LILO for Linux + DOS + OS/2

Support knowledgebase (kgw_lilo_os2dos)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: All versions

Situation:

You have DOS, OS/2, and Linux on your system and you want to be able to boot all these operating systems from the hard disk.

Procedure:

First approach: OS/2 boot manager

You will find detailed information on this approach in the SDB article http://sdb.suse.de/sdb/en/html/maddin_os2linux.html.

Second approach: LILO

As the main boot manager, LILO is used in the MBR or in a primary partition on the first hard disk. If a primary partition can host the LILO (e.g. Linux partitions or the extended partition, but never the primary or logical partitions of other operating systems), the second place is safer, since the MBR code can be easily overwritten with DOS and OS/2 installations.

The following example of a suitable LILO configuration file /etc/lilo.conf assumes that the start partitions for DOS (primary) and Linux (primary) are located on the first hard disk whereas the OS/2 partition (logical) is located on the second hard disk. As usual, these partitions must be within the 1024 cylinders limit (cf.: http://sdb.suse.de/sdb/en/html/1024_Zylinder.html). Since OS/2 is located on the second disk, the special loader /boot/os2_b.b is used instead of the usual loader /boot/chain.b.

The MBR may come either from MSDOS or from OS/2. Set the LILO partition (i.e. the Linux start partition) to active with an fdisk program in the partition table.

Note that the partition and kernel names in the example below must BE ADAPTED to your system. Please take the comments into consideration.

# LILO configuration file
# Start LILO global Section
boot  = /dev/sda4         # ADAPT: LILO in the Linux root partition
                          # ACTIVATE this partition

# Delete the comment sign (#) if you want the LILO greeting message previously
# saved in /boot/message to be displayed at every system start
# message = /boot/message #  greeting screen

prompt
delay = 100
vga   = normal
#
# Linux boot partition configuration
image = /vmlinuz          #  ADAPT: the kernel
    label = linux
    root  = /dev/sda4     #  ADAPT: Linux root partition
# Linux boot partition configuration: end
#
# OS/2 boot partition (second hard disk) configuration
other = /dev/sdb5         #  ADAPT: OS/2 system partition
    table = /dev/sdb      #  ADAPT: hard disks device
    label = os2
    loader = /boot/os2_b.b
# OS/2 boot partition configuration: end

# Hereby (disabled) the simplest entry for an
# OS/2 system partition on the first hard disk:
#
# OS/2 boot partition (first hard disk) configuration
# other = /dev/sda5       #  ADAPT: OS/2 system partition
#    table = /dev/sda     #  ADAPT: hard disks device
#    label = os2
# OS/2 boot partition configuration: end

#
# DOS boot partition configuration
other = /dev/sda1         #  ADAPT: DOS system partition !!
    table = /dev/sda      #  ADAPT: hard disks device
    label = dos
# DOS boot partition configuration: end

See also:
o Linux on 1024 cylinder
o OS/2 and Linux with OS/2 bootmanager

Keywords: LILO, OS2, OS/2, BOOT

SDB-kgw_lilo_os2dos, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 18. Jun 2002
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 25. Jun 2002 by ip (sdb_gen 1.40.0)