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-Managing Multiple Operating Systems HOWTO
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!! Managing Multiple Operating Systems HOWTO
-
-!!Robert W. Schultz v0.4, 17 Feb 2000
-
-
-----
-''This HOWTO covers the procedures for using removable hard disks
-to install and manage multiple alternative operating systems while leaving
-a single fixed disk to permanently house and protect the primary operating
-system. It is very scalable and offers a good degree of protection to
-and a stable disk environment for the primary operating system.''
-----
-
-
-
-
-!!1. Introduction
-
-
-*1.1 Copyright
-
-*1.2 New Versions of this HOWTO
-
-*1.3 Feedback
-
-
-
-
-
-!!2. Purpose and goals:
-
-
-
-
-!!3. Background:
-
-
-
-
-!!4. System requirements:
-
-
-
-
-!!5. How it works (a scenario):
-
-
-
-
-!!6. The installation:
-
-
-*6.1 Installing the primary operating system
-
-*6.2 Installing alternative operating systems
-
-*6.3 Final BIOS and LILO configuration:
-
-
-
-
-
-!!7. Cost and gotcha's:
-
-
-*7.1 Cost:
-
-*7.2 Gotcha's
-
-----
-
-!!1. Introduction
-
-!!1.1 Copyright
-
-
-
-Copyright (c) 2000 by Robert W. Schultz.
-
-
-Please freely copy and distribute (sell or give away) this document in
-any format. It's requested that corrections and/or comments be forwarded to
-the document maintainer. You may create a derivative work and distribute
-it provided that you:
-
-
-
-
-
-1.Send your derivative work (in the most suitable format such as sgml)
-to the LDP (Linux Documentation Project) or the like for posting on the
-Internet. If not the LDP, then let the LDP know where it is available.
-
-
-2.License the derivative work with this same license or use GPL. Include
-a copyright notice and at least a pointer to the license used.
-
-
-3.Give due credit to previous authors and major contributors.
-
-
-If you're considering making a derived work other than a translation,
-it's requested that you discuss your plans with the current maintainer.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-!!1.2 New Versions of this HOWTO
-
-
-
- New versions of the Managing Multiple Operating Systems HOWTO will
-be available to browse and/or download at LDP mirror sites. For a list
-of mirror sites see:
-
-
-
-http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/mirrors.html.
-
-
-Various formats are available. If you only want to quickly check the
-date of the latest version look at
-
-
-
-http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/MultiOS-HOWTO.html
-
-and compare it to this version: v0.4, 17 February 2000
-
-
-
-
-!!1.3 Feedback
-
-
-
- Please send any questions, comments, or suggestions to
-mailto:rwschul@smart.net (Robert W. Schultz). I am very
-willing to help others with problems directly relating to this HOWTO
-and will entertain any suggestions for changes/modifications and/or
-improvements. However, having set up my system to my satisfaction,
-this HOWTO won't be significantly improved without reader input.
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!2. Purpose and goals:
-
-
-The purpose of this HOWTO is to describe a methodology for managing
-multiple operating systems on a single computer system. It is intended
-for Linux users who have a basic familiarity with both Linux and LILO
-installations. Nothing
here is terribly complex however, considering
-the amount of time it takes to install some operating systems it can be
-relatively time consuming.
-
-
-
-
-
-It is different from other methods in that it doesn't require multiple
-operating systems on the boot disk. Instead it uses a fixed internal disk
-containing a single primary operating system and a selection of removable
-disks with one or more operating systems installed on each of them.
-If you absolutely have to have two, three, or four different operating
-systems on a single disk and are trying to get them to behave with each
-other, this HOWTO is not for you.
-
-
-
-
-
-Its specific goals are:
-
-
-
-
-
-* - A primary/operational disk that once configured and installed
-is rarely changed. This includes not having to repartition or
-otherwise modify the disk it resides on.
-
-
-
-
-
-* - Easy selection of multiple alternative operating systems at boot
-time without having to go through more than one or two menu selections.
-
-
-
-
-
-* - No need to modify the BIOS, LILO, or any other configuration to
-access an O/S once it is installed.
-
-
-
-
-
-* - Easy addition/removal of operating systems depending on
-requirements at the moment.
-
-
-
-
-
-* - Inexpensive and scalable to allow for an increasing number of
-operating systems and versions as time goes on.
-
-
-
-
-
-I think I succeeded admirably in the first three of these requirements.
