[BL] Update & new question: Trouble with HD install of BL2

Andy Ashbaugh andy at andyashbaugh.com
Tue Aug 10 07:35:40 EDT 2004


     Thanks! It works now.

Andy

3aoo-cvfd at dea.spamcon.org wrote:

>Andy Ashbaugh wrote:
>  
>
>>Unlike BL3 which was happy to boot-up after the install process 
>>on a machine with no OS, 
>>    
>>
>
>That is true for the floppy version of BL3 (which includes lilo);
>however the DOS version of BL3 still requires DOS.
>
>  
>
>>BL2 seems to need DOS installed in order to become the primary 
>>operating system. 
>>    
>>
>
>Since the very first version of BL1, BasicLinux has booted from DOS 
>(for simplicity).  The use of lilo (instead of DOS) in the floppy 
>version of BL3 is something new.
> 
>  
>
>>The problem here is that there is no OS currently installed on 
>>this box and I don't have any DOS installation disks. 
>>Can DOS installation disks be downloaded from somewhere? 
>>    
>>
>
>A DOS boot floppy can downloaded from:  bootdisk.com
>The floppy will include fdisk and format.  Run fdisk to 
>create the DOS partition and make it bootable.  Then execute:
>------------
>format c: /s
>------------
>That's all you need to do to install DOS.   
>
>  
>
>>Can I make BL3 the computer's OS and then switch the boot loader 
>>over to BL2? 
>>    
>>
>
>lilo needs to be reconfigured every time you change the kernel or 
>the location of the root filesystem.  The lilo in BL3 cannot be 
>run on BL2 (because BL2 and BL3 use different libraries).
>
>  
>
>>Is there a procedure for an install that doesn't involve having 
>>an OS already installed?
>>    
>>
>
>I assume you mean for BL2.  It would be possible to boot the floppy
>version of BL2, install BL2 to HD and then install (and configure) 
>the lilo package from Slackware 7.1 *before* rebooting.  This would
>be quite tricky -- a tiny mistake in your lilo configuration would
>make your installation unbootable and you would have to restart with 
>the BL2 floppies.  I do not recommend this method for lilo newbies.
>
>A half-pie method would be to boot your HD installation of BL2 from 
>a floppy.  You could do this by editing the loadlin.exe line on the 
>first BL2 floppy (in autoexec.bat).  Or you could boot the first BL3 
>floppy, press CTRL when you see LILO, and redirect it to the HD
>partition where BL2 resides.  For example, if BL2 is on /dev/hda2:
>-----------------
>hd root=/dev/hda2
>-----------------
>
>IMHO, the simplest method is to put DOS on the first partition and 
>use loadlin.exe to boot Linux.  Eventually, if you wish, you can 
>install lilo and remove DOS (once you are sure lilo it is working 
>properly).
>
>Cheers,
>Steven
>_______________________________________________
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>BasLinux at lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/baslinux
>
>
>
>  
>



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