trying to make lilo boot both winME and redhat linux 7.1. i have installed them in this order:
- disk druid on the rh7.1 cd to partition the /boot (at 50 MB) and / (filling up the rest of the disk, about 28 GB)
- fdisk from the dos prompt on the winME install disk to partition a windows fat32 filesystem at 10GB, and install windows. booted up into windows, and it worked.
- went back to disk druid on the rh7.1 install cd. i redefined mount points (these are not stored in the partition table), and saw that what once was a 28GB partition
on /, was now 18GB; which is exactly what I thought should happen.
- installed linux, and booted up. everything was fine, but I could not get linux to load the windows partition.

so now I am in linux and can boot linux fine. lilo, however, wont even recognize that I have a windows to boot up, *even though I have it in my lilo.conf file*!!
when I type "dos" at the boot prompt, it tells me that it cannot even see that there is a dos to be loaded. here's /etc/lilo.conf:

# LILO configuration created by QuickInst 21 Mon Nov 5 03:46:05 CST 2001

boot = /dev/hda
compact
delay = 50 # optional, for systems that boot very quickly
vga = normal # force sane state
root = current # use "current" root
image = /boot/vmlinuz
label = linux
other = /dev/hda3
table = /dev/hda
label = dos


and here is the error message i get when i run the /sbin/lio program:

Warning: /etc/lilo.conf should be writeable only for root
Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
Warning: COMPACT may conflict with LBA32 on some systems.
Added linux *
Device 0x0300: Invalid partition table, 3rd entry
3d address: 1/0/0/ (0)
Linear address: 1/0/1024 (1032192)

finally, here's my fdisk -l info (partition table information):

Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/hda1 1 102 51376+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 103 58168 29265264 5 Extended
/dev/hda3 * 1025 21342 10240272 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda5 20421 20681 131512+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 20682 58168 18893416+ 83 Linux

/dev/hda1 is boot partition at about 50MB
/dev/hda3 is my windows partition at 10GB
/dev/hda5 is my linux swap partition at 256MB (I think)
/dev/hda6 is my / directory.

so, answer me this:
why must it say "added linux * " _every time_ that I start lilo, and yet the winME partition still is the one with the * to activate it?

actually, that's not really the important question ... I just thought it might be a helpful one. the most important question is: how to i get lilo to load linux _and_
windows?

it has been conjectured that since I did the partitioning in a weird order, the part that I should be booting from on /boot is actually on the windows partition. is this
the case?

thanx in advance for any help

well, the asterisk character is not soley reserved to indicate an active partition, it can also be use for swearing at texans:

isajera... you E*****

But what the Lilo * menas is that that is the option that is the default.

a hacked down version of my lilo.conf reads:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
default=linux
keytable=/boot/uk.klt
lba32
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message-graphic
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux
root=/dev/hda5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append=" hdc=ide-scsi quiet"
vga=788
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label=windows
table=/dev/hda
you've obviously not written your own lilo.conf, so i'll openly say that it's really horrible, as those warnings go to show. to that end, you should add the lba32 and default = linux lines. I really don't like the root=current line, that's just nasty, try changing it to /dev/hda6 (well create another lilo entry and change that one.

yeah your order of partitioning is a bit odd imho, the best order to install a dual boot goes:

1 - naked HD
2 - install win on small primary partition
3 - install linux, and lilo.

adding each relevant partition as you need it.

rh71 still has the old faithful 1024cyl problem, meaning if you just have windows as hda1 then it shouldn't be bigger than 8.4gb.

I'd guess that the actual problem you've got is that i'd presume that winme has been installed into an extended partition which dos can't use, windows always wnats THE primary partition in it's fdisk jobby.

basically for a headache free install, either get MD80 or RH72, as these have newer lilos, OR stat from scratch and limit hda5. that's what i did, 4gb at teh start, and 10gb at the end, both fat32

first of all, i've got the latest version of lilo at 22.1... someone here on linuxquestions (actually, I think it was you acid_kewpie said that it offered support past the 1024 cylinder limit.

the reason that I didnt install in your order was that I thought that _some_ part of the /boot partition would have to be within 1024 cylinders, so I did that first in order to keep it within that limit.

I shall make those modifications to the lilo.conf file, and if that doesnt work I shall reinstall in the order you suggested, and then post my results later this afternoon if time permits, or perhaps tomorrow.

yeah, your idea makes sense, but i tried a similar approach and just got no where at all.

i'm happy with my 4gb windows part tho, cos it kinda reflects the linux partition methodology, even though the two win partitions can't be intergrated. can they?

E*****? eunuch? keep trying kewp .

... i can't believe i didn't notice this one for so long.


..eulogy?

I've had no problems dual booting linux and a M$ OS since I've begun to do things the following way: (incidentally, unless I'm mistaken, the 1024 cylinder issue is not a limitation of lilo version, it is a limitation of some certain BIOS versions).

If I am sure that my Linux partitions will start after about the 8 GB mark, I make a 50 MB extX partition for /boot. Usually, I do it all the time, just in case. 50 MB isn't much to worry about.
Afterwards, boot into the Windows XX installation of choice; install windows as normal, and it will overwrite the boot sector of the disk, thinking it is the only OS and thus being happy.
After installing Windows, boot into the Linux installation, install normally, and boot to Linux.
To set lilo up to boot the other Windows OS, edit the /etc/lilo.conf and add the following stanza:

other=/dev/hdxy (where x is the drive, y is the partition that windows is installed on)
label=windoze_os_label
table=/dev/hdx (this only has to be the drive it is on)

Example: My windows 2000 installation is on /dev/hda1 --

other-/dev/hda1
label=Win2K
table=/dev/hda

So now my partition table looks like:

/dev/hda1 = Win2K
/dev/hda2 = /boot
/dev/hda3 = /
/dev/hda4 = Extended
/dev/hda5 = Linux Swap

Like I say, I've never had a problem since I started throwing in a 50 MB /boot partition, as this will blow away the problems you MAY have with BIOS limitations, etc. The other rule is Windows first, Linux last. Hope that helps.