-You can form your own opinions on the last two.
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!3. Background:
-
-
-Even though Linux is becoming much more user
-friendly and widely accepted, most of us still need access to other
-operating systems. I use Linux about 75% of the time but I still
-need access to Win 9x for those few applications that I haven't found
-acceptable alternatives for in Linux. My wife uses MS Office at work and
-wants to have access to it at home. Other people want to have access to
-alternative O/S just for fun, training, or to keep current in their job.
-
-
-
-
-
-I tend to treat new O/S's as you would a game; I actually don't do
-anything productive with them but installing and learning how to control
-them is just as challenging and interesting to me as Quake or !SimCity.
-Further, being a Computer Scientist, it keeps me current on evolving
-technology and has helped me solve a multitude of problems at work.
-At any rate, for new Linux users, computer professionals, and those just
-trying to migrate from one operating system to another, I believe using
-multiple operating systems is the norm rather than the exception.
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!4. System requirements:
-
-
-BIOS - Any bios that allows automatic identification of disk drive
-geometry and allows you to select the sequence of devices to boot from
-should work. I successfully built systems based on both PhoenixBIOS
-4.0 and AMI Plug and Play Flash BIOS.
-
-
-
-
-
-DISKS - One fixed internal disk dedicated to Linux. (first disk)
-One Removable drive enclosure, with any number of drives. (second disk)
-
-
-
-
-
-Since a lot of this HOWTO has to do with disks, from now on I will
-generally use the terms "first disk" and "second disk". The first disk is the
-one initially accessed when the machine is turned on, commonly known as the
-boot disk. It has LILO installed in the MBR and is dedicated to a single
-operating system, specifically Linux. The second disk is a removable disk
-that contains one or more alternative operating systems which may or may not
-have a boot loader in the MBR or elsewhere.
-
-
-
-
-
-There are no other hardware/firmware requirements. Any other
-requirements would be dictated by the specific O/S. For instance, even
-though you could install it, Solaris 7 is not going to run well on an
-old 90MHz machine! The configuration and methodology described here
-should however work equally well regardless of the CPU speed or other
-installed peripherals.
-
-
-
-
-
-Operating Systems - I have tested this process with Linux (Redhat
-and Suse), Solaris 7, BeOS, Win 98 and even MSDOS 6.22. I see no reason
-why it wouldn't work with Win 95, O/S 2, or FreeBSD. I am not familiar
-with Windows NT or 2000 so I don't know how they would react to this
-kind of setup.
-
-
-
-
-
-Boot loader - I used LILO on the first disk and BeOS bootman on the
-second disks. I used LILO on the first disk because it was the only
-boot loader that allowed me to select the MBR on the second disk as an
-acceptable boot partition. Any relatively robust boot loader should
-work on the second disk.
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!5. How it works (a scenario):
-
-
-Prior to ignition, I insert a disk, preloaded with an operating system
-in the removable drive. When I turn on the machine, I am presented at the
-LILO prompt (by pressing <tab>) with "Linux" and "Disk2" as options.
-Linux is the default and would automatically boot if I did nothing.
-When selected, Disk2 either boots directly into the single O/S stored on
-the second disk or presents me with a second boot menu if there is more
-than one O/S on that disk. If I power down, replace the second disk with
-another and power back up, I still get the initial Linux/Disk 2 menu and,
-if I select Disk2, a new menu appropriate to the newly inserted disk.
-Once installed, I never have to modify the LILO configuration on the
-first disk, I never have to change BIOS setting to boot from the second
-disk and I never have to go through more than two menu selections to
-get my selected O/S up and running.
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!6. The installation:
-
-
-There are three distinct parts to the installation, first building
-the primary O/S on its own dedicated drive. Second, building a second
-disk with whatever alternative O/S you selected. Finally, reconfiguring
-the BIOS and LILO to support both disks.
-
-
-
-
-!!6.1 Installing the primary operating system
-
-
-
-Installation of the primary/operational O/S is fairly straight forward.
-Treat the system as if it were a single drive system dedicated to Linux.
-Refer to the documentation that came with your distribution or see
-http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO.html
-for details on installing Linux.
-
-
-
-
-
- Because this is ultimately a multiple disk installation, there a few
-steps that need to be taken to trick the install routines into thinking
-that it is, during the installation process, a single disk system.
