how to set up lilo of grub..

**jamesgf** · 03-24-2003, 04:14 PM

Hello all-

I installed knoppix on a second hd (primary slave). My master drive has winXP installed, so right now im booting from a floppy into linux, and everything is working fine (still setting up some stuff though).

Im just wondering how to go about setting up lilo or grub to dual boot. When i installed knoppix i sort of screwed up and didnt write lilo to the mbr on the second disk, only made the boot floppy. Can this be done after install? Ill probably continue to boot via floppy now, but id like to set this up as i get more comfortable with linux.

thanks alot
-jamie

**garyng** · 03-24-2003, 05:26 PM

you can boot into KNOPPIX and make the necessary configuration to /etc/lilo.conf and run lilo using that configuration.

I would advice you to tell lilo to install its boot sector to the linux partition rather than MBR(say /dev/hdb1). Then

dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/mnt/cdrive/linux.b bs=512 count=1

where /mnt/cdrive is assumed to be mounted to the FAT partition that can be seen from XP loader.

Then reboot into XP and edit boot.ini and add the following line :

c:\linux.b="KNOPPIX"

and it would be fine.

As for how to configure lilo, read the manual or find or google it, that is not something I am good at.

**raid517** · 03-26-2003, 03:49 AM

This guy is in the same boat as me. He's saying that after the install process completes lilo dosent install. IDoes anyone know how to set up lilo via the command line, or with a utility? If I Google it with the serch term "lilo" I get a zillion zillion web pages, very few if any answer this question...

**RockMumbles** · 03-26-2003, 06:05 AM

Post your exact hard drive setup, partitions etc.

rock

**jamesgf** · 03-26-2003, 10:35 PM

garyng-

Following your directions does this use the winXP bootloader? Will it give me a selection of winXP and knoppix (debian)?

thanks-
-jamie

**garyng** · 03-27-2003, 03:55 AM

It will still give you the XP loader on boot up but there will be an entry which will boot into LILO. But be very careful if you are working on the same partition(hda1, where the NT boot loader is), as additonal steps are needed which can be dangerous. I have accidentally wipe out my MBR(thus the whole HD).

Originally Posted by jamesgf

garyng-

Following your directions does this use the winXP bootloader? Will it give me a selection of winXP and knoppix (debian)?

thanks-
-jamie

**RockMumbles** · 03-27-2003, 05:16 PM

A thought just occured to me, I used to always make a copy of my mbr and save it to floppy, someone that has xp might want to try this, boot into knoppix, then as root use dd like this:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1

then I could boot to the floppy mbr disk go into linux and copy the old mbr back using:

dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

I can't guarantee this will work, and for sure I wouldn't do it as a test on an important machine. The first part should cause no problems, ie. copying the mbr to floppy, but the writing it back? ?? ? ??

...if it breaks you get to keep the pieces...

I just thought about something, I don't know anything about windows 2000 or xp, at school we have a busted win2000 machine, if you thought the mbr stuff would be the same for 2000 and xp I'll test this on that machine, as currently we are running knoppix on that machine, because win2000 will boot but will not allow logins.

rock