[ILUG] LILO, MBR and Windows

[Liam Bedford]

On Sun, Apr 22, 2001 at 09:34:20PM +0100, Niall O Broin came forth with:
> On Sun, Apr 22, 2001 at 01:50:19PM +0100, Vincent Cunniffe wrote:
> 
> > You should install LILO in /dev/hda2, NOT the MBR. Then, you should use
> > fdisk again to ensure that the second partition, Linux, is the active
> > on.
> > 
> > The Linux install will autodetect the Windows install, and offer you the
> > option of dual booting. When you restart the machine, you should see the
> > LILO prompt come up. Press tab, and you'll be offered the choice between
> > linux and dos : pick whatever you want to boot into.
> > 
> > The reason that you need to put LILO into the second partition is
> > because Windows installs into the root of the disk, and if you overwrite
> > it with LILO you will be unable to boot Windows at all.
> 
> This is incorrect - LILO installs in the MBR and it doesn't overwrite
> Windows, only the disk's MBR. If Lilo is installed incorrectly, yes, you
> will not be able to boot 'doze (or Linux). This, however, is true whether
> you install it in the MBR or in /dev/hda2 with hda2 as the active partition.
> 
Vin's in confused land (or at least not expressing himself correctly).

My favourite way of doing this is to use GRUB, but if not, install LILO on
the linux partition, for a few reasons:
a) if you change your partition layout, all you have to do is boot from a
random disk, change the active partition to the windows one, and your
machine will boot easily. LILO doesn't seem to take well to
geometry/partitions changing (I don't blame it, it's doing an fsck lot more
than the Windows MBR does).

b) When you reinstall windows for the fifth time this week, because you
changed the video card, it won't overwrite your changes. It might change the
active partition, but it generally leaves it alone. It will most likely
overwrite the MBR though.

That said, GRUB is the one true way...

L.
-- 
Liam Bedford                  | Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
Software Engineer             | And though the holes were rather small
WBT Systems, Block 2,         | They had to count them all
Harcourt Centre, Harcourt St. | Now they know how many holes it takes to fill
01-4170100                    | The Albert Hall