-
-
-
-
-
- First, Remove the removable Hard Drive and make sure the remaining
-drive is identified in the BIOS as the secondary boot device (after the
-floppy). The operating system install program should only see one disk,
-the one you are going to install to. That way, there is no question
-as to where it will be installed. Also, it will install everything
-appropriate to a single disk system.
-
-
-
-
-
-When asked, tell the install program to use the entire disk for
-your operating system. I accepted the default !RedHat partitioning and
-installed the generic LILO on the MBR.
-
-
-
-
-
- Once the installation is complete, shutdown and reboot to confirm
-that your system works properly. At this point you should have a fully
-functional machine that boots directly into Linux.
-
-!!6.2 Installing alternative operating systems
-
-
-
- Now that you have a fully functional system, you can move on to
-building a second disk with your alternative operating systems.
-
-
-
-
-
-Select an operating system or two for installation on the second disk.
-I decided on, for no good reason, Windows 98 and BeOS for my initial
-test case. I partitioned an 8GB drive into two 4GB primary partitions
-and installed Windows 98 in the first partition and BeOS in the second.
-
-
-
-
-
-Do the same things with this install that you did with the first.
-Disable the first disk in the BIOS so that this installer will not
-even see it. This is very important. If you can physically remove or
-disconnect the first disk, do it! This will protect your primary system
-from any errors on your part or overly greedy operating systems that
-want to take over all the disks they see during the second installation.
-If at some time in the future you decide to create another removable
-disk make sure and repeat this step.
-
-
-
-
-
-Once this is done install your chosen operating systems as if you
-were installing them on a single drive system.
-
-
-
-
-
- If you are only installing one operating system on the second disk,
-just plug in the installation disk and let it do its thing. Windows 95
-or 98 or just about any other operating system, including a second Linux
-should install just fine this way. Allow Windows 9x to write to the MBR. If installing Linux, select MBR as the location to install LILO.
-
-
-
-
-
- I decided to install two operating systems on the second disk so
-that I could confirm the functionality of cascading boot loaders.
-
-
-
-
-
-I first installed Windows 98 because it automatically overwrites the
-MBR and would have overwritten any boot loader code I eventually placed
-there. Next, I installed BeOS in the second partition and ran bootman,
-the BeOS boot loader. With it I built a boot menu for the second disk
-and intentionally overwrote the Windows 98 MBR.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Bootman was not essential, I could have used any MBR based boot
-loader but it was available and it works quite will.
-
-
-
-
-
-Reboot frequently to make sure that everything works properly as
-a single disk system. I rebooted after each O/S installation to make
-sure it worked properly and also to make sure that the boot loader menu
-worked properly.
-
-
-
-
-!!6.3 Final BIOS and LILO configuration:
-
-
-
-Next, reconfigure the BIOS so that it again recognizes the first disk
-(physically reconnect it if you disconnected it earlier) as the boot
-disk and so that it also recognizes the second disk. How to do this is
-very system specific and dependent on your BIOS and whether you have a
-SCSI/IDE or IDE/IDE setup. I haven't tried a SCSI/SCSI setup because
-SCSI disks and removable frames are significantly more expensive than
-IDE disks and frames. I wanted performance for my primary O/S but could
-accept cheap on the other ones.
-
-
-
-
-
-Make sure and set the second disk type to "Auto" or "Automatic".
-This will force the BIOS to dynamically determine the disk type at
-boot time. I have been able to successfully use an ancient 512MB
-disk, a 4GB, an 8GB, and even a 100MB IDE Zip disk as the second disk.
-All recognized automatically by the BIOS.
-
-
-
-
-
-Reboot the system and get back to Linux. At this point, even though
-there are at least two operating systems installed, this LILO only knows
-about the original Linux and should boot to it automatically. Watch the
-boot process and you should see a message about automatically identifying
-a disk. Once booted, check dmesg to make sure Linux recognized the
-second disk.
-
-
-
-
-
-Once this is done, you need to reconfigure LILO on the first disk
-to make it aware of the second disk. Here are two different lilo.conf
-files, one for a SCSI/IDE and another for an IDE/IDE system. Each has
-some strengths and weaknesses...
-
-
-
-
-# lilo.conf file for an internal SCSI disk and a removable disk
-# configured as a master on the primary IDE connection
-disk = /dev/sda # These four lines are necessary
-bios = 0x80 # to get the SCSI disk re-mapped as
-disk = /dev/hda # the primary drive even though it
-bios = 0x81 # is selected in the BIOS as the
-# boot device. This might be a BIOS
-# specific problem.
