multi boot between 2 partitions

I have plain WB 3.1 & WB 3.9 with all eye-candy in two separate partitions.

How do I choose which partition to boot ?

Thanks!

[Akira]

ON boot up hold down both mouse buttons. Then choose the partition you want to boot from in Boot Options.

[ancalimon]

That's a bit cumbersome.

[lifeschool]

I use DoJob to select which startup sequence file is used to boot using the kickstart number as the prime variable. My Startup-sequence looks like this:



My boot partition is DH1: (which in fact contains all versions of WB, not just the ones listed), and DH0: is used for non workbench files (games, music, demos, pics) and is NON bootable. If this startup finds kickstart 3.1 or higher it goes into WB3.9. If it finds kickstart 2.0 to 3.0 it goes into workbench 3.1. While running kickstart 1.3 (V34) results in the machine booting workbench 1.3 etc. May be of use to you?

Akira's solution is the simplest.

[lifeschool]

^ No problem.

[daxb]

You can use ChangeBootPri. If you make a small DOS Script with a reset command at the end you have an automatic bootselection from WB/CLI/...

[orange]

iirc, there is a utility that tests if mouse button is on. you can use that in startup sequence to select WB. another option is to use setkey and select it with a keystroke.

[Akira]

Originally Posted by orange

iirc, there is a utility that tests if mouse button is on. you can use that in startup sequence to select WB.

None of these options work well for what the original poster asked.
He has two systems in different PARTITIONS, meaning that if he used a shell script to choose between both, he'd have to do a mammoth work of re-assigning every necessary path to the corresponding drive each time he boots. A pain in the blimming ass. I've done it for making systems that "boot off" a card in the PCMCIA port, but it's not convenient and I only did it because it was the only way to do so since that volume is not bootable..

Now changing the boot priority would do so but would in the end take more time. I would also be worried about a shell command changing something low level like teh boot priority of my hard drive partition.

By the way, how is leaving two mouse buttons pressed then selecting a partition a "cumbersome" method?

[Bamiga2002]

Originally Posted by retro_junkie

Akira's solution is the simplest.

But not the best one, especially if you have BlizKick or similar that needs to reboot. I have a "changebootpri" -script to control booting, read here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?p=543965

If you need help setting it up I can help

[lifeschool]

Originally Posted by Akira

he'd have to do a mammoth work of re-assigning every necessary path to the corresponding drive each time he boots.

Yeah, but it's not so hard really:

Assign sys: dh0: (i.e. workbench 3.1)
Execute sys:s/startup-sequence

or

Assign sys: dh1: (i.e. workbench 3.9)
Execute sys:s/startup-sequence

...although I agree that it's not useful for novices. There are loads of GUI boot selectors on the Aminet which offer even easier options.

[Akira]

Originally Posted by lifeschool

Yeah, but it's not so hard really:

No, it's just inconvenient when you can just hold teh mouse buttons down

[code]Assign sys: dh0: (i.e. workbench 3.1)
Execute sys:s/startup-sequence

Hmm are you sure that would do it? What about C and S and the others? I never tried, hence why I ask.

[daxb]

If SYS: is clear then it should work. I don`t know if the boot partition become SYS or always the first partition? If you have differnt OS on one partition you need all the assign stuff but there is an example script on the OS3 disks.