On 2007/12/12 17:07 (GMT) Robert W Best apparently typed:
SuSE 10.3 KDE is my workhorse but on other partitions I've several other Linux flavors (and MS WinMe). I can boot each OS and frequently add or replace one to explore a new Linux version. Doing so I encountered several problems for which I found no easy solutions.
Installing a new Linux usualy changes the MBR and prevents to boot
Changing the MBR is usually rude. Linux shouldn't be doing it just because M$ does it, or for most other reasons. http://en.opensuse.org/Bugs/grub
some old Linux's. SuSE 10.3 does a good (not perfect) job in recognising other OSs, but Fedora 8 for instance left me with only Fedora and Windows to boot.
IIRC, Fedora/RedHat have always ignored other installed distros when configuring their own boot loaders. Anaconda probably has a feature/option that permits you to direct it to add particular additional entries. I wouldn't know, as I never use its grub to boot anything else.
Then I try to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst or grub.conf if it exists. If
Does anything other than Fedora/RedHat use /boot/grub/grub.conf? ...
Any easier solutions?
Install standard (windoz compatible) MBR code. Create a modest sized primary ext2 partition on the first HD. Size it according to whether and how many kernels and initrds you want to place on it. (I put installation kernels/initrds on it and do network installs, so use a fair amount of space on mine, which I make 200 MiB of late.) Install a standard Grub on it (i.e. not Fedora's). Set it to be the active partition. Once installed and functional, do not set it to mount as /boot in any fstab. Once you've done it, you can chainload doz or any distro with a working bootloader installed on its / partition, and for those distros with boot/bootloader problems, you can manually boot them from the grub prompt. It can be mounted anywhere you please as and when required for your own personal/manual maintenance of its menu.lst, though technically it doesn't need a menu.lst if you're good with the grub prompt and don't boot too often. Make sure not to set makeactive on anything other than the one you actually want active (Grub's as long as you've not configured anything else to routinely get Linux started). These are very simplified sample partition layouts for small disks with few operating systems: http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/share/disk20G-multiboot.txt http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/share/sample-multiboot-partitioning-doz+linuxwithgr... http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/share/sample-multiboot-partitioning-doz+linuxwithgr... A more complex partitioning arrangement, including OS/2, doz, the IBM OS/2 Boot Manager, and a bunch of Linux distros: http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/tmp/dfsee/gx1509b4-suse102.txt A boot.ini file that enables doz bootloader to chainload to a Linux bootloader: http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/share/sample-with-comment-boot.ini Two web pages about partitioning/multiboot/installation that might be helpful: http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/partitioningindex.html http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/install-doz-after.html -- " Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org