-# Without them you get the following errors from LILO:
-#
-# LILO version 21, Copyright 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
-#
-# ading boot sector from /dev/sda
-# Warning: /dev/sda is not on the first disk
-# And LILO either hangs at LI or repeats endless "01 "'s across the screen
-boot=/dev/sda
-map=/boot/map
-install=/boot/boot.b
-prompt
-timeout=50
-image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20smp
-label=Linux
-root=/dev/sda1
-initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20smp.img
-read-only
-other = /dev/hda
-# other = /dev/hda is the key element. Instead of redirecting lilo to
-# a specific partition, it redirects it to the MBR on the second disk.
-# that way, LILO doesn't have to know anything about the second disk and
-# we can replace it with another because LILO always goes to the same place
-# regardless of which specific disk is installed. LILO was the only boot
-# loader I found that would do this.
-label = Disk2
-map-drive = 0x80
-to = 0x81
-map-drive = 0x81
-to = 0x80
-# The map-drive lines are necessary to make the second disk think it is
-# actually the boot disk.
-# lilo.conf file for a system with two IDE drives. Both are masters,
-# /dev/hda on the primary connector and /dev/hdc on the secondary.
-# /dev/hdb is a CDROM slave on the primary IDE connector.
-# disk = /dev/hda # These lines are not necessary for the
-# bios = 0x80 # IDE/IDE installation because the BIOS
-# disk = /dev/hdc # already knows what order they are in
-# bios = 0x81
-boot=/dev/hda
-map=/boot/map
-install=/boot/boot.b
-prompt
-timeout=50
-image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.5-15
-label=linux
-root=/dev/hda4
-read-only
-other = /dev/hdc
-# other = /dev/hdc is again the key. This just redirects LILO to the
-# MBR of the second disk. Whatever is there gets control.
-label = Disk2
-map-drive = 0x80
-to = 0x81
-map-drive = 0x81
-to = 0x80
-
-
-
-
-
-
-The /dev, boot, map and image entries are system specific and yours
-will probably be different that mine. The entries in your initial
-/etc/lilo.conf file should give you an accurate guide for your system.
-I copied the "Linux" entry from the original install generated lilo.conf
-file directly into the new lilo.conf. This should allow you to boot into
-"Linux" and modify your lilo.conf even if the "Disk2" entry fails totally.
-
-
-
-
-
-Finally, run lilo -vvv to make sure it agrees with everything you
-are trying to do.
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!7. Cost and gotcha's:
-
-!!7.1 Cost:
-
-
-
-I found a Frame and 1 drawer removable drive mount for $20.00.
-It is the "SNT MOBILE RACK". Disks didn't cost me anything because I
-had several old or small IDE drives around from upgrades etc. Even if
-you have to buy them, 2GB IDE drives are cheap.
-
-
-
-
-!!7.2 Gotcha's
-
-
-
-1. Once you decide whether your removable drive is going to be a
-master or slave, make sure and jumper it properly before securing it
-in its case. If you forget this step it can take quit a while to trace
-booting problems back to an improper jumper setting.
-
-
-
-
-
-2. Make sure that O/S installation routines can ONLY see the drive
-they are installing to. !RedHat refused to let me install LILO to the
-SCSI MBR if it could see the IDE drive. So, to install to an internal
-SCSI drive, I had to physically remove the IDE. To install to the IDE,
-I had to disable SCSI support in the BIOS.
-
-
-
-
-
-3. If an O/S installation routine tells you it is going to repartition
-ALL your drives and overwrite EVERYTHING believe it.
-
-
-
-
-
-4. It is very easy to install an IDE cable backwards.
-
-
-
-
-
-5. I only tested an IDE master/master set up. I am not sure how a
-master/slave would work.
-
-
-
-
-
-6. Installing the removable disk frame does require opening up the
-computer case. If you are uncomfortable with this get a friend to help.
-
-
-
-
-
-7. If you set the removable disk to a specific disk type in the BIOS
-it will work fine until you replace it with another disk of a different
-type. Then you will get errors or warnings and the system might not boot.
-
-
-
-
-
-8. Plan everything in advance.
-
-
-
-
-
-9. With a quick change to the BIOS, the second disk becomes your
-boot disk. This means that you can have a fully functional O/S available
-as your emergency/recovery disk
.
-
-
-
-----
+Describe [HowToMultiOSHOWTO]
here.
