Help: LILO refueses to install, Red Hat 5.2

by John Qui » Tue, 09 Feb 1999 04:00:00

When trying to install Linux Red Hat 5.2,
Lilo refused to install and comes up with
an error and i have to skip this part of
the istallation. In the mean time I am using the
resucue disk I created during installation
to start Linux.

I have 2 Linux native partions and a linux swap
file. I used the linux fdisk and put the boot flag
on the first partion.

Linux is the only operating system on my Maxtor hd.

My setup is as follows:

Maxtor 5.0gb hd
Aopen AX6B MB
128 mb pc100 sdram
Pentium II 400
Matrox Millenium G200 AGP 8mb
AWE 64 sound card
Creative 5x DVD
Syquest Sparq 1.0gb
Rockwell Modem Internal

So far I have not seen any information
in the Howto Manuals or any posts on why
this problem may occur or how to fix it.

I would be grateful if any one who is smart enough,
could figure this one out.

Thanks

John

Top

1. Red Hat 5.2 Loadlin HOWTO (WAS: Can't install LILO from RH 5.2)

: Everything else seems to go well, until the very last step. I just cannot
: get LILO to install properly. It gives me an error message and lets me keep
: retying, but to no avail.

First, make sure to fix your MBR which can normally be done with DOS Fdisk
and "fdisk /mbr".

Welcome to the Bad BIOS Club! There is a solution. Install again, but this
time, make a small DOS partition that is the primary and is bootable.
Partition the rest to taste for Linux. Install normally until the LILO
part. When you get to that part, make the LILO floppy, then SHUT THE
COMPUTER OFF!!!!! Note that the next time you boot after that wanton
killing of the computer, you may have a fucked up the filesystem. In any
case, Linux will run fsck to fix it if it can.

With the LILO floppy, boot. On the CD you will find DOS utilities. Get a
DOS boot floppy and put Loadlin on it with a copy of your kernel. On the
DOS boot floppy, you will need a zero-byte CONFIG.SYS, FORMAT.COM,
EDIT.COM LOADLIN.EXE, and the kernel.

Now, with this DOS boot disk, slip it into the floppy drive and boot. Upon
booting, format /s that DOS partition. Then copy the files from the DOS
boot disk onto the hard drive. Next, using the editor, make an
AUTOEXEC.BAT with this line:

loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 ro

Of course, for the Linux root partition, use your exact partition and to
use the filename with the kernel. The above is my standard Loadlin setup
line. Now, with this ready, hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE and watch as your
Loadlin-booted Linux box comes to life!

My normal procedure for partitioning a hard drive is for the first
partition to be a primary, partition 4 is the extended and all subsequent
partitions logical drives. Using Loadlin, this has always worked. It's
most likely not critical to do it this way. Rather, it's just my habit. :)

During the install, you can opt to mount the Loadlin partition or not. I
choose to mount it on /lightoff or on dual-boot boxes as /dos. I also
habitually make one small ext2 partition to mount under /the/x/files. You
can partition to your liking, of course. :)

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