Cannot boot after installing Mandrake 9.2 (newbie)

[captainhaddock]

I took the plunge today and tried installing Mandrake 9.2 on the new hard disk I just added to my machine. The installation process went smoothly, but when I rebooted for the first time, "Lilo" or whatever that bootloader thing is called just gave me a screen full of 99s. "99 99 99 99 99 99 etc." [Grumble...My heart has little joy in it for Linux at the moment...]

 

I rebooted with the Mandrake CD and restored my Windows boot record (thank God, since I have months of work on that drive I can't afford to lose).

 

I don't want to screw with my MBR any more; how can I create a boot CD with a bootloader that will let me choose between Windows 2000 and Mandrake?

 

My computer configuration is as follows:

 

HD 1: NTFS partition with Win2K

 

HD 2: FAT32 partition for data, Ext3 partition with Mandrake 9.2 (I think)

 

I'd rather make a boot CD than a floppy, because my floppy drive is inside my tower, inaccessible (not enough bays on the front). I'd really appreciate any help; I've read the documentation on Lilo and Grub and I don't understand any of it.

 

If there is a safe way to get a dual-boot going without using a floppy or CD, I'd like to know that too.

 

Paul

[kazslo]

What worked for me to fix the L 99 99 problem was to set my hard drive mbr to LBA.

[captainhaddock]

Thanks for the reply, kazslo. You mean in the BIOS settings? I've tried both "normal" and "lba". Makes no difference.

 

Paul

[bvc]

Welcome to the board!

 

I rebooted with the Mandrake CD and restored my Windows boot record (thank God, since I have months of work on that drive I can't afford to lose).

no bkup b4 such an operation as another OS install? ;)

 

Personally I use grub, and the above error is the main reason why. I've even gotten it within the last six months as I did 2 years ago and still do not understand why it's mandrakes default when Red Hat, Debian, SuSE, Libranet and others use grub. Again, the above error is the main reason why.

 

the manual for lilo says (man lilo)

Install the yp-tools package if you need NIS client programs for machines

    "L"; when it is ready to transfer control to the second stage loader it

    types  the letter "I".  If any error occurs, like a disk read error, it

    will put out a hexadecimil error code, and  then  it  will  re-try  the

    operation. All hex error codes are BIOS return values, except for the

    lilo-generated 40, 99 and 9A.  A partial list of error codes follows:

 

              00  no error

              01  invalid disk command

              0A  bad sector flag

              0B  bad track flag

              20  controller failure

              40  seek failure (BIOS)

              40  cylinder>1023 (LILO)

              99  invalid second stage index sector (LILO)

              9A  no second stage loader signature (LILO)

              AA  drive not ready

              FF  sense operation failed

 

    Error code 40 is generated by the BIOS, or by LILO during  the  conver-

    sion  of a linear (24-bit) disk address to a geometric (C:H:S) address.

    On older systems which do not support lba32 (32-bit)  addressing,  this

    error  may  also  be  generated.  Errors 99 and 9A usually mean the map

    file (-m or map=) is not readable, likely because LILO was  not  re-run

    after some system change, or there is a geometry mis-match between what

    LILO used (lilo -v3 to display) and what is actually being used by  the

    BIOS (one of the lilo diagnostic disks, available in the source distri-

    bution, may be needed to diagnose this problem).

 

    When the second stage loader has received control from the first stage,

    it prints the letter "L", and when it has initialized itself, including

    verifying the "Descriptor Table" - the list of kernels/others to boot -

    it  will  print the letter "O", to form the full word "LILO", in upper-

    case.

 

    All second stage loader error messages are English  text,  and  try  to

    pinpoint, more or less successfully, the point of failure.

So, what does it mean? I d/k. It seems that 'most' never get it resolved.

 

Unfortunately, mandrake for the second time in a row has resleased a version where the bootfloppy is broken. Some have done it, I d/k how other than they have just the bootloader on the floppy and no kernel (as Debian does it). I don't use bootfloppies, so I can't help you there, sorry. There's a thread about it though.

 

A safe way?

grub

[captainhaddock]

Thanks for the info, bvc. If I have to install Mandrake all over just to try Grub, I think I'll can it and install something else. I tried installing Mandrake on two computers this weekend and neither installation worked; this is definitely not a distro that's ready for the desktop (my desktop, anyway).

 

Paul

[caddyman379]

just a quick comment, the first time i installed mandrake i made a partition for it and as far as booting went, lilo worked fine (except it wouldn't give me an option until i got into linux.) i finally ditched the linux's bootloaders and used paragon boot manager.

[bvc]

you mean you made a /boot partition? Bad IMO...I hate them...many use them....I've been told why but it doesn't make sense....it just confuses matters and the bootloaders :D

 

I know I'm going against about 90% on the linux community on that...but oh well, it's not the first time.

 

grub in the / partition in the default location (/boot/grub) never fails.