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#1 (**permalink**) 01-17-2008, 05:07 PM

Hi,

I have a dual boot system with Windows XP and Red Hat Linux in separate
partitions.

When I first installed Linux on its partition, using the Red Hat v9 CD-ROM,
I chose
not to install a boot loader on the the hard disk. I decided to make a
bootable
diskette instead.

Now, that everything seems to be running well, I would like to be able to
boot Linux
also from the hard disk. To this end I have tried to use the RedHat
distribution CD
to install LILO onto the MBR, but without success. The installation
programme refuses
to do this, and I am not sure why:
as far as I can see, because I am not changing anything in the current
installation, the installer
finalises by saying "the boot loader will not be installed" or something
else to the same effect.

How can I install a boot loader on my hard disk MBR so that I can choose
what OS to boot from?

Thanks a lot for any help

Jorge

#2 (**permalink**) 01-17-2008, 05:07 PM

U wrote
<snip>
> How can I install a boot loader on my hard disk MBR so that I can choose
> what OS to boot from?
>
> Thanks a lot for any help
>
> Jorge
If lilo is installed on the harddrive the program not the bootloader on
/dev/hdX's MBR there would be the command lilo under /sbin/lilo or
/usr/sbin/lilo or something like that. If u want to install lilo on MBR of
/dev/hda
simply write as root in a bash lilo /dev/hda. Then if /etc/lilo.conf exsist
and is properly written then everything should be ok.
my lilo.conf
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
default="linux"
keytable=/boot/dk-latin1.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/hda5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=off"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hda5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe devfs=nomount acpi=off"
read-only
other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe
#end of lilo.conf
if lilo is not on your HD then rpm -ivh lilo-something.654.321-54.rpm from
the cd. To run instalation again is overkill (but i also sometime use the
windows user approach and rerun installation to fix something... ;-) )

#3 (**permalink**) 01-17-2008, 05:07 PM

> also from the hard disk. To this end I have tried to use the RedHat
> distribution CD
> to install LILO onto the MBR, but without success. The installation
> programme refuses > to do this, and I am not sure why:
> as far as I can see, because I am not changing anything in the current
> installation, the installer > finalises by saying "the boot loader will
not be installed" or something
> else to the same effect.

> How can I install a boot loader on my hard disk MBR so that I can choose
> what OS to boot from?

depends what you are doing wrong.

I think you have , in lilo.conf, boot=/dev/hda1, and /dev/hda1 is for
windows or its an XFS .
you want to install boot sector on /dev/hda, so thats boot=/dev/hda

when you are running an emergency linux system, such as "rescue" on a redhat
or mandrake CD, you should run lilo something like this ...

chroot /mnt/new /sbin/lilo -v

Where /mnt/new is where the INSTALLED linux system is mounted.

#4 (**permalink**) 01-17-2008, 05:07 PM

"Jorge Castro" <jorgecastro@ieee.org> wrote in message news:<3fdfc9b8_2@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com>...
> Hi,
>
> I have a dual boot system with Windows XP and Red Hat Linux in separate
> partitions.
>
> When I first installed Linux on its partition, using the Red Hat v9 CD-ROM,
> I chose
> not to install a boot loader on the the hard disk. I decided to make a
> bootable
> diskette instead.
>
> Now, that everything seems to be running well, I would like to be able to
> boot Linux
> also from the hard disk. To this end I have tried to use the RedHat
> distribution CD
> to install LILO onto the MBR, but without success. The installation
> programme refuses
> to do this, and I am not sure why:
> as far as I can see, because I am not changing anything in the current
> installation, the installer
> finalises by saying "the boot loader will not be installed" or something
> else to the same effect.
>
> How can I install a boot loader on my hard disk MBR so that I can choose
> what OS to boot from?

When I need to install lilo onto the MBR of a disk that's already got
a linux installation on it, I boot from my slackware CD. This brings
me to a boot: prompt, and there I type:

bare.i root=/dev/hda1 noinitrd ro

When it finishes booting, I log in to the system, run lilo one time
without any arguments, and that does it. Remove the CD, reboot, and
then the hard disk boots.

-Anthony
http://nodivisions.com/

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