Philip Webb <purslow@ca.inter.net> wrote:

> My cousin in England wants to try out Linux & has an Ubuntu Live CD.
> To help her, I've installed the same on a separate partition in my box.
> The partition is /dev/sda8 & is formatted ReiserFS.
> I use Lilo as boot manager & don't want to change to Grub
> just to offer temporary help to someone,
> so I refused to let the Ubuntu installer overwrite my MBR,
> hoping to get Lilo to see Ubuntu via an appropriate 'lilo.conf'.
> I've managed to get Lilo to add Ubuntu to the boot menu,
> but only by mounting /dev/sda8 as /z/mount8 & using the line
>
> image = /z/mount8/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic
>
> However, when I reboot & select that image via its label,
> I'm getting the hoary old 'VFS: can't open root device "808"'.
> I've tried adding a dir /z/mount8 in the Ubuntu partition
> with a symlink of 'boot' to '../../boot' there, but it doesn't help.
> This does look rather messy, but I just want to be able to boot Ubuntu
> in order to advise my cousin when she starts using her version.
>
> Is anyone successfully dual-booting Linux distros using Lilo ?
> Might it be ReiserFS ? -- should I re-install Ubuntu with another FS ?
What I do in those cases is to copy the kernel and the initrd of the
Ubuntu system into your normal boot directory and just have a root=
directive in the append stanza and that works just fine.


--
Your life is like a penny. You're going to lose it. The question is:
How do
you spend it?

John Covici
covici@ccs.covici.com

On 12 July 2010 08:37, Philip Webb <purslow@ca.inter.net> wrote:
> 100712 Mick suggested :
>> install a separate boot partition with an ext2 fs
>> and install GRUB2 there instead of the MBR.
>> Then chainload it from your LILO bootloader menu.
>
> Thanks for your very prompt response. *I'm not sure if I've got it right,
> but I can easily re-install Ubuntu with a */boot *partition using Ext2 ,
> then tell Lilo to look there for the kernel image. *Is that what you mean ?
>
> Any other suggestions are also welcome.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. I recall clicking on 'advanced' or
some such options during the Ubuntu install and it gave me an option
as to where GRUB should go. I chose the /boot partition and then used
the main OS boot manager to chainload Ubuntu's GRUB.

As was already suggested by John you can instead copy the kernel image
& initrd from the Ubuntu installation and place them in your existing
/boot partition, then point LILO to it. Doing it as I suggest you
will essentially have a mirror installation to your cousin's.

PS. I found Ubuntu easier to update/upgrade by having separate /boot,
/ and /home partitions.
--
Regards,
Mick

Sure thing I use lilo on my lap. You want config for example?

2010/7/12 Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com>

On 12 July 2010 08:37, Philip Webb <purslow@ca.inter.net> wrote:

> 100712 Mick suggested :

>> install a separate boot partition with an ext2 fs

>> and install GRUB2 there instead of the MBR.

>> Then chainload it from your LILO bootloader menu.

>

> Thanks for your very prompt response. Â*I'm not sure if I've got it right,

> but I can easily re-install Ubuntu with a Â*/boot Â*partition using Ext2 ,

> then tell Lilo to look there for the kernel image. Â*Is that what you mean ?

>

> Any other suggestions are also welcome.



Yes, that's exactly what I mean. Â*I recall clicking on 'advanced' or

some such options during the Ubuntu install and it gave me an option

as to where GRUB should go. Â*I chose the /boot partition and then used

the main OS boot manager to chainload Ubuntu's GRUB.



As was already suggested by John you can instead copy the kernel image

& initrd from the Ubuntu installation and place them in your existing

/boot partition, then point LILO to it. Â*Doing it as I suggest you

will essentially have a mirror installation to your cousin's.



PS. Â*I found Ubuntu easier to update/upgrade by having separate /boot,

/ and /home partitions.

--

Regards,

Mick





--
Mateusz Mierzwiński

Bluebox Software http://www.blueboxsoft.pl/mateusz-mierzwinski

100712 Mateusz Arkadiusz Mierzwinski wrote:
> Sure thing I use lilo on my lap. You want config for example?

Please : that would help a lot !

--
========================,,======================== ====================
SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

100712 Mick wrote:
> As was already suggested by John,

Thanks to John too.

> you can instead copy the kernel image & initrd from the Ubuntu installation
> to your existing /boot partition, then point LILO to it.

I tried that, Lilo runs ok, but I still get the kernel panic
due to the line in lilo.conf 'root=/dev/sda8'.
That suggests that it doesn't like the FS on /dev/sda8 , ie ReiserFS,
which must be due to something in the Ubuntu set-up,
as the Gentoo stanzas have 'root=/dev/sda3", which is also ReiserFS.

> I recall clicking on 'advanced' or some such options during Ubuntu install
> and it gave me an option where GRUB should go. I chose the /boot partition
> and then used the main OS boot manager to chainload Ubuntu's GRUB.
> Then you will essentially have a mirror installation to your cousin's.

I don't know what you mean by "chainload Ubuntu's GRUB";
I don't remember your specific choice during the Ubuntu install,
only "Shall I overwrite the MBR ? ", to which I answer "No ! ".
I don't want to learn how to use Grub for this simple test project:
Lilo is quite adequate for my normal needs.

> PS. I found Ubuntu easier to update/upgrade by having separate /boot,
> / and /home partitions.

Ordinarily, that's what I would do, but this is only temporary
& I'm not even sure she'll go thro' with the project in the end
(she's yet another victim of M$ generally & Vista in particular).

--
========================,,======================== ====================
SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

On 07/12/10 01:52, Philip Webb wrote:

[]



Is anyone successfully dual-booting Linux distros using Lilo ? Might
it be ReiserFS ? -- should I re-install Ubuntu with another FS ?



Hard to believe that the filesystem is causing a problem.

Here's my conf (I have two kernels on the same OS; one hardened, one
gentoo sources. I use an initrd only because I have loop-AES installed,
and it prompts for a password):

boot=/dev/sda
prompt
ignore-table
large-memory
timeout=100
default=Hard
image=/boot/bzImagehard
label=Hard
append="ramdisk_size=2900000"
vga=normal
initrd=/boot/initrdhard.gz
read-only
root=/dev/sda3
image=/boot/bzImagegentoo
label=Gentoo
append="ramdisk_size=2900000"
initrd=/boot/initrdgent.gz
vga=normal
read-only
root=/dev/sda3


HTH

.