[techtalk] Yet Another Installation Question

[Conor Daly]

On Fri, May 18, 2001 at 04:51:13PM -0400 or so it is rumoured hereabouts, 
wny-tc at juno.com thought:
> 
> I have been cautioned to back up all of my data just in case, but why
> could I not unplug the IDE cable to the Win98 HD and do the install on
> the Linux HD?  Would I be opening a can of worms when I plug the cable
> back into the Win98 drive?

Quick bit of linux HD terminology...

2 IDE controllers (Primary, Secondary)
2 HDs per controller (Master, Slave)
max of four devices.
Primary   Master is known as '/dev/hda'
Primary   Slave  is          '/dev/hdb'
Seconda   Master is          '/dev/hdc'
Secondary Slave  is          '/dev/hdd'

Each partition on the HD is known by a number (1-4 for primary partitions,
5 upwards for logical drives in extended partitions).  So, your Windows
drive with its C: drive will contain /dev/hda1 while your linux HD will be
installed as /dev/hdb and will have partitions /dev/hdb1 /dev/hdb2 and so
on.  If you disconnect the Win disk, the linux HD will become /dev/hda
while you install but will revert to /dev/hdb when you reconnect the 'doze
disk.  You need to tell linux that it's now running on /dev/hdb instead of
/dev/hda.  Thet's easy, you just need to make a boot floppy for the
changeover and use that to boot linux from /dev/hdb the first time.

Try this:

.  Install linux to the linux disk as hda and install LILO to the MBR
.  edit /etc/lilo.conf and change every reference to "/dev/hdaX" to
   "/dev/hdbX"
.  change the "boot=/dev/hda" line to "boot=/dev/fd0"
.  Insert a floppy disk and do a 'lilo'.  You should see some brief
   activity.
.  edit /etc/fstab and change any reference to "/dev/hdaX" to "/dev/hdbX"
.  shutdown and reconnect your 'doze disk
.  boot from the floppy
.  edit /etc/lilo.conf and change the "boot=/dev/fd0" line to
   "boot=/dev/hda"
.  add a section to boot windows like this:
	other=/dev/hda1
        label=Windows98
   that's what my one looks like anyhow
.  do a 'lilo' to install the new boot order

Don't forget you need to set the linux drive as "master" to use it by
itself and then reset it to "slave" when you reconnect the 'doze disk.

Conor
-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at oceanfree.net>

Domestic Sysadmin :-)
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