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This is Slackware 14.1 but I don't think this question is specific to the distribution.
I managed to install Linux on my USB hard drive (1TB Toshiba), and also made it bootable. The bootloader is LILO. On my home machine (which is an Intel 64-bit motherboard), I set the BIOS to boot to the external drive and it boots fine. On my office machine, (which is ASUS 64-bit motherboard), it hangs with "LILO 99 99 