Lilo problem

[Guest john_lenin]

Hi,

 

I didn't really know where to post this so I decided to do it here.

 

I'm dual-booting 9.1 and Wyndoze XP Pro. I just recently reinstalled Mandrake due to a hardware problem. I want to boot into Wyndoze by default but I'm not able to change the Lilo config file. I tried doing so from KDE Control Center to no avail. What Control Center shows me as the boot order doesn't match what Lilo shows on startup. However Control Center does match with /etc/lilo.conf.

 

Here's my lilo.conf file:

 

boot=/dev/hda

map=/boot/map

default="Wyndoze"

keytable=/boot/us.klt

prompt

nowarn

timeout=5

message=/boot/message

menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw

 

image="/boot/vmlinuz"

label="Mandrake"

root="/dev/hda6"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off quiet"

vga=788

read-only

 

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="linux-nonfb"

root=/dev/hda6

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"

read-only

 

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="failsafe"

root=/dev/hda6

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off failsafe"

read-only

 

other=/dev/hda1

label="Wyndoze"

table=/dev/hda

 

image="/dev/hda1"

root="/dev/hda6"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off quiet"

 

TIA

[Steve Scrimpshire]

Looks like everything is correct. Maybe you didn't run the lilo command? Open a terminal and type

 

lilo -v [hit enter]

 

Then when you reboot, Windows should be default.

[Guest john_lenin]

Thank you Steve for your prompt reply. Running lilo -v didn't resolve the situation. This is what I got from lilo -v:

 

Reading boot sector from /dev/hda

Using GRAPHIC secondary loader

Calling map_insert_data

Mapping message file /boot/message -> message-graphic

Calling map_insert_file

 

Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.4.21-0.13mdk

Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd-2.4.21-0.13mdk.img

Added Mandrake

 

Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.4.21-0.13mdk

Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd-2.4.21-0.13mdk.img

Added linux-nonfb

 

Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.4.21-0.13mdk

Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd-2.4.21-0.13mdk.img

Added failsafe

 

Boot other: /dev/hda1, on /dev/hda, loader CHAIN

Added Wyndoze *

 

Boot image: /dev/hda1 -> ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1

Fatal: Kernel doesn't support initial RAM disks

 

Thanks

[Steve Scrimpshire]

Try this. I don't know why your default kernel doesn't support initial ramdisks, though. (Be warned....you may have to go to rescue mode with CD1 if I'm wrong and fix lilo.)

 

Edit the lilo.conf file with gedit or vim if you know how. You have to do this as root. gedit is easiest (or kwrite) and put a # in front of every "initrd=blah..."

 

then save it and go to the command line again and type lilo -v.

 

You then shouldn't get any errors and Windows should be default.

[Guest john_lenin]

Well... commenting out the lines containing initrd=/boot/initrd.img in lilo.conf killed Lilo. My machine does boot directly into Wyndoze however without the option of booting into Mandrake. Back to CD 1 :)

 

Maybe I should try Grub instead?

 

Thanks for your help.

[Steve Scrimpshire]

Hmmmm...that is weird. You can try Grub if you want, but maybe just reinstalling lilo in rescue mode will do the trick. You may have to uncomment those lines again. I'm at a loss as to what is going wrong.

[Guest john_lenin]

Just to follow up... I'm reinstalling Mandrake right now. The rescue option did not work.

[Steve Scrimpshire]

Uh-oh. Sorry. There's no reason it should've come to that. :shock:

[SoulSe]

I know this might be dumb (and too late), but did you run lilo as root?

 # lilo -v

You probably did, since you edited the lilo.conf file, which you can only do as root.

[Cannonfodder]

What is this?

 

image="/dev/hda1"  

root="/dev/hda6"  

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"  

append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off quiet"

 

Why is it there? hda1 is your windows right? I don't think you need this. Just comment it out with # symbols

 

#image="/dev/hda1"

#root="/dev/hda6"

#initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

#append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off quiet"

 

You can also remove the other entries such as linux-nonfb and failsafe. Never used them myself..

[wrc1944]

I thought the first image stanza in the list and the "default=" line had to be the same.

In other words, if you want windows to be the default OS, it's stanza should be first in the lilo list.

 

Your lilo's first image stanza is:

 

image="/boot/vmlinuz"

label="Mandrake"

root="/dev/hda6"

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off quiet"

vga=788

read-only

 

This would explain why it's still the default at boot, even if your default= line refers to windows. Try moving (inserting) the windows stanza to the top position the "Mandrake" stanza now occupies, and reboot.( Of course, don't delete the Mandrake stanza).

 

wrc1944 :wink: