[KLUG Members] Dual boot problem on home computer

[Robert V. Kanaley]

Hello everyone,

On my home computer, I pulled the original HD that had a proprietary legacy
OS and had been running Red Hat 9 on a 20GB drive with a small boot
partition and LVM for the rest. But, I recently bought a 5 MPixel digital
camera that required I install it on the legacy OS.

I stuck the original drive back in on the secondary IDE controller and
configured GRUB to give me a choice on bootup. Everything worked as it
should, except that the legacy GUI took over 14 hours to boot. Once it
loaded, the response time was normal, but 14 hours is a bit long to wait,
even for a Redmond product. So, reluctantly, I had to put the original drive
back in as the boot drive on the primary IDE controller.

I am not sure that I can make a linux boot floppy that will boot to the Red
Hat install on the 20GB disk on the secondary controller. During the
original Red Hat install I got a message saying the kernel wouldn't fit on a
floppy. Otherwise I could have modified that emergency boot disk. While
looing in this possibility, a Google search found a message talking about
having to make a bzImage to get a kernel to fit on a floppy. I have never
tried doing this and I don't know if that is a viable option.

I do have a copy of Partition Magic that can be used to push the original
primary boot partition around. I just am not sure how the legacy OS would
work if I stick a /boot partition or two in front of it.

Anyone have any suggestions?

TIA

Bob


Robert V. Kanaley
Manager Information Systems
Agdia, Inc.
rvk@agdia.com
http://www.agdia.com