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Using a Dos boot disk to boot Linux

Using a Dos boot disk to boot Linux

Post by roo » Sun, 11 Jan 1998 04:00:00



That `make zDisk' for Linux is really neat, but it's a lot simpler
to generate a Dos boot disk if you're using loadlin for a dual boot
system.

That way, the autoexec.bat calls loadlin for the zImage that you've
also put on your diskette, and you can write a config.sys file that
sets up a Dos menu to choose between booting to a hard disk Linux
partition or a second floppy rescue file system.

So, you put these files, including zImage and loadlin, on one floppy,
and you're in business.

 
 
 
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1. How to config LILO on non-boot disk (b4 using it as boot disk)

I recently bought a used Compaq 486/25SX for a home Linux box.  Installed
fine on original 170Meg drive.  I want to replace that drive (throw away
noisy & small old drive) with a spare 550Meg drive I have.  BIOS doesn't
recognize it, so I bought AMI's AMIDISK Extender, which allows recognition
of newer IDE drives.

I strapped the 550M drive as the master drive, popped in the AMI card, its
recognized, and the Linux install went OK, but when I boot, LILO gets
confused and stops at the  partial prompt "LI".

Now, how do I properly config lilo on that drive if I can't boot from that
drive?   I'm having a devil of a time getting my hands on a readable user's
guide for LILO.  I've got a linux laptop at work, but xdvi doesn't work and
a dvi->ascii filter I have won't grok that particular file.  

I believe I have to change lilo.conf on the 550Meg drive and then reinstall
lilo.

What I did was boot from the original 170 Meg drive, mounted the 550Meg
drive on  /mnt, and then did a chroot so bash thought that /dev/hdb1 was my
root dir.  Then I put the keyword 'linear' into /etc/lilo.conf, ran
/sbin/lilo, it told me it was updating Linux, then I shutdown, took out the
170Meg drive, restrapped the 550M drive as master and rebooted.  Still no
go.

Then I did the same thing, but this time I deleted the word 'linear' and
put in a section:
drive=/dev/hda
     sectors=63
     heads=16
     cylinders=1048

Still no go.   How can I confirm if the lilo in the MBR on the larger drive
is being updated?     I think my prob is that I'm not correctly updating
it.  Should be possible, after all, the original install boots off one
drive and installs LILO on another.   man lilo seems vague on this and I
can't find the complete lilo docs in a form that I can read.

thanks
(email appreciated)
--
Jay Heiser

http://www.mindspring.com/~pp001887

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