Linux Desktop Hacks

4

|

Chapter 1, Booting Linux

#1 Give Your Computer the Boot

HACK

To enable your system to boot Mac OS X as well, simply add the following

option to /etc/yaboot.conf and indicate the correct partition that contains

Mac OS X (you can determine the right partition by running a partitioning

tool such as cfdisk):

macosx=/dev/hda4

When you have edited the file, you need to run the ybin program to write the

boot sector. If you use the

-v option, you can see the output of the command:

root@bar:~# ybin -v

Boot from a CD-ROM

The vast majority of Linux distributions are available on CD. Their installa-

tion program loads automatically when you boot the computer with the CD

in the drive. On newer machines, this process is not a problem (though you

might need to enter your BIOS setup program and select the CD drive as the

first bootable device). On older computers, this can be an issue because

some computers do not support a bootable CD drive. Another common

complaint with old secondhand computers is that the BIOS might be pass-

word-protected but no one knows the password. This means you can’t make

the CD drive the first boot device.

Many Linux distributions get around this problem by including a floppy-

disk boot image that you can use to create boot floppies. These floppies

“jump-start” the installation process and give access to the CD despite any

hardware shortcomings. The CDs usually include a tool called rawrite ...