Not dumb at all... ;-)
But if the problem is OtherOS support on Evilnat's CFW, it might be easier to beg
@Evilnat to add OtherOS support to his CFW & patches that could be installed with xai_plugin (cfw toolset on xmb) instead of the Rebug Toolbox. Even if he is busy & it takes a few weeks waiting for it, for you it will be much better all round than juggling with firmwares. You are not the first person asking so obviously there is some interest which imho is only limited by the fact that there is no modern Linux distro available & if we wish to see a more modern Linux distro on ps3 at some point, we can always hope lol, we should give users the means to boot Linux easily on 4.88 CFW anyway. Come to think of it, this stuff should probably have been added to the xai_plugin project ages ago actually.
Anyway regarding dual boot, I can suggest 2 ways to set DB on a NOR console, on nand consoles it's more problematic.
1. Using a hardware flasher setup such as a E3 flasher with an external sata disk. It's the most practical way (and the safest) but it requires extra hardware.
2. Using the PS3 Toolset in the browser to rewrite the NOR ros regions everytime you wish to swap firmware. It is not as straightforward as the hardware flasher setup but it works. You would just need to rewrite the flash memory with ps3 Toolset then shutdown the console & swap the internal hdd. You would need one internal hdd & a "patch" to apply for each firmware.
The patch is quite easily produced. Here is how:
A) You would install ofw 4.88 on a specific internal hdd (we will call it, the ofw hdd), once done, use the ps3 toolset to dump CoreOS as a custom patch file & store it somewhere. We will call it the ofw patch.
B)Use the Toolset to download the official no-fsm patch, store it somewhere. We will call that one the official patch.
C) Apply the official patch with the Toolset & shutdown the console.
D) Swap the hdd, insert what we will call the cfw hdd. Boot & install the CFW.
E) After installation & reboot, load the Toolset again & dump CoreOS as a custom patch file, we will call it the cfw patch.
F) The dual boot installation procedure is complete. Now you have 2 hdds & 2 custom patches to use, the ofw patch & the cfw patch.
All you have to do when you want to change firmware is to load the Toolset, apply the custom patch corresponding to the firmware you wish to use, shutdown the console, swap the internal hdd to match the firmware & boot. Voilà.
In the future, I am planning to improve the Flash Memory Manager one step further, it will no longer patch the 2 ros regions but only the inactive region then if the patching is verified & validated, FMM will toggle the active region.
This way, there will be no brick possible, even if there was a power outage during the flashing process.
As a bonus, being able to switch between ros regions will mean that patching the Flash memory will no longer be needed to switch firmware in dual boot installations.
Alternatively you could also use only one hard drive & simply install ofw or cfw on it every time you need to switch firmware type. When swapping, you would lose any customisations made with CFW but if that's no issue for you, it is an option.
The PS3 Toolset allows you to jailbreak at will when required or you can use a patched OFW DB PUP which is OFW with minimal patch to allow CFW reinstallation without having to go through the jailbreak process.
@littlebalup usually releases OFW DB pup files after each update, iirc there is one for 4.88.
Note that with all the methods I just described, I assumed that both the ofw & cfw firmwares are the same version.
A dual boot system with 2 different versions may be more problematic to setup, some of the above may not work, extra steps would be needed.
So in your case, that may be an issue.
Also keep in mind that patching the Flash memory should never be done casually, there is always a risk of power outage or user error that could lead to bricking & requiring a hardware flasher to revive the console.
