Re: [PLUG] Debian Boot Partition

[Kevin Brosius <kbrosius@kns.com>]

borawski@netaxs.com wrote:
> 
> Hi, I am playing around with different boot options using Debian
> Potato.
> 
> I tried to boot from a kernel stored in separate partition (16M).
> 
> I copied all the contents of the original boot directory to the new
> partition. I setup fstab to mount the partition under /boot, then I
> ran lilo.  I assume this updated the vmlinuz symlink under /.

Ran lilo while booted under the old root?  You'll need to add a
different root= keyword generally, or be booted under the new setup. 
Really, you probably just want to add configurations to your existing
lilo setup, so that the old system still boots.

> 
> It did not work.  Lilo was in some kind of strange loop.

The type of loop (ie. LILILILI, LI<freeze>, etc) sometimes indicates why
it failed.

> 
> So, I set things back to the boot directory under / and all is well.
> 
> What does one have to do to boot a kernel on a separate partition. Do
> I merely need to make a vmlinuz symlink under / on the boot partiton ?

No, duplicate the existing info in /etc/lilo.conf for your existing
partition, but change it for the new partition. So for example if the
first bootable system looks like this in lilo.conf:

-----
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux
root=/dev/hda5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="quiet devfs=mount"
-----

You need to duplicate it, changing the label and root (at the minimum)
-----
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux_partition2
root=/dev/hda7
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="quiet devfs=mount"
-----

Now you should be able to boot either one, assuming you have it prompt
and/or delay during the boot phase.

Add:
  prompt
to the lilo.conf if it isn't there already.

-- 
Kevin Brosius
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