Setup dual-boot without running Install/Upgrade?

[JimHorton]

I've run the install for RH 7.0, *with* the anaconda fix that was to correct the bug which crashed the install if you tried to setup a dual boot for RH/Win98. This fix was successful to the extent that the install didn't abend when specifying a vfat mount point, but when I select the vfat partition at boot, it just says Loading dos.... Then hangs.

Btw, I've tried via linuxconf, under the Boot|LILO section, all the mount points seem correct (it had worked before under turbolinux on same machine, and I can boot from a dos floppy and run Win98)

Is there a way to set this up without re-installing or using the setup/upgrade in any way? Thanks,
--Jim

 

[docs]

Jim,

1) Boot into Linux
2) Edit /etc/lilo.conf file (Make sure the information is right for both OS's [hard drive, partition, etc.])
3) run lilo (/sbin/lilo)
4) reboot

 

[ifincham]

Hi,







Almost certainly, your win98 would be in the first partition of the first drive, i.e /dev/hda1 . So, your /etc/lilo.conf should have a block like the following:







other=/dev/hda1



label=dos







It is possible, however, that the partitions are out of order on the drive if you have re-partioned it a lot so you should check how linux views the partition table with (as root) :







/sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hda







In other words, make certain that the fat partition is seen as /dev/hda1 by linux. Assuming that it all looks ok, and you have done a '/sbin/lilo -v' after last changing /etc/lilo.conf, then you must have a missing boot record on the C: partition.







To recover the latter you can boot from windows floppy then do :







sys c:







That should make that win partition bootable again but leave lilo intact (I'm assuming you have lilo in the master boot record, i.e. boot=/dev/hda is in /etc/lilo.conf .)







Hope this helps

 

[JimHorton]

docs,
Thanks, but that seems to do the same as linuxconf's Lilo section. I'm thinking what I need is something lower level. It appears that whatever bug was in anaconda must've done something odd to the mbr or the boot sector of my win98 drive.

On my ide channel 0 is the linux drive, hda, and ide1 is the win98 drive, seen by linux as hdc.
The win98 will boot fine if I boot from a dos floppy. And since the first drive--ide0--is non-dos, it is ignored and now the second drive, the win98 drive, is seen by dos as c:, not d:. I don't know if that's relevant to this, but it might be.
I have tried doing the complete reinstall, and the same thing happens--a hang if I select the dos label (this is with the anaconda patch). I may be stuck using the dos floopy for dual boot, I guess.
--Jim

 

[JimHorton]

ifincham,
I got your reply as I was sending my reply to docs. Thanks, I will try that and see what happens...(my drive arrangement is different so I'll do those commands with the proper substitutions).
--Jim