From: spcberto@psyche.spc.uchicago.edu (Robert Osterlund) Subject: Re: Oops! My mistake. Got LILO working! Date: 28 Jan 1993 08:19:17 GMT
In article <1993Jan27.053943.23311@midway.uchicago.edu> spcberto@psyche.spc.uchicago.edu (Robert Osterlund) writes:
>According to the LILO Version 0.8 documentation, the LILO boot sector
>can't be stored on the second hard disk. This is unfortunate, since I
>have pretty good reasons for placing my primary Linux file system
>partition on the second disk. Is there any hope that this limitation
>might be removed? (If not, it looks like I will have to give up on LILO
>and continue booting Linux from floppy disk.)
>
Thanks to all the people who e-mailed and set me straight. I've now got
LILO running exactly the way I want it. My setup:
/dev/hda1 -- 20 MB (unStacked) DOS system partition
/dev/hda2 -- 30 MB Linux user partition
/dev/hdb1 -- 40 MB Linux root partition
/dev/???? -- 127 MB (Stacked, effectively ~250 MB) DOS/Windows
partition on a Quantum Hardcard (any hope someone
might write a driver for this so I can access this
from Linux?)
LILO boots Linux by default, unless I hold down shift (etc.) and tell it
to load DOS (or whatever).
The LILO docs *are* technically dense and require more than one reading.
I was anxious about taking the LILO step and jumped to conclusions.
At first I tried installing using QuickInst, but it kept complaining about
some unknown problem. (I subsequently discovered that it was invoking
the old install script, and that the 'make install' had not copied
install.new into the /etc/lilo directory.) Then I tried a manual
installation ala section 7.3 of the LILO 0.8 docs. It suggested doing a
test on a floppy disk first. This I did, and booting from the floppy
resulted in a kernel panic. "What the heck," I said as I plunged right
into the for-real hard drive installation. It worked perfectly.
So, the moral of the story is to read the docs until you think you
understand them, then read them again. Also, if you take the proper
precautions (back up both the MBR and the rest of the disk, for that
matter), JUST DO IT!
Incidentally, it's been a good week for me, Linux-wise. Last weekend I
installed Xmono with little trouble--after wasting a day trying unsuccess-
fully installing Xcolor last month--and got a kick out of running all the
X stuff, ghostscript especially, on my little 'ol 386SX. Before X, Linux
was just a platform to do office work at home on. (We use HP, Sun, and IBM
systems at work.) With X, Linux takes on a whole new character. More
than just a hacker's OS, this thing has the potential to be a viable
alternative to DOS, OS/2, etc., IMHO.
So, thanks again, guys, for making my day! And special thanks to
Werner Almesberger and Matt Welsh.
Bob Osterlund
berto@clio.spc.uchicago.edu
SSPPCC--University of Chicago