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LILO problem


liquidzoo
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Ok, here's what we've got. LILO was changed somehow, don't know how. Now only Mandrake will boot, Win2k will not.

 

Here's /etc/lilo.conf:

 

# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

boot=/dev/hda
default="262-3"
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/hda5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hda5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6
label="262-3"
root=/dev/hda5
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hda5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6 devfs=nomount"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="windows"
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/hdb1
label="windows2"
table=/dev/hdb
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe

 

This part of the code:

 

map-drive=0x80

to=0x81

map-drive=0x81

to=0x80

 

confuses the hell out of me.

 

Just for kicks, here's the fstab:

 

/dev/hda5 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,noauto,ro,umask=0,exec 0 0
/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom2 auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,noauto,ro,umask=0,exec 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs nls=iso8859-1,ro,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/win_c2 ntfs nls=iso8859-1,ro,umask=0 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0

 

Can anyone see anything I missed to get windows booting on this system?

 

We've tried the Win2k rescue console and the fixboot, fixmbr commands. Tried reinstalling lilo both from cd and from cooker urpmi. Nothing has worked.

 

As I said, this is not for me, but any help that anyone can give would be greatly appreciated. I do not want him to give up on Mandrake, or Linux in general.

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any errors? like ntldr not found? I'm sure I won't be much help. Everythime I've gotten that I ended up reinstalling. There's apparently ways to fix things from win-cli but I just assume reinstall than re-learn that crap :lol:

 

The map switch is just to fool win into thinking it's on the master. Everything looks rt to me but I'm not a lilo expert (as if anyone is).

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I guess the first thing to do is to see if the win_c works independant of lilo. So make sure bios is pointing to hda as the boot and also restore the boot loader. Several ways..

 

1. Try

 

lilo -U

 

or if that doesn't work,

 

2. Go to www.bootdisk.com and see if you can find a boot disk or mbr restore.

 

3. Try to find a win98 boot floppy and use

 

fdisk /mbr

 

to restore the mbr.

 

If you can then boot into it, then you know that the problem is lilo related, otherwise, you will not be sure..

 

You can also backup your lilo.conf, and remove all the extra entries. Just leave one entry for linux and one entry for the first windows. Simplify it. Try that. Does it work? No? Try removing the mapdrive stuff. I don't have that but you might need it. My windows is in hda1.

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Hey folks! I'm the one with the problem. Thanks for your help...

Well Cannonfodder, I tried your suggestion with simplifying lilo.conf and there was absolutely no change. I haven't gotten a chance to access a windows machine to make a win98 bootdisk yet.

 

Windows is on my primary HDD. And how could my bios do anything?

This all worked before I used the drake utility to change the default boot to the 2.6.3 kernel:P

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Well, I tried the win 98 fdisk /mbr...got a "no operating system found" error.....then attempted to run the recovery console for win2k and it wouldn't even let me...just said "no operating system found" again.

 

Reinstalled lilo, linux boots but windows does not, like before.

 

Can I reinstall windows without removing mandrake?

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The win98 fdisk /mbr command installs a simple mbr that goes to the primary hard drive's first partition.. doesn't matter if its win2000 or whatever. Basically you are replacing lilo's mbr with a simple mbr.

 

The fact that it is not booting means something is up with your win partition or your partition table.

 

Now verify that hda1 contains your windows files. Boot off of CD1, hit F1, type rescue. At the menu select go to console (I think).

 

Now type

 

mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt

cd /mnt

 

You should see your windows files.. if its a fat32, then use vfat instead of ntfs in the above command.

 

type

 

ls to see your files.

 

If you can't or can't mount it, then something is wrong..

 

Assuming that you can't see your files, now verify where your linux partitions are.. is it possible you replaced your windows partitions with linux partitions?

 

If so, you may want to totally delete all partitions and start from scratch. Think of it as an oppportunity to redesign your partition layout as you would like it... I've been there a few times :)

 

Additionally, once you have installed both windows and linux. You MUST NOT use the windows disk manager to make any partition modifications. By this I mean, add/modify/delete partitions. It can scrag your partition table easily. Is it possible you did this after installing linux?

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This part of the code:

 

map-drive=0x80

to=0x81

map-drive=0x81

to=0x80

 

confuses the hell out of me.

 

This code is necessary to boot Windows from a disk which is not the primary.

The map command makes Windows believe it is booting from the primary (Windows can only boot from the primary). If you changed your disk configuration (e.g. moved the Windows disk to the primary channel), then you must remove it I believe.

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that map code was for my secondary HDD which I have disconnected during this process. I removed the entry.

 

the windows NTFS partition is fully mountable and readable from linux. I did not move any partitions at all. could MCC have done it? all I did was change lilo from MCC to boot a different kernel. I understand lilo can change windows drive letters or something to render a windows installation invalid? thats the message I get when reinstalling LILO from the mdk rescue, but it gives me no other option. Besides, I didn't do that when the initial problems started (at least I didn't manually).

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