Very Computer

I have bios that allows to specify what order the boot must be attempted in.
I have run lilo to install boot sectors on both /dev/hda AND /dev/sda
(I have a scsi and an ide disk in my box)

Whenever the boot order is ide then scsi the kernel boots

Whenever scsi is before ide in boot sequenece I get L 80 80
which 80 printed across the screen indefinitely.

What does this message mean?

Quote:> I have bios that allows to specify what order the boot must be
> attempted in. I have run lilo to install boot sectors on both
> /dev/hda AND /dev/sda (I have a scsi and an ide disk in my box)

> Whenever the boot order is ide then scsi the kernel boots

> Whenever scsi is before ide in boot sequenece I get L 80 80
> which 80 printed across the screen indefinitely.

> What does this message mean?

Try:
/usr/share/doc/packages/lilo/README

Or/and a google search on the topic.

Michael Heiming
--
Remove the +SIGNS case mail bounces.

It means you must not change the boot order, because it changes the drive
identifiers in Linux.

--
Paul Lutus
www.arachnoid.com

Paul,
How come? Because he has one SCSI and one IDE disk, they'd remain
/dev/hda and /dev/sda, wouldn't they?

If you mean something like Disk 1 and Disk 2, (or Disk C: and Disk D:)
wouldn't the BIOS settings change the order in the appropriate way?

Actually, most PC BIOS's insist on booting from the IDE disk if one exists,
no matter what the SCSI adapter might say.

..... ( Or am I missing something? )

C357400,
Are you installing the lilo boot sectors in the MBR of each drive, or in the
boot sector of the boot/root partition of each drive? Is lilo.conf set up
properly so that the correct kernel image is loaded?(i.e. is the kernel
named correctly and where lilo.conf says it is?)

Actually, what I'd do is to leave my BIOS alone, set up lilo so that the
boot sector is put on the MBR of the IDE disk and then select which disk I
wanted to boot using lilo's boot-select capability at boot-up time.

Jack
--
semper ubi sub ubi

No, not remotely.

Quote:

> If you mean something like Disk 1 and Disk 2, (or Disk C: and Disk D:)
> wouldn't the BIOS settings change the order in the appropriate way?

No, not remotely.

Quote:

> Actually, most PC BIOS's insist on booting from the IDE disk if one
> exists, no matter what the SCSI adapter might say.

> ..... ( Or am I missing something? )

Yes. The OP doesn't have to rearrange the boot order to accomplish what he
wants in any case.

--
Paul Lutus
www.arachnoid.com

Almost right.  The change is in the BIOS, and the change is to the BIOS device
codes:   0x80 <--> 0x81.

LILO references the set of device codes which are established at boot-time.
If the device codes are changed, then booting will be affected.

--John

MBr. /dev/hda on ide and /dev/sda on scsi
All I do is flip one letter in lilo.conf and run lilo -v -v -v

I get this when I use /dev/sda:

LILO version 22.2, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2001 John Coffman
Released 05-Feb-2002 and compiled at 19:48:58 on Feb 10 2002.
MAX_IMAGES = 27

raid_setup returns offset = 00000000
Reading boot sector from /dev/sda
Warning: /dev/sda is not on the first disk
Merging with /boot/boot.b
bios_dev:  device 0801
bios_dev:  masked device 0800, which is /dev/sda
bios_dev: geometry check found 0 matches
bios_dev: PT match found 1 match (0x81)
Device 0x0801: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 17432 cylinders,
                32 sectors. Partition offset: 32 sectors.
Secondary loader: 12 sectors.
bios_dev:  device 0801
bios_dev:  masked device 0800, which is /dev/sda
bios_dev: geometry check found 0 matches
bios_dev: PT match found 1 match (0x81)
Device 0x0801: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 17432 cylinders,
                32 sectors. Partition offset: 32 sectors.
Boot image: /boot/bzImageCRYPTO
bios_dev:  device 0801
bios_dev:  masked device 0800, which is /dev/sda
bios_dev: geometry check found 0 matches
bios_dev: PT match found 1 match (0x81)
Device 0x0801: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 17432 cylinders,
                32 sectors. Partition offset: 32 sectors.
Setup length is 10 sectors.
Mapped 2788 sectors.
Added crypto *
     <dev=0xe1,hd=14,cyl=49,sct=104>
     "root=801"

Boot image: /boot/bzImageEXT3
bios_dev:  device 0801
bios_dev:  masked device 0800, which is /dev/sda
bios_dev: geometry check found 0 matches
bios_dev: PT match found 1 match (0x81)
Device 0x0801: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 17432 cylinders,
                32 sectors. Partition offset: 32 sectors.
Setup length is 5 sectors.
Mapped 2509 sectors.
Added allfs
     <dev=0xe1,hd=14,cyl=49,sct=198>
     "root=801"

