On Tue, Jun 15, 1999 at 01:01:20PM +0000, Gertjan Klein wrote > On Mon, 14 Jun 1999 21:59:30 +0200 (CEST), Bruno Goncalves Russo > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > [Two Linux partitions] > > >This is exactly what I want to do. I just tried to do it, but wasn't > >totally successful because I didn't configure lilo correctly. > >I was using the unstable version and when I tried to switch back to > >stable, lilo loaded the incorrect kernel and some things didn't work > >because of that. How should I configure it in this case? > > It's advisable to set up LILO on both partitions. Use the LILO on the > stable partition (I'm assuming /dev/hda1) for the boot menu. E.g.: > > boot=/dev/hda > root=/dev/hda1 > delay=50 > > image=/vmlinuz > label=Stable > read-only > > other=/dev/hda2 > label=Unstable > > (Note: this probably isn't a full working configuration, this is just > to give you an idea.) Then, in the unstable Debian (I'm assuming > /dev/hda2), configure LILO to boot from the bootsector of it's own > partition: > > boot=/dev/hda2 > root=/dev/hda2 > delay=0 > > image=/vmlinuz > label=Stable > read-only > > The advantage of this setup is that if you recompile your kernel on > your unstable partition, all you have to do is rerun LILO (which > make-kpkg will do for you) to keep things working (the same goes for the > stable partition, of course). >
The disadvantage to this is that *both* /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2 have to fall within the first 1024 cylinders cylinders for this to work. You should be able to do just as well with a single LILO installation booting both; the tricky part is making sure both kernels fall within the first 1024 cylinders of the disk. You could try a disk layout like this: /dev/hda1 5Mb (system 1:/boot) /dev/hda2 5Mb (system 2:/boot) /dev/hda3 127Mb (swap for both, just don't run them concurrently) /dev/hda5 ???Mb (system 1:/) /dev/hda6 ???Mb (system 2:/) and a lilo.conf like this: (in system 1:/etc/lilo.conf, assuming that /dev/hda2 is mounted at /system2_boot, you are using a 'standard' mbr and /dev/hda1 is marked as bootable in cfdisk). boot=/dev/hda1 delay=50 vga=normal image=/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 label=Stable read-only image=/system2_boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 label=Unstable read-only As always when trying something like this for the first time, make a boot floppy just in case. Q&D boot floppy for /dev/hda1: # dd if=/vmlinuz of=/dev/fd0 bs=18k # good, formatted floppy in /dev/fd0 # rdev -R /dev/fd0 1 # mark the image readonly # rdev /dev/fd0 /dev/hda1 # sets the root device to /dev/hda1 ...and then test it :-) John P. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything." - Bill Gates in Denmark
