multiple distros installed

[caminoix]

i have recently installed kanotix 2005-01 to hd and now it seems like i can't run live cds any more.
i wondered, is it possible to have various distros installed at once? e.g. on different partitions?
won't their bootloaders be somehow fighting with each other?

[dylunio]

You can have more than one distro installed on different partitions, I have Slackware, SuSE, and Ubuntu on my computer.

the bootloaders will not 'fight', but will over write each other. The easiest way to do this is not to install the bootloader on any other distro's you insatall and edit the /etc/grub.conf or the /etc/lilo.conf (depending on which bootloader the kanotix distro uses), and add th other distro's to the files, and thus the list you get at boot.

dylunio

[caminoix]

thank you

but... how can i possibly choose not to install bootloader? is it like choosing to install bootlaoder to a partition instead of the master boot record (given i only have the two options during the installation)?

[budman7]

When you install, there should be an option to not install bootloader.

When I installed Fedora, Ididn't see that option until I went ot the "change bootloader" button.The option was in there.
I have never installed kanotix, but I can't believe the don't give you the option not to install a bootloader.

If it really is like that, just don't put the bootloader on the MBR. See if there is an option to put it on a floppy or to the root partition.

Hope this helps.

[caminoix]

thanks for the tip

i've noticed you're using yoper, so i'd like to ask you one more thing, please. i've just almost succesfully installed yos, with one problem only: after reboot grub says error nr 17 and the computer hangs (freezes? what do you say in english? i mean, when it's neither doing anything nor responding to any action). this is quite funny, 'cause before installing yoper i have formatted the disk where kanotix was (it's a knoppix remaster) and when installing yos, i have chosen to install lilo.

ps. i have already tried formatting the disk before and it always removed grub as well. never had this problem before.

[budman7]

When you installed Yoper was it the second Linux OS on the machine?
At what point do you get the grub error, when you try to boot Yoper or some other distro?

[caminoix]

i have 2 hd's: on one there is windows xp, and i haven't touched it. on the other, there used to be kanotix, but then i formatted it and installed yoper. everything was fine and showed no errors until i rebooted the machine. then it said error nr 17, which is: "Invalid device requested -
This error is returned if a device string is recognizable but does not fall under the other device errors." and just stopped reacting.