Suse 9.1 Boot Issues

[klinux]

hi ,

just installed complete suse 9.1 personal edition from digit dvd . couple of questions

- Since i never use a linux bootloader and only use loadlin from dos prompt for both fedora and linux 8.0 .
- will loadlin work for suse 9.1 ?
- will loadlin work for suse 9.1 in reiser FS also ?
- i tried with all 3 versions of loadlin (a,b,c) and it give a kernel panic error unable to mount file system . could anything else be causing this problem
- suse has an option for booting from the cd directly to partition , which is GR8 .
- If i install grub now , would it detect all the os in my system . have the following installed already
- win98 / 2k / 2kserver / xp which boot from nt loader
- pcquest fedora / pcquest red hat 8 which boot fine from win98 dos prompt with loadlin
- suse 9.1 which boots only with suse 9.1 cd in it , which can't boot with loadlin
- xandros open edition which can't boot with loadlin

So u see , i want to know if installing grub now wont mess up my system . or even xosl . and if it does get messed up can i use grub repair , if any to bring back everything to original mbr . Used samsung ontrack disk manager to make the partition for windows and used it to back up the mbr twice . it states not to use this option if i use lilo . so is grub gonna be fine or not . Thank You

 

[GNUrag]

- Since i never use a linux bootloader and only use loadlin from dos prompt for both fedora and linux 8.0 .

Why so ? Try to use a boot loader as far as possible... Otherwise you'll waste a lot ot time flipping between OSes to get ur GNU/Linux started ...

- will loadlin work for suse 9.1 ?

Yep... if your copy of kernel is compressed as a gzimage and not bzimage

- will loadlin work for suse 9.1 in reiser FS also ?

as far as i think, it works with simple ext partitions.... just read its help...

- i tried with all 3 versions of loadlin (a,b,c) and it give a kernel panic error unable to mount file system . could anything else be causing this problem

Please quote the exact error that loadlin throws at you... Loadlin works with kernels that are made as GzImages.... if your kernel is a BzImage then it probably would not work... For creating a GzImage compile you kernel sources again... and while making a kernel image.... give option, make gzimage

- suse has an option for booting from the cd directly to partition , which is GR8 .

hmmm

- If i install grub now , would it detect all the os in my system . have the following installed already, win98 / 2k / 2kserver / xp which boot from nt loader

Yes, the setup program will detect all ur FAT32 partitions and will add entries to grub.conf so that you can boot from them....

- suse 9.1 which boots only with suse 9.1 cd in it , which can't boot with loadlin
- xandros open edition which can't boot with loadlin

more details please...

i want to know if installing grub now wont mess up my system . or even xosl

Nope.... it wont...

and if it does get messed up can i use grub repair , if any to bring back everything to original mbr .

C:\> fdisk /mbr for windows 98
and fixboot, fixmbr for Windows XP

it states not to use this option if i use lilo . so is grub gonna be fine or not . Thank You

Who states ? what does it state ?

 

[klinux]

thanks for detailed reply . very detailed and usefull . just starting off with linux so i do have some dificulties with the error messages

finally fixed the prob with suse booting with loadlin . changed the fs from reiser to ext3 .
but there is an option to use loadlin to boot suse even if it is reiser . got to go through some documents b4 trying that .
- was interesting to find out reiser is faster than ext3
- the samsung ontrack diskmanager stated not to use its own mbr backup option if i planned to use lilo .
- have a fear for lilo and boot loaders ever since had all 1's scrolling on the screen when i installed linux long back . will try grub some day

- which would be better for windows/linux/solaris x86 version ? grub or xosl .

- any good 3rd party utility to backup and restore mbr ? .

- xandros still isnt booting with loadlin , some error like " kernel panic unable to mount fs " .