Re: Linux disto.

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Author: Michael Havens
Date:  
To: plug-discuss
Subject: Re: Linux disto.

Thanks for the help, Vaughn. All I had to do was to copy one of the exhisting
entries and change it's 'label' and 'root' sections.

On Sunday 06 June 2004 14:34, Vaughn Treude wrote:
> On Sunday 06 June 2004 16:25, you wrote:
> > I have three distributions of Linux on this computer.
> > Well, as I'm sure most of you know, Lilo will only one of those
> > distributions. Is there a way to make the other two distributions
> > bootable?
>
> It's all a matter of modifying your lilo.conf file in the "/etc" directory
> (save the original first) and running "/sbin/lilo" as root.
>
> My main experience is with lilo, but I think grub is even simpler - I just
> use lilo out of laziness.  
>
> I'm assuming you know in what other two partitions the other two
> distributions reside. If not, you can use "cfdisk" to check what
> partitions you have (careful not to modify anything unless you really know
> what you're doing.) Then compare this against the partitions listed in
> your "/etc/fstab" file. If you're lucky, the last-installed distro may
> have already set up mount points for the other linux root directories. If
> not, you'll have to add them manually to the fstab file. Make sure to
> create an empty mount directory for each (for example, /mnt/redhat,
> /mnt/debian.) The "mount" command won't do that for you, and will give you
> a mysterious error if the directory doesn't exist. I'm assuming here that
> the "boot" directory is in the "/" partition for each distro. (Sometimes
> people put "boot" in a separate partition, but I prefer to put it in the
> root partition with everything else.)
>
> Next you need to mount the root partitions for the other distros, for
> example: mount /dev/hda4  /mnt/redhat
>     mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/debian

>
> Insert the correct values, of course. If the other distros are using lilo,
> you can grab the "lilo.conf" files from their "etc" directories. If
> they're using grub or something else, you can probably guess what their
> boot entries need to look like by copying the entries for the existing
> distro and making the necessary changes. You'll have to become superuser
> and merge the entries from these in with the "lilo.conf" file in "/etc" on
> your current distro. (First back up your original lilo.conf file in case it
> gets messed up.) Of course, where paths for the other distros are
> specified, you have to correct for where they're actually mounted, e.g.,
> /boot becomes /mnt/redhat/boot.
>
> Usually the beginnings of each lilo.conf files are similar (parameters such
> as "lba32"); all you need to merge are the image entries, which are usually
> named "linux"; change those to something more specific, such as "redhat" or
> "debian."
>
> Sample entry:
> image=/boot/vmlinuz -> Change to actual mounted directory.
>     label=linux -> Change to distro-specific label
>     root=/dev/hda5 -> Change to actual partition
>     initrd=/boot/initrd.img -> Change to actual mounted directory.
>     read-only

>
> Save the modified file and run "lilo -t" as a test.  When test mode runs
> without complaint, run just plain "lilo" (sometimes you need to say
> "/sbin/lilo") which updates the boot menu.  It's a bit of a pain, but it
> works for me.
>
> Vaughn
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--
<:-)Mike(-:>






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