dual boot issue
Submitted by bhagiratha on Wed, 09/14/2005 - 12:53.
I have been trying to install SuSe Linux version 10 on my powermac 2.5 G5. I get to the point where it ask me to install the boot loader and gives me this default setting:
Image/boot/vmlinux (/dev/sda2)
For some odd reason it does not like this setting and ask that I create a new one. I have basically tried all the settings listed below and none will work. I need help. I have been trying for 2 days to get this linux OS installed and to dual boot with my present operating system. My first drive is partitioned in two, with Mac OS X Tiger Server 10.4.2 on the 1st partition and SuSe Linux 10 on the 2nd partition. On my second hard drive, I also have two partitions, with OS X 10.4.2 on the 1st and a 2nd partition with NO OS installed.
Can any give me a help with this. I just need for a boot loader (yaboot) to give me the option to choose either of the operating systems to boot to.
This is my present system configuration:
/dev/sda 69.2GB
/dev/sda1 0.0MB unknown
/dev/sda2 30.6GB linux native
/dev/sda3 34.6GB Apple_HFS (OS X Server)
/dev/sda5 38.8MB linux native (SuSe Linux)
/dev/sda6 1.0MB unknown
/dev/sda7 3.4GB linux native
/dev/sda8 512MB linux swap
/dev/sdb 152.6GB (my second hard drive)
/dev/sdb1 0.0MB unknown
/dev/sdb3 120.2GB Apple_HFS (OS X 10.4.2)
/dev/sdb5 32.1GB Apple_HFS
Bootloader in Linux philosophy?
The question is often, "what is Linux philosophy in dual bootloader?". The answer is that: bootloaders are not for hardware native partitioning. Rather it is software partitioning or compressed drives. If Apple OSX is on sda1; then Suse installed will be sda2 but on hardware partition sda1. The basics is that Linux image is compressed. The compressed file or image is itself a software partition with compressed FAT table according to the file system you use(ext2?). So, if it resides on sda1 it becomes sda2. therefore, you should install Suse on sda1 and have a dual boot choice with OSX in MBR. Then hard partition sda2 to Apple OSX; will become sda3 native to Linux operating system. Many developers on bootloader got confused between hardware and software partitioning; Suse too, Austrumi still has problems allowing other than hda2 in MBR to do dual boot. The bootloader will execute in MBR and give you a choice then load either OSX or Suse. Some bootloader has an appended file extension from MBR to do multi operating system booting. Since you installed Suse(4 software partitions); its compressed files became software partitions up to sda8. The rest of the software partitions belong to Apple OSX(based on BSD with 4 software partitions). Footnote: The old RedHat 7.2 has 9 hardware partitions or logical drives using partition magic and causing later bootloader conceptual confusion when compressed drives were used..
RedHat 7.2 files are uncompressed?
The reason that RedHat had to use partition magic is because their Linux files were not compressed data. each partition has to be in the MBR. when Knoppix used compressed images, the files are compressed drives, and logical partitions are not required. Mandrake used compressed drive to run in Windows partition, many years ago. So, this concept is not new. Windows used doubledrive which is an inefficient compressed file of a drive or partition. Targz is much more efficient because of compressing repeated words. Have fun, life is too short; use fast livecd and forget about slow dual boot..