Boot image: /boot/bzImageU3W
bios_dev:  device 0801
bios_dev:  masked device 0800, which is /dev/sda
bios_dev: geometry check found 0 matches
bios_dev: PT match found 1 match (0x81)
Device 0x0801: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 17432 cylinders,
                32 sectors. Partition offset: 32 sectors.
Setup length is 5 sectors.
Mapped 2151 sectors.
Added u3w
     <dev=0xe1,hd=14,cyl=49,sct=233>
     "root=801"

/boot/boot.0800 exists - no backup copy made.
Map file size: 45056 bytes.
Writing boot sector.

Which looks allright to me....

Quote:

> Actually, what I'd do is to leave my BIOS alone, set up lilo so that the
> boot sector is put on the MBR of the IDE disk and then select which disk I
> wanted to boot using lilo's boot-select capability at boot-up time.

That's what I currently do. I just wanted a bit of redundancy for a piece of mind.

I'll be checking lilo README sometime soon per earlier suggestion.

Due to broken BIOS code! Below seems to bear this out. Note the warning
about 'not on 1st disk'.

Quote:> Reading boot sector from /dev/sda
> Warning: /dev/sda is not on the first disk
> bios_dev:  device 0801
> bios_dev:  masked device 0800, which is /dev/sda
> bios_dev: geometry check found 0 matches
> bios_dev: PT match found 1 match (0x81)

Note the 0x81 in the line above. The bios is saying that /dev/sda is the
second disk(0x81). If this is the result when you are using /dev/hda as the
first disk, then it is what I would have expected.  If you have setup the
bios so you think the bios should be pointing to the SCSI drive as the new
first disk(0x80), then it didn't work.

This is probably what Paul meant when he said:

Quote:>>>It means you must not change the boot order, because it changes the drive
>>>identifiers in Linux.

I have never tried this, and I really doubt very much it will work due to my
reasoning above about broken BIOS boot code; but it might be worth an
experiment:
Set the bios so that it thinks the SCSI drive is the boot disk (Ox80). At
this point you won't be able to boot the SCSI drive directly. You will have
to boot using a floppy into the SCSI root. Then do the lilo install to the
SCSI mbr while the BIOS thinks the SCSI drive is (0x80).

Quote:> > Actually, what I'd do is to leave my BIOS alone, set up lilo so that the
> > boot sector is put on the MBR of the IDE disk and then select which disk I
> > wanted to boot using lilo's boot-select capability at boot-up time.

> That's what I currently do. I just wanted a bit of redundancy for a piece
> of mind.

I still believe your current method is the best one. (KISS)

Just rearrange your lilo.conf if you want the SCSI root to be the default.

Jack
--
semper ubi sub ubi

Quote:> I have never tried this, and I really doubt very much it will work
> due to my reasoning above about broken BIOS boot code; but it
> might be worth an experiment:
> Set the bios so that it thinks the SCSI drive is the boot disk
> (Ox80). At this point you won't be able to boot the SCSI drive
> directly. You will have to boot using a floppy into the SCSI root.
> Then do the lilo install to the SCSI mbr while the BIOS thinks the
> SCSI drive is (0x80).

You can rearange bios disk via /etc/lilo.conf easily,
this is from the box, I'm currently typing:

[..]
boot    = /dev/sda
        disk    = /dev/sda
        bios    = 0x80
        disk    = /dev/sdb
        bios    = 0x81
        disk    = /dev/sdc
        bios    = 0x82
        disk    = /dev/hda
        bios    = 0x83
[..]

man lilo.conf

Michael Heiming
--
Remove the +SIGNS case mail bounces.

It works!

/ ...

Quote:>> You can rearange bios disk via /etc/lilo.conf easily,
>> this is from the box, I'm currently typing:

>> [..]
>> boot    = /dev/sda
>>         disk    = /dev/sda
>>         bios    = 0x80
>>         disk    = /dev/sdb
>>         bios    = 0x81
>>         disk    = /dev/sdc
>>         bios    = 0x82
>>         disk    = /dev/hda
>>         bios    = 0x83
>> [..]

>> man lilo.conf

>> Michael Heiming
>> --
>> Remove the +SIGNS case mail bounces.

> It works!

Yep, it works. And you could have avoided the entire soap opera by not
reordering your drives in BIOS.

--
Paul Lutus
www.arachnoid.com