Lilo clean up

[Earny]

I installed 9.2. Now at boot there are too many choices. I just want to have a choice between Limux, windows, floppy and failsafe. I want all other stuff (like linux old and windows2) to be removed. Because mandrake control centre didn't give me any clue,I tried to remove them using the boot manager of KDE (Configuration/KDE/System/Bootmanager I guess it's so in English). but although all changes were saved, after rebooting the same old messy boot page appeared again. What did I do wrong?

By the way after changing the settings the control indicated that the configuration was not allright, but that was also the case with the initial settings.

Thanks in advance

Earny

[tyme]

Mandrake Control Center -> Boot -> Drakboot -> Press the Configure button -> Click ok in the window that pops up -> you can use the next window to add/remove/modify the options that are presented at boot.

[Qchem]

I'd do it by hand - remove the offending sections (or perhaps comment them out) in /etc/lilo.conf

 

Don't forget to run lilo afterwards (probably just type lilo)

[Earny]

I followed tymes' advise, however, a popup appeared with the following text: "Fatal: kernel doesn support initial ramdisks"

What now? Will I ever be able to start up again?

[tyme]

hmm....interesting....do you get a graphical bootup?

[Earny]

If you mean the fancy lay-out of the boot from start? Yes. I just rebooted a couple of minutes ago to see if things still work. Everything works as before. I already made some changes using KDE. That could be the reason of the denial pop-up. My feeling is that I distorted the lilo config file.

Thanks in advance for all efforts

[chris:b]

Earny, would it help if I post here my lilo.config file, from a fresh 9.2 install?

 

lilo in MBR

Windows on hda1

9.2 on hda9

(German keyboard layout, though, just change it to us/Dutch :lol:, from your original lilo.config)

The last entry is for my 9.1 ML on hda8 - remove it.

 

 

you would have to edit your lilo.config, with the good partition number, your keyboard layout etc., your cd-rom etc.

 

boot=/dev/hda

map=/boot/map

vga=normal

default="linux"

keytable=/boot/de-latin1-nodeadkeys.klt

prompt

nowarn

timeout=400

message=/boot/message

menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="linux"

root=/dev/hda9

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht splash=silent"

vga=788

read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="linux-nonfb"

root=/dev/hda9

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

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

read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="failsafe"

root=/dev/hda9

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

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

read-only

other=/dev/hda1

label="windows"

table=/dev/hda

other=/dev/fd0

label="floppy"

unsafe

image=/mnt/mdkalt//boot/vmlinuz

label="mdkalt"

root=/dev/hda8

initrd=/mnt/mdkalt//boot/initrd.img

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

vga=788

read-only

[Cannonfodder]

Generally the only entries you need for a home installation would be..

 

 

boot=/dev/hda

map=/boot/map

vga=normal

default="linux"

keytable=/boot/de-latin1-nodeadkeys.klt

prompt

nowarn

timeout=400

message=/boot/message

menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw

image=/boot/vmlinuz

label="linux"

root=/dev/hda9

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht splash=silent"

vga=788

read-only

other=/dev/hda1

label="windows"

table=/dev/hda

 

Using anna's example, you can see I left behind the linux and windows entries. This means when you view lilo, you only have 2 selections. You can copy a backup of your lilo.conf with all the options in the event that you need it later.

 

After making changes, you need to type lilo at the prompt and look at the messages. SHould be

 

adding linux

adding windows

 

You have to edit the file /etc/lilo.conf and type lilo while logged in or su'ed as root.

[Earny]

This could help me. I'm writnig a new lilo.conf on the basis of the last message. In the existing one there is the following:

image="/boot/vmlinuz"

label="linux"

root=/dev/hda1

initrd="/boot/initrd.img"

append="quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda7 splash=silent"

vga=788

read-only

 

According to my system info my linux partition is hda6 instead of hda1. Should I change hda1 into hda6?

[Ixthusdan]

Yes, your root is on hda6, so change it.

[Earny]

And so I did, but wrongly. I first added another linux partition using partition magic under windows (wrong, I should have done that with mandrake) and in the end hda6 became hda7. I couldn't boot linux anymore, not even after the rescue attempt with the mandrake install cd 1 (kernel panic: again with that strange massage about the kernel). I saved my most relvant files with Knoppix 3.3. (always good to have in case of trouble). I was not able to edit the etc/lilo.conf file with Knoppix as it was only read only and I didn't have permission. (Does anyone know how to do that?). Tired of so many unthoughtful actions and fruitless efforts , I finally reinstalled mandrake 9.2. The good thing is that I managed to reduce my boot screen to more attractive dimensions and that I increased my linux knowledge. :lol: Thanks anyway for all efforts.