Very Computer

Iteresting notes:
* I'm working from a RedHat 7.1 distribution.
* My computer is a new dual-P3 running Via's Apollo Pro 266 chipset with a
brand spanking new IBM 60 G hard drive.
* Any number of times I try running lilo from the command prompt there are
never any messages that would leave me to believe that there are any
problems (or disk geometry problems, for that matter).
* Because it seems to have solved so many other's problems, I've tried all
permutations of defining my drive geometry in lilo.conf with and without
'linear'.  Although it seems that 'linear' pre-empts the need for drive
geometry.  I've tried using the geometry on the drive as well as that
reported by fdisk from my rescue disk (both physical of 29437/16/255 and
logical 119150/16/63).
* I've tried monkeying with the size of the /boot partition from its
original size of 200M to a much smaller 32M.  Same problem.
* I've reinstalled the OS (yes, I know this is a crappy windows technique)
using my own partitions and the autoselected partitions but nothing has
changed.
* I tried playing around with rdev but don't really know what I'm doing.  It
hasn't affected things in any way. (but, as I said, I don't really have a
clue what's going on here.)

Can anyone give me some pointers of things that I haven't yet tried that I
should look into?  How can I coorce Lilo into giving me some more usefull
error/warning messages?  What drive geometry *should* I be using?  Does it
matter with 'linear' in lilo.conf?  Is there anything about my configuration
that might give problems?

Thanks in advance,
Scott

Had the same thing happen once, can't remember exactly how I cured it.
Please search web for documentation on Lilo, particularly RedHat's site.

Lilo uses a plain text configuration file (forget where), and when you make
changes to the number of hard drives you have, how you've arranged
partitions and mount points, etc., you need to rerun a special utility that
translates this text file to a compacted form for Lilo.  I forget all the
details.  But changing files like FSTAB and then rebooting is all she
wrote--that is
suicide.

Other possibility is that MBR is corrupted.  Forget how you restore that,
but I believe this is in LILO documentaiton, too.

Key for you is finding the LILO docs.  I forget where I found them.

You will need to restart your system as disaster recovery using either CD or
disk, then you can either refresh the MBR and/or run that special utility
that reads the LILO configuration file.  Then you'll be set.

Sorry I don't know details, has been so long.

Dave.

Quote:> Well, I've beat my head *y against the wall all afternoon trying to
> figure this one out for myself.  Lilo hangs at boot with the letters LI on
> the screen.  I've done a lot of reading so I think I have a fairly good
idea
> of why this is happening.  Yet, I still can't fix it.

> Iteresting notes:
> * I'm working from a RedHat 7.1 distribution.
> * My computer is a new dual-P3 running Via's Apollo Pro 266 chipset with a
> brand spanking new IBM 60 G hard drive.
> * Any number of times I try running lilo from the command prompt there are
> never any messages that would leave me to believe that there are any
> problems (or disk geometry problems, for that matter).
> * Because it seems to have solved so many other's problems, I've tried all
> permutations of defining my drive geometry in lilo.conf with and without
> 'linear'.  Although it seems that 'linear' pre-empts the need for drive
> geometry.  I've tried using the geometry on the drive as well as that
> reported by fdisk from my rescue disk (both physical of 29437/16/255 and
> logical 119150/16/63).
> * I've tried monkeying with the size of the /boot partition from its
> original size of 200M to a much smaller 32M.  Same problem.
> * I've reinstalled the OS (yes, I know this is a crappy windows technique)
> using my own partitions and the autoselected partitions but nothing has
> changed.
> * I tried playing around with rdev but don't really know what I'm doing.
It
> hasn't affected things in any way. (but, as I said, I don't really have a
> clue what's going on here.)

> Can anyone give me some pointers of things that I haven't yet tried that I
> should look into?  How can I coorce Lilo into giving me some more usefull
> error/warning messages?  What drive geometry *should* I be using?  Does it
> matter with 'linear' in lilo.conf?  Is there anything about my
configuration
> that might give problems?

> Thanks in advance,
> Scott

I recently purchased a Western Digital 30 Gb ATA-100 drive as a 2nd
drive on my system, to be connected to a Promise ATA-66 controller.

I found I had to use the provided Western Digital software to disable
ATA-100 mode and enable ATA-66, else I saw some strange things when
I tried to fdisk the drive.  No error messages, but fdisk didn't show
the LBA geometry as it does with the original drive.  (I never went as
far as installing Lilo before disabling ATA-100.)

