-----Original Message----- From: Roy Leembruggen [mailto:r.c.leembruggen@freeler.nl] Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2001 5:02 PM To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: [SLE] Second disk drive dedicated for Linux ?
What I wanted to do was use my second disk drive /dev/hdc exclusively for Linux while using System Commander or BootMagic to boot up 1) Windows ME 2) SuSE Linux 7.0 and 3) Caldera Linux 2.4. However I lost sight of the fact that since both SystemCommander and BootMagic are DOS/Win based they are unable to 'see' a drive that is entirely formatted for Linux..
This is not true. If booted from a floppy both use Caldera Dr-DOS not MS-DOS and both can be installed to systems without the need for Windows. SysCom/PartCom and BM/Pm can both see, create, resize, and move Ext2 and Linux Swap partitions as well as most any other type you might think of except for Resf.
Due to this oversight when I re-partitoned my second drive to accomodate Caldera Linux along with my already existing SuSe Linux, BootMagic / SystemCommander failed to boot either of them !
Which are you using SC or BM? I use SC and inorder for an OS to be auto added to its boot record it must already be install to the MBR at the time that SC is installed or you must use the OS Wizard and start the installation from a floppy. If you choose to boot the installation from the CD, which is how I do, then after installation you must enter SC Setup and toggle the approprite partition as bootable, it will then be added to the boot record. ( This also applies to SuSe since you did not install Lilo to the MBR.) My only
alternative then was to use MSDOS fdisk to reformat the second drive, create new partitions, and re-install both SuSE and Caldera Linux. However fdisk needed its own partition too on my second drive and so I had to allocate a minimum amount of space for a DOS partition too.
Could anyone advise me of a simple way to get rid of the unwanted DOS partition while at the same time having a decent boot manager, or whether in the Linux world there are good equivalents to e.g. SystemCommander.
I have been and am very happy with SC. My system has 2 hds containing 7 OSes co-existing happily and each OS I boot successfully with SC.
Else would it be OK to install lilo in the MBR of my primary drive from two different Linux distros, without conflict beteen the two on the same MBR ?
You can configure Lilo from 1 of the distros you are using to include Windows, and the other distro and then install it to hda allowing you to choose either of the 3 at boot. Charles (-: Forever never goes beyond tomorrow.