LILO help <><><><><><>

LILO help <><><><><><>

Post by Jack_972_Plan » Sun, 31 Dec 1899 09:00:00



I just installed RH6 on a box that only had a 50MB DOS partition to
begin with.
During the RH install, I used Disk Druid to set up additional
partitions as follows:
/       ~1 GB
swap    ~40 MB
/usr    ~500 MB
/boot   ~10 MB

When prompted, I told it to install LILO into the "/boot" partition.

Upon restarting the system after the install, it booted into DOS again
from my origional active DOS partition.

I tried booting from the emergency rescue disk that I was prompted to
create during the install, but it gives me an error "0x10" and stops.

I can boot using the RH "boot.img" boot disk, hitting F4, and then
inserting the "rescue.img" disk made from dosutils on the RH CD, but I
have no idea what to do from there.

I want to make the thing boot with LILO and ask whether to start DOS or
boot Linux (as default). I realize now that I probably shoud've just
told it to install LILO into the MBR.

Please tell me there is an easy/painless way to get LILO to do this
without re-installing totally.

Please respond via Email to:  jack972 [<at>] netzero [<dot>] net

Many thanks!

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

 
 
 

LILO help <><><><><><>

Post by Timothy M Kon » Sun, 31 Dec 1899 09:00:00


There certainly is an easy/painless way to fix this, depending on your
partition setup, some details you didn't post in your original message.

You must make sure the /boot partition is set active.  You may do this with
linux OR DOS FDISK.  Provided that the /boot partition is not contained in
an extended partition, the DOS version should work fine (otherwise use the
linux one).  Just for example, mine is set up like this:
hda1 is Windows 7GB
hda2 is /boot 15MB
hda3 is a Linux extended partition containing
      hda5 is  /  (root) 1GB
      hda6 is linux swap 64MB
hda4 is another Windows partition, 972MB.

The reason mine is set up in such a strange way has to do with the /boot
partition (go figure!)  THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is that your /boot
partition sits on your disk BEFORE cylinder #1023 !  I didn't know what this
meant when I read it in the RedHat manual but I figured it out when I got to
Fdisk.  You should also be able to figure it out.

So, you should be able to boot by just making the partition active.  If that
doesn't work, you'll have to repartition (sorry!) with a similar scheme as
above, (any setup you want, as long as /boot resides before cylinder
#1023)...

You mentioned installing LILO into the MBR.  I haven't tried this but I
would imagine that it might be a bad idea (for my computer anyways) because
I'm not sure how easily it can be removed from the MBR...  Also, some BIOSs
don't like it if something messes with the MBR...

hope this helps  :)

-- Tim K.


Quote:> I just installed RH6 on a box that only had a 50MB DOS partition to
> begin with.
> During the RH install, I used Disk Druid to set up additional
> partitions as follows:
> /       ~1 GB
> swap    ~40 MB
> /usr    ~500 MB
> /boot   ~10 MB

> When prompted, I told it to install LILO into the "/boot" partition.

> Upon restarting the system after the install, it booted into DOS again
> from my origional active DOS partition.

> I tried booting from the emergency rescue disk that I was prompted to
> create during the install, but it gives me an error "0x10" and stops.

> I can boot using the RH "boot.img" boot disk, hitting F4, and then
> inserting the "rescue.img" disk made from dosutils on the RH CD, but I
> have no idea what to do from there.

> I want to make the thing boot with LILO and ask whether to start DOS or
> boot Linux (as default). I realize now that I probably shoud've just
> told it to install LILO into the MBR.

> Please tell me there is an easy/painless way to get LILO to do this
> without re-installing totally.

> Please respond via Email to:  jack972 [<at>] netzero [<dot>] net

> Many thanks!

> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.