Wednesday, September 24, 2008

One Linux Dual-Boot Technique (Pretty Specific)

Here is a basic write-up of the technique that I used to achieve
dual-booting between SuSe and RHEL operating systems.

Assumptions:
1) /dev/sda (SuSe, active GRUB boot loader)
2) /dev/sdb (RHEL)
3) The RHEL os had previously been installed/booted with GRUB in /dev/sda slot)
4) The RHEL /boot partition is now here: /dev/sdb3

Basic Technique:
1) Make a backup of the SuSe GRUB configuration file.
cd /boot/grub
cp menu.lst menu.lst-ORG (this file used to be called "grub.conf")

2) Mount the previously used RHEL /boot partition.
mkdir /mnt/rhel-boot
mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt/rhel-boot

3) Create a new, unified GRUB configuration file by pulling the necessary
RHEL boot information from the /mnt/rhel-boot/grub/menu.lst file and
add it to the end of the /boot/grub/menu.lst file associated with the
SuSe rendition of the GRUB boot loader.

When I did this, I just had to change the "root" line from "(hd0,2)"
to "(hd1,2)".

4) Unmount the RHEL /boot partition.
cd /
umount /mnt/rhel-boot

5) Reboot, and enjoy your dual-boot machine.
init 6