Quote:> Well, I've beat my head *y against the wall all afternoon trying to
> figure this one out for myself.  Lilo hangs at boot with the letters LI on
> the screen.  I've done a lot of reading so I think I have a fairly good
idea
> of why this is happening.  Yet, I still can't fix it.

> Iteresting notes:
> * I'm working from a RedHat 7.1 distribution.
> * My computer is a new dual-P3 running Via's Apollo Pro 266 chipset with a
> brand spanking new IBM 60 G hard drive.
> * Any number of times I try running lilo from the command prompt there are
> never any messages that would leave me to believe that there are any
> problems (or disk geometry problems, for that matter).
> * Because it seems to have solved so many other's problems, I've tried all
> permutations of defining my drive geometry in lilo.conf with and without
> 'linear'.  Although it seems that 'linear' pre-empts the need for drive
> geometry.  I've tried using the geometry on the drive as well as that
> reported by fdisk from my rescue disk (both physical of 29437/16/255 and
> logical 119150/16/63).
> * I've tried monkeying with the size of the /boot partition from its
> original size of 200M to a much smaller 32M.  Same problem.
> * I've reinstalled the OS (yes, I know this is a crappy windows technique)
> using my own partitions and the autoselected partitions but nothing has
> changed.
> * I tried playing around with rdev but don't really know what I'm doing.
It
> hasn't affected things in any way. (but, as I said, I don't really have a
> clue what's going on here.)

> Can anyone give me some pointers of things that I haven't yet tried that I
> should look into?  How can I coorce Lilo into giving me some more usefull
> error/warning messages?  What drive geometry *should* I be using?  Does it
> matter with 'linear' in lilo.conf?  Is there anything about my
configuration
> that might give problems?

> Thanks in advance,
> Scott

I remember my problem--same thing "LI" then nothing.

I'm fairly sure this is an MBR problem.

Try using /sbin/lilo (you'll need the docs) to rewrite the MBR.

Dave.

LI The first stage boot loader was able to load the second stage
loot loader, but has failed to execute it. This can either be caused
by a geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without running the
map installer.

Good luck,
Jacob Joseph

Quote:> Well, I've beat my head *y against the wall all afternoon trying to
> figure this one out for myself.  Lilo hangs at boot with the letters LI on
> the screen.  I've done a lot of reading so I think I have a fairly good
idea
> of why this is happening.  Yet, I still can't fix it.

> Iteresting notes:
> * I'm working from a RedHat 7.1 distribution.
> * My computer is a new dual-P3 running Via's Apollo Pro 266 chipset with a
> brand spanking new IBM 60 G hard drive.
> * Any number of times I try running lilo from the command prompt there are
> never any messages that would leave me to believe that there are any
> problems (or disk geometry problems, for that matter).
> * Because it seems to have solved so many other's problems, I've tried all
> permutations of defining my drive geometry in lilo.conf with and without
> 'linear'.  Although it seems that 'linear' pre-empts the need for drive
> geometry.  I've tried using the geometry on the drive as well as that
> reported by fdisk from my rescue disk (both physical of 29437/16/255 and
> logical 119150/16/63).
> * I've tried monkeying with the size of the /boot partition from its
> original size of 200M to a much smaller 32M.  Same problem.
> * I've reinstalled the OS (yes, I know this is a crappy windows technique)
> using my own partitions and the autoselected partitions but nothing has
> changed.
> * I tried playing around with rdev but don't really know what I'm doing.
It
> hasn't affected things in any way. (but, as I said, I don't really have a
> clue what's going on here.)

> Can anyone give me some pointers of things that I haven't yet tried that I
> should look into?  How can I coorce Lilo into giving me some more usefull
> error/warning messages?  What drive geometry *should* I be using?  Does it
> matter with 'linear' in lilo.conf?  Is there anything about my
configuration
> that might give problems?

> Thanks in advance,
> Scott

My solution was born from a response to my original plea for help that
recommended I look into how the BIOS was addressing the hard drive.  I had
allowed my BIOS to "auto" select the access method and this was successful
only through installation. Obviously, I had problems with LILO from here on
out.

So, first I went back to change my BIOS from "auto" to "lba".  LILO then
correctly booted the system the first try.  Just for experimental purposes,
I then changed the BIOS from "lba" to "large".  The system would not boot.
I tried reinstalling the OS with "large" selected as the drive access
method.  Now RedHat would not install!  It gave me some bizarre message
(that I did not write down :( ) about there being no partition that it could
install to. It would not let me repartition or reformat the drive.

Back to the BIOS, I selected "lba".  Because I had made the existing
installation with "auto" selected, I decided to reinstall to be sure the
drive geometry matched the parition and format.  The installation was
successful, and the system is now running.

Thank you everyone for your many helpful replies!

Scott

Quote:> Well, I've beat my head *y against the wall all afternoon trying to
> figure this one out for myself.  Lilo hangs at boot with the letters LI on
> the screen.  I've done a lot of reading so I think I have a fairly good
idea
> of why this is happening.  Yet, I still can't fix it.

> Iteresting notes:
> * I'm working from a RedHat 7.1 distribution.
> * My computer is a new dual-P3 running Via's Apollo Pro 266 chipset with a
> brand spanking new IBM 60 G hard drive.
> * Any number of times I try running lilo from the command prompt there are
> never any messages that would leave me to believe that there are any
> problems (or disk geometry problems, for that matter).
> * Because it seems to have solved so many other's problems, I've tried all
> permutations of defining my drive geometry in lilo.conf with and without
> 'linear'.  Although it seems that 'linear' pre-empts the need for drive
> geometry.  I've tried using the geometry on the drive as well as that
> reported by fdisk from my rescue disk (both physical of 29437/16/255 and
> logical 119150/16/63).
> * I've tried monkeying with the size of the /boot partition from its
> original size of 200M to a much smaller 32M.  Same problem.
> * I've reinstalled the OS (yes, I know this is a crappy windows technique)
> using my own partitions and the autoselected partitions but nothing has
> changed.
> * I tried playing around with rdev but don't really know what I'm doing.
It
> hasn't affected things in any way. (but, as I said, I don't really have a
> clue what's going on here.)

> Can anyone give me some pointers of things that I haven't yet tried that I
> should look into?  How can I coorce Lilo into giving me some more usefull
> error/warning messages?  What drive geometry *should* I be using?  Does it
> matter with 'linear' in lilo.conf?  Is there anything about my
configuration
> that might give problems?

> Thanks in advance,
> Scott

Quote:>So, first I went back to change my BIOS from "auto" to "lba".  LILO then
>correctly booted the system the first try.  

--
Timothy Murphy  

tel: 086-233 6090
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

I NOMINATE YOU TO GO THROUGH THE SOURCE CODE AND MODIFY IT TO  TO GIVE
PROPER ERROR MESSAGES.  WE  WILL  ALL BE WAITING.

(Caps lock were on because I was shouting)

Quote:>/<

  (<nothing>)  No part of LILO has been loaded. LILO either isn't installed
    or the partition on which its boot sector is located isn't active.
   L <error> ...   The first stage boot loader has been loaded and started,
    but it can't load the second stage boot loader. The two-digit error
    codes indicate the type of problem. (See also section "Disk error
    codes".) This condition usually indicates a media failure or a geometry
    mismatch (e.g. bad disk parameters, see section "Disk geometry").
   LI   The first stage boot loader was able to load the second stage boot
    loader, but has failed to execute it. This can either be caused by a
    geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without running the map
    installer.
   LIL   The second stage boot loader has been started, but it can't load
    the descriptor table from the map file. This is typically caused by a
    media failure or by a geometry mismatch.
   LIL?   The second stage boot loader has been loaded at an incorrect
    address. This is typically caused by a subtle geometry mismatch or by
    moving /boot/boot.b without running the map installer.
   LIL-   The descriptor table is corrupt. This can either be caused by a
    geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/map without running the map
    installer.
   LILO   All parts of LILO have been successfully loaded.

This currectly points out geometry mismatch is one of the possible reasons.
Changing BIOS disk settings will in most cases cause geometry mismatch,
so if you change this you might need to completely blank the disk and
start with a fresh fdisk table.  

The file /usr/doc/HOWTO/mini/Large-Disk contains quite a lot of details
about disk geometry and how you can have several different disk geometries
in play at the same time, none of them reflecting the real physical disk
geometry.

Villy