Evans) writes:
> rick@ee.ee.uwm.edu (Rick Miller) writes:
>
> >I've gotten H.J.'s bootable rootdisk to install properly, and I had no
> >trouble making my second partition (/dev/hda2) bootable... but it's a
> >royal pain to have to 'fdisk' every time I want to use the other OS.
>
> What I did was to create a floppy which would boot the linux
> image on the HD. Set the MSDOS partition as bootable. Then to boot linux
> insert the floppy and boot.
Lilo is perfectly capable of booting dos or linux. Please see the Makefile
in /usr/src/linux under 'lilo:' if you have the SLS package. (Perhaps the
other renditions have this too, I don't know.)
For example, if you have linux on /dev/hda1 and dos on /dev/hda2, the cmd
./lilo -b /dev/hda -i boot.b /Image dos=./lilo/chain.b+/dev/hda2@/dev/hda
will allow you to boot both. This case assumes that your kernel is named
'Image' and you wish linux to be the default for boot-up. Holding down the
alt, ctrl, or shift key at boot time will cause lilo to ask which parti-
tion to boot from. (The tab key will list the boots lilo knows about).
There is no need for a floppy to be involved. However, it's always a good
idea to keep a boot floppy for 'just in case.'
> >Oh, and BTW: I noticed that Linux's 'fdisk' allows me to "t"oggle the
> >bootable bit on more than one partition... What happens if I "w"rite
> >it that way? (I haven't had the nerve to try it.)
>
> Doing this will render the HD un-bootable!
> try using activate (with the lilo distribution) if you want to
> change the active partition.
Hmmm. That wasn't my experience. However, different systems will react
differently. You shouldn't need to keep changing the active flag though.
I keep my dos (hda2) partition marked active, even though my default
boot is for hda1. Your milage may vary.
---
Bob Kirkpatrick <bobk@dogear.spk.wa.us>
Dog Ear'd Systems of Spokane, WA