dual-boot "Mepis" and "Blag"

[Dapper Dan]

If you save your Mepis /boot directory somewhere safe within your present Mepis install, it will be ok unless you tell Blag to install where Mepis is now. From what you've told me, I don't think you''re wanting to do that.

Once Blag is re-installed, it will be a simple matter to mount your Mepis / partition, and excavate that Mepis /boot file so you can retrieve the info for your Blag /boot. If you want, you could just write your Mepis /boot file to cd before reinstalling Blag and then wouldn't have to fetch it.

I think Blag must have originally created a separate partition for /boot. That is the default way Fedora/RedHat does it. When you installed Mepis, either you told it to install its /boot to that same partition, or Mepis found it on its own and installed its /boot directory there. That would explain why you now have Mepis as a boot choice and no longer Blag.

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OK, I just found out from my friend jimf43 over at Mepis that creating a boot floppy is not possible after RC4. Which version is yours? If after RC4 then I'd copy your Mepis /boot to some place safe or burn it to disk. You'll need it if you want to dual boot with grub on your hard drive.

Here's what I think would be the simplest solution:

Keep Mepis and your present /boot partition just as it is now.
Do a simple upgrade, (not new install) of Blag keeping it where it is. When you get to the end of the Blag upgrade, DON'T install the grub boot loader when/if it asks.
DO create a Blag boot floppy when it asks.

The result will be a box that boots by default to Mepis, unless you insert the Blag boot floppy which takes you to Blag.

I'm getting really sleepy now, so I hope all this makes sense. See you tomorrow...

[Dapper Dan]

Well, I re-installed Blag; now I can't get into Mepis.

The only thing that showed up on the boot screen is Blag. I was able to make a boot disk for Blag however. Perhaps if I reinstall Mepis I can make a boot disk there too.

But ya know...this is nuts!

Dang!!! I was writing my last post while you were re-installing Blag! Argggg!!!
I'll have to think about this more tomorrow now that you re-installed Blag. It's a shame I didn't get my last post out before you went ahead with it. My synapses are no longer firing. Good night...

[larryk]

I've tried reinstalling Mepis so I can get the grub boot loader back, then reinstall Blag and do the boot disc thing (sounded like a good idea) but although I get the live disc to work, it won't let me re-install it...says something about not being able to find any discs(???) Very strange; when I went to install it on the HD initially it found both my C and D drives and worked just fine.

Thought I had the problem licked earlier, when I went to re-inst. Blag for the second time; it gave me the option of making a new boot loader...it should given me a new loader with both distos, but it wouldn't work that way either.

Yup...W2K is sure simpler. I spend more time making Linux work that actually getting work done on a Windows machine (I'm very finicky about keeping the machines patched and scanned for bugs, etc.)

May try again tomorrow. Thanks for your interest in helping me.

[Dapper Dan]

Hi larryk. Since you now have an abundance of experience installing both distros, here's what I'd do to get a dual boot situation.

Install Blag first, make a boot floppy, then Install Mepis second. Then you have a box that defaults to Mepis, and when you want to boot Blag, just pop in the floppy!

[larryk]

DDan -

I'm doing what you said on the Linux box as I type on the W2K box (love those KVM switches)...will let you know how it goes.

Larry

[larryk]

DDan - you da man

Did as suggested; machine defaults to Mepis following reinstall, but can boot to Blag with the floppy boot disk.

All is well (for now).

Wonder if I could use a similar scenario on another Linux machine I have that's running FC2? Would like to dual-boot with Mandrake or Suse.

Thanks very much for your assistance. I still prefer Windows, but Linux is certainly...interesting

Larry

[Dapper Dan]

Glad it worked out! You wait! A few more weeks or months with Linux, and you'll be posting back about how much you detest Windows!