GRUB and LILO bugs

[q2418130103p]

Hey guys,
Im instaling redhat7.3 on my win xp box. I've got a seperate har drive for linux.

Im alittle relectant to install lilo over my mbr on my primary xp hard drive. The reason for that is: the last time I had lilo installed, i rebuilt my comp, then accidently put the master drive as slave and lilo destroyed my linux and windows (98) file systems.

So on this linux install, I was thinking about installing grub over my mbr instead, and I was just wondering if grub had any of those same things about it like lilo does.

Thank you,
Jay

[Streams]

You could choose not to install a boot manager at all and just creat a boot disk. That is what i did as LILO did not want to detect win2k.

[q2418130103p]

I made a boot disk at the end of the linux install, but if I try to boot with it, this is what happens:

Its brings up all that stuff about linux params, then after 10 seconds goes

Loading .img...........................................
Then says something about how I have to insert another disk then press any key.

Is that a boot disk that should be working?

Thank you,
Jay

[jglen490]

So on this linux install, I was thinking about installing grub over my mbr instead, and I was just wondering if grub had any of those same things about it like lilo does.

Grub, in my opinion, is somewhat superior to Lilo, but that aside it they both do much the same thing but in slightly different ways.

When you had your little "problem" before, very likely Lilo didn't actually destroy any filesystems, but it very likely hid the filesystems from view since the BIOS could no longer communicate what Lilo was expecting to see.

Grub can load its Stage1 boot code to the MBR and it does have a configuration menu (/boot/grub/menu.lst). You can tell Grub to control the launch of almost any OS, including all the varieties of Windoze. As long as each OS is identified and as long as Grub knows where to find the OS, or the OS's loader, it will work very well. All that is usually handled during Grub's configuration or during a Linux install.

[q2418130103p]

Will GRUB handle ntfs ok? And will I have to configure anything by hand, like the OS's loader during the linux install?

And also, do you know why my boot disk is not working?

Thank you,
Jay

[jglen490]

Grub will handle NTFS just fine. Actually, what happens if Grub is installed to the MBR on the drive where Win is installed, it will chain load the ntldr code that is in the Win bootsector which will then actually load and execute the Win kernel.

Since you are going to install RH 7.3, I would strongly suggest the "Expert" (or whatever it's called in RH) install mode. There's not that much more to it than the normal install, but you will have a little better control over things like setting up filesystems, and configuring Grub, and installing packages. It takes a little more time, perhaps, and you need to pay attention to what it's telling you, but it's infinitely more satisfying when you end up with a working system. I use Mandrake, but both have the same concept in their installers and the "Expert" mode makes fewer assumptions on your system.

Give it a try, stick with the install while it's doing its thing

[q2418130103p]

Ok, well I have it all installed, (sorta), doing more of a test install, I put grub on the second hard drive, but it didnt even startup, it just said grub and sat there. But I was able to boot with a floppy.

So right now I'm working on getting a copy of the boot file and making XP be the boot loader.

Thank you for the help,
Jay

[Hassmaschine]

The way I have done it, and seems to always work (I use lilo) is partition as follows:
HDA = MBR
HDA1 = /boot
(HDA1 has to be low in size, around 12-20 megs is more than enough)
HDA2 = Windows partition
HDA3 = /root
HDA4 = swap

NEVER had a problem setting up that way and I've been dual booting for about 6+ years now...

[jglen490]

That's valid configuration, but it's really a hangover from the adys that lilo had a problem finding its way beyond 1024 cylinders.