mtweidmann Posted August 19, 2003 Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 I'm trying to help a friend from Uni install Mandrake on his machine, but we're having problems with Lilo. Everything originally installed properly, but then Simon played with lilo and so it booted striaght into Linux (no menu). We're tried fixing this from MDK Control Centre, but it made no difference. Then we're tried formating the MBR, booting using rescue mode on the DVD, and re-installing lilo. No joy, now boots straight in Windows (no lilo at all) so we can't boot Linux. There are two HDs in the machine the first (hda) has two FAT32 partitions, and the second (HDB) has Linux on. The /boot partition is hdb7. And this is what was in lilo.conf before clearing the mbr. boot=/dev/hdb7 map=/boot/map vga=normal default="linux" keytable=/boot/uk.klt prompt nowarn timeout=1000 message=/boot/message menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw image="/boot/vmlinuz" label="linux" root="/dev/hdb1" initrd="/boot/initrd.img" append="devfs=mount hdd=ide-scsi acpi=off" read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label="failsafe" root=/dev/hdb1 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdd=ide-scsi acpi=off" read-only other=/dev/hda1 label="windows" table=/dev/hda other=/dev/fd0 label="floppy" unsafe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MottS Posted August 19, 2003 Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 Hi mtweidmann Here is what I would do with your problem. 1) Boot cd1 of Mandrake 9.1 (your dvd should do the trick) 2) After the boot, press F1 and type 'rescue' 3) At the menu, select 'Go to console' 4) At the console, mount your partition on with lilo.conf reside. That should look like that: mount -t reiserfs /dev/hdb1 /mnt/disk 5) Change the root directory as follow chroot /mnt/disk /bin/bash 6) Edit lilo so that you install Lilo in the MBR of the FIRST HD (boot=/dev/hda and NOT boot=/dev/hdb7). Something like that: vga=normalmessage=/boot/message boot=/dev/hda prompt map=/boot/map timeout=1000 default="linux" keytable=/boot/uk.klt nowarn menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw image="/boot/vmlinuz" label="linux" root="/dev/hdb1" initrd="/boot/initrd.img" append="devfs=mount hdd=ide-scsi acpi=off" read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label="failsafe" root=/dev/hdb1 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdd=ide-scsi acpi=off" read-only other=/dev/hda1 label="windows" table=/dev/hda other=/dev/fd0 label="floppy" unsafe 7) Now run Lilo at the console and see if there is any error. lilo -v 8 ) Type 'exit' to exit the temporary chrooted environment and 'reboot' to .. hum .. reboot. You should see lilo now =) HTH MOttS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtweidmann Posted August 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 Thanks, we'll try it out. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon_c Posted August 19, 2003 Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 Hello, *first post, wow!* I had to replace Mount –t reiserfs With Mount –t ext2 … Then it mounted. Used emacs to change etc/lilo.conf so it is boot=/dev/hda now. When I check with lilo –v, it comes up with Fatal: open /boot/message: no such file or directory. (Also, after I have saved and “exited” emacs, I can type at the prompt, but the characters aren’t displayed and the results are displayed all screwy.) :( Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted August 19, 2003 Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 you can do one of two things: either remove the message=/boot/message line as you really don't need it or create a file named message in boot with something you want to be printed out before the lilo screen. that is, the line message=<somefile> points lilo to a file containing a message to be printed out before the lilo prompt at bootup. it's not needed for lilo to function-so you can safely remove this line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon_c Posted August 19, 2003 Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 Wow! Thanks for your help: I commented out the message= statement, but then found it failed on the next file it tried to access from the /boot partition. I “ls”ed in the boot directory, but found nothing was there. So, I asked the “rescue” menu to restore the bootloader…. I reset, and the text-bootloader menu came up (long time no see)! Now, back in linux :D I’ve reselected “graphical menu” for lilo and restarted, and all is ok again. Problem was that one line in the lilo.conf file: boot=*something_other_than_hda* :blush: Thanks again!! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MottS Posted August 19, 2003 Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 GOOD! In your original lilo.conf you have boot=/dev/hdb7 while you should install lilo in /dev/hda. This is why it didn't work. For the 'nothing in /boot' ... did you create a seperate /boot partition when you first install MDK? I guess this is why you got the fatar error. You actually had to mount it in the chrooted environment. MOttS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted August 19, 2003 Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 glad we could be of service simon_c, and btw, welcome to the board! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon_c Posted August 19, 2003 Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 Thanks everyone! Its now the 4th day with linux for me, and I doubt I'll ever try and live life without it now!! lol! Your friend forever (and that applies to all of you!) Si :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
static Posted August 20, 2003 Report Share Posted August 20, 2003 Hey! Great to have you - obviously you now know you can come here for any problem you run into, and hopefully we can help you out. Remember: you can visit and chat anytime - not just when something goes screwy ('cause you'll find that doesn't happen too often ;) ) Welcome to a greater world! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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