lilo and two os on two hard drives

[marlinswin]

Before I installed knoppix, I have win2k on a single hard drive. Last evening, I installed a new hard drive as the primary master, and changed the win2k drive to the primary slave. I have successfully installed knppix on the new drive. So, I have the following on the LILO menu:

Linux : hda1
Windows : hdb1

If I chose linux, it boots linux fine. However, if I chose windows, it just won't boot windows.

If I change the first booting device in the BIOS from HD0 to HD1, then I could boot windows.

I really would like to have LILO work properly at the booting time. Please help.

Thanks.

[fingers99]

You can't do this with Lilo: you need a method of tricking Windoze to think it's on the first hard drive.

Just get Grub (apt-get install grub will do it) and read the grub documentation.

(There are lots of examples in the HOWTOs)

[rickenbacherus]

You can have windows on the second hard drive-it sounds like your /etc/lilo.conf might need some tweaking tho- post it if you would. I think fingers99 is referring to the fact that if you were installing wimpdoze it would insist on being on the first hard drive. LILO just needs to point to your windows install and ntldr will boot windows from that point on.

[marlinswin]

The following is my /etc/lilo.conf. It would be great if it's just a lilo setup problem.

About grub, it comes with knoppix. I can type grub at a shell prompt and start a grub shell. As a quick (and dumb) question, is it a tool, similar to lilo, for the booting time?

Thanks.

=========================================
vga=791
lba32
boot=/dev/hda
root=/dev/hda1
install=/boot/boot-menu.b
map=/boot/map
delay=20
prompt
timeout=150
append="hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi hdg=scsi hdh=scsi apm=power-off nomce"
default=Linux
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-xfs
label=Linux
initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
read-only
image=/vmlinuz.old
label=LinuxOLD
read-only
optional
other=/dev/hdb1
label="WinNT(hdb1)"
==========================================

[Stephen]

Try changing the other=/dev/hdb1 to other=/dev/hdb.

[rickenbacherus]

About grub, it comes with knoppix. I can type grub at a shell prompt and start a grub shell. As a quick (and dumb) question, is it a tool, similar to lilo, for the booting time?

Yes but it works much differently. It's very easy to use IF you go read about it. One of the most important things to keep in mind is the way that GRUB names drives. It is like a SCSI BUS in that it starts numbering drives from 0 instead of 1. The best part of GRUB is that it reads a configuration file. All you do is edit the file- you never change GRUB. Once you set it up it's there- just edit the /grub/grub.conf file instead. You will see why this is a benefit as you use it. Soon you'll be booting any OS from any drive you want with ease.

Personally, I use both LILO and GRUB. I always install LILO to the /root directory of every Linux distro that I install and simply add that partition into grub.conf. It's fast, it's easy. As was recommended- read the docs for GRUB. You can find a wealth of info on all things Linux at tldp.org

Of course don't forget man grub.

gluck

[marlinswin]

The following /boot/grub/menu.lst file worked for me, after trial and error.

Now I have two more questions.
1) I can boot into win2k and these drives are in "my computer":
c, d, (counterpart of /dev/hdb1 and /dev/hdb5, which are both ntfs)
e, (cdrom)
f, g, h, and I (counterpart of /dev/hda1, /dev/hda5-7, which are ext3).
The linux partitions appear as unformated. How can I prevent the linux partitions from being formatted when using windows?

2) Out of curiosity, in the configuration section for windows from the following menu.lst, why should it be

rootnoverify (hd1,0)

instead of

rootnoverify (hd0,0)

after swapping the drives? I tried the latter and got error message 13.

################################################## ###
# Boot automatically after 30 secs.
timeout 20

# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0

# Fallback to the second entry.
fallback 1

# For booting GNU/Linux
title GNU/Linux/Debian
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1

# For booting Windows from /dev/hdb1
title Windoze 2000
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
################################################## ##

[rickenbacherus]

The following /boot/grub/menu.lst file worked for me, after trial and error.

Now I have two more questions.
1) I can boot into win2k and these drives are in "my computer":
c, d, (counterpart of /dev/hdb1 and /dev/hdb5, which are both ntfs)
e, (cdrom)
f, g, h, and I (counterpart of /dev/hda1, /dev/hda5-7, which are ext3).
The linux partitions appear as unformated. How can I prevent the linux partitions from being formatted when using windows?

Not sure I follow you- are you saying that windows is trying to format your Linux drives by itself? That's insane. I'f it is I'd suggst that you go kick Bill's ass for creating a nazi-like OS but then if you did someone might sue me for making such a crazy although deserved suggestion so I'm not going to tell you that.

2) Out of curiosity, in the configuration section for windows from the following menu.lst, why should it be

rootnoverify (hd1,0)

instead of

rootnoverify (hd0,0)

after swapping the drives? I tried the latter and got error message 13.

You have the windows drive as hdb right? In 'grubspeak' /dev/hda=hd0 /dev/hdb=hd1

SO I take it everything is working OK? You can boot either Linux or win from GRUB?

[marlinswin]

Not sure I follow you- are you saying that windows is trying to format your Linux drives by itself? That's insane. I'f it is I'd suggst that you go kick Bill's ass for creating a nazi-like OS but then if you did someone might sue me for making such a crazy although deserved suggestion so I'm not going to tell you that.

Sorry for the confusion. Windows doesn't try to format my linux drives. I mean that these linux drives are visible to windows, and could be formatted, by mistake or unexperienced user. I wonder if it's possible to hide them from windows to avoid this.

You have the windows drive as hdb right? In 'grubspeak' /dev/hda=hd0 /dev/hdb=hd1

Windos drive is hdb. But in "grubspeak", it's still hd1 even after swapping? I thought it would be swapped as hd0.

SO I take it everything is working OK? You can boot either Linux or win from GRUB?

Yeah! I can boot both from grub. It's a great software.

Thanks.

[rickenbacherus]

I wonder if it's possible to hide them from windows to avoid this.

Ummm- sorry I dunno especially since a 4 year old can hack the Admin password on a wimpdoze box that could be kind of tough to do.

Windos drive is hdb. But in "grubspeak", it's still hd1 even after swapping? I thought it would be swapped as hd0.

Primary master=/dev/hda=hd0
primary slave=/dev/hdb=hd1
secondary master=/dev/hdc=hd2
secondary slave=/dev/hdd=hd3

If that's not what you're asking then I'm lost again- of course that seems to happen all to frequently these days. :P
Glad you got some dual-boot action going on!