[SWLUG] lilo headache

[vlado]

On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 14:52, Gareth Lewis wrote:
> hi,
> 
> I've been thinking along those lines but encountered two problems,
> 
> 1)  my suse 7.3 seems to have a broken version of grub - but i'm not sure about this, it was grub 0.5.something. 
>
> I do know that the suse config tools don't know about it.  I might have another look at this tonight.  
>
> I think that this version doesn't like reiserfs, but my suse /boot partition is an ext2 one anyway so things should be ok? 
> The main problem was that I didn't find a 'install grub' tool or script when I last looked. 
>  
> 2). I'd go with red-hat doing it's stuff, but I'm put off trying when the installer doesn't seem to be able to see my suse partitions !
what do you mean by that?
- if it does not show you a suggestion to include suse into the boot
list?
 I think that is quite ok, and safe, and sensible behaviour.
 Just install on the free space, configure your boot loader during the
 install - for example grub :), and then, after you reboot and get the
 fansy new install, reconfigure grub. 
  A good thing with grub is that you can have a very limited shell from
 within grub, so if you screw-up your configurations, you can still 
 get awy with it (in theory), but make sure you have some hardcopy help
 by hand if you never used it before. It's not hard, quite logical, it
 even has tab-completions! but don't confuse it with bash,ash,sh, or csh
 for that matter.

- if it can't recognise your partitions at all -> try switching to the
console (ALT F2|CTRL-ALT F2) and check with  'fdisk -l') then something
REALLY BAD is going on and be careful, or just don't care and have a
pint - Christmas is coming so the festivies are on full speed anyway.
  
Cheers, 
Vlado
> 
> that's why i've been battling with lilo. 
> 
> your grub setup does look exactly the sort of thing I need to do though, so I'll try and back up the MBR tonight to a suse rescue floppy and i might let red-hat loose on the MBR. - problem is that I dont know if red hat overwrites the partioin table or not. 
>  
> cheers for the advice, much appreciated.
> 
> Gareth. 
> 
> >>> vlado <vlado at dikini.net> 18/12/2002 14:29:13 >>>
> On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 10:34, Gareth Lewis wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I'm spent two days being very stupid with lilo and i need some help !
> > 
> > I've got a disc with these primary partitions :
> > 
> > 1st - (as extended & logical drives for about 34 GB with suse 7.3) = hda1, 5-11(maybe)
> > 
> > 2nd - ( an ext2 80 meg partion as /boot for red hat 7.3)  hda2
> > 
> > 3nd - (the root for all the rest of redhat 7.3 - ext3) hda3
> > 
> > Suse boots fine from lilo which sits on the mbr of this disc.
> > Redhat boots fine from the boot floppy that the installer created.
> > 
> > How do I get lilo to boot redhat ?   is it even possible ? 
> > 
> 
> I would use grub actually, since it gives quite a few handy options, and
> saved my day a few times when I actually didn't have any rescue disks by
> hand. 
> 
> I am not familiar with the latest Suse or Red Hat but it should not be
> too different from debian or gentoo.
> 
> the grub configuration you need lives in /boot/grub, and it comes quite
> handy that you have a separate boot partition, because with some crafty
> work you will be able to maintain it from both of the distros, without
> too much hassle.
> 
> all you need to know is :
> /boot/grub/menu.lst - the menu file ( equiv. to lilo.conf)
> 
> a typical entry looks like 
> ======================= cut =====
> title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.19-k7
> root            (hd0,1)
> kernel          /vmlinuz-2.4.19-k7 root=/dev/hda1 ro
> initrd          /initrd.img-2.4.19-k7
> savedefault
> boot
> 
> title           Debian GNU/Linux(MM), kernel 2.4.18-k7
> root            (hd0,1)
> kernel          /vmlinuz-2.4.19-k7 root=/dev/hda3 ro
> initrd          /initrd.img-2.4.18-k7
> savedefault
> boot
> ======================= cut =====
> notes:
> title - obvious enough you'll see this on the boot menu
> root  - your BOOT partition, NOT the linux root partition
> kernel - the location of your kernel in the above plus the command
>          line to it
> intitrd - the initrd path
> boot  - just boot it
> 
> now for the weirdest bit the disk naming scheme:
> so in your case:
> 
> hda1 == (hd0,0)
> hda2 == (hd0,1)
> hda3 == (hd0,2)
>            ^ ^
>            | +-- partition number starting from 0 further
>            +---- hard disk number (0-3 usually for ide on a typical pc)
> 
> After this longish and scary bit, a question - why don't you try and
> install grub from within your first distro - Suse,
> and the configure it in a similar fashion. Just keep in mind that your
> kernels and intrds should physically reside in boot or at least be
> careful with where is your kernel and ajust it appropriately.
> 
> Hopes this helps you decide
> 
> > I was going to get redhat to put grub on the disc, BUT I'm very wary of letting it try because the red-hat intstaller  keeps complaining that it can't align(?) the partition table. AND when I get to the grub config screen - it hasn't noticed that I;ve got suse on the disc (it finds win 98 on the other disc in the machine ok).   grub on suse 7.3 seems to be broken.  
> > 
> > anyone got a lilo.conf where they boot from a mbr lilo to totally separate linux distros on the same disc ???
> > 
> > could I get lilo to boot grub/lilo from the boot partition of hda2 ??? 
> > 
> > have I got a broken partition table ? (looks ok-ish from fdisk) BUT  i did do something odd with the disc,  it used to have a jumper to set it to 32gb only (for a non lba bios i think) and this has been removed - every thing still works fine except the above.
> > 
> > Gareth.   
> > 
> Chers,
> Vlado
>