Re: [TCLUG:9221] LILO: easier way to choose what OS to boot?

[Mike Hicks <hick0088@tc.umn.edu>]

Hmm.. I wonder if I'm putting too much effort into solving this problem
;-)

The ideal method would be something like this.  There is a master
'switch' (be it a floppy or anything else) that decides which OS should
be the default.  Also, this default should be able to be overridden
(some people have SCSI BIOSes and other things that make the pre-boot
sequence pretty time-consuming - no sense forcing them to reboot again).

I have a few ideas:

1. Have two (or more) disks with LILO on them.  Each one has a different
default OS.  One copy of LILO can reside on the hard disk, all the
others must be on floppies.

The advantage is that you can have a prompt with each different version
of LILO, and can 'back out' if you need to.  The disadvantage is that
you have at least two different lilo.conf files to deal with, and all of
them have to be updated whenever you upgrade a kernel or change any
other parameter..

2. Place LILO on the hard drive, with Linux as the default.  Copy the
Windows boot sector onto a floppy diskette's boot sector.  Whenever you
want Windows, put in the diskette.  Otherwise, you get a LILO prompt
from the hard drive.

The advantage: only one lilo.conf.  Disadvantage: When booting with the
diskette, you don't get a chance to back out of it.  Also, I'm not
really sure if this works or not..

3. Copy the Windows boot sector to a floppy boot sector, or just a file
on the floppy.  Install GRUB onto the HD, and have it default to using
the boot sector copy on the floppy.  Also, set GRUB to have a fallback
where it will boot Linux.  Go into the BIOS and change the boot sequence
to "C:, A:" instead of "A:, C:"

The advantage: You get a menu whenever you boot (even if you have a
floppy in the drive), plus the flexibility of using GRUB.  The
disadvantage: GRUB is a differet boot loader than what you may be used
to, and getting it set up in the first place can be quite a hassle..


Anyway, there are quite a few options available.

(Correction to my last message regarding GRUB.  It reads BSD FFS
partitions, not Amiga FFS, I guess.  Not that I have any experience with
either BSD or Amiga..  Don't you hate acronym collisions?)

-- 
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[ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088 | mailto:hick0088@tc.umn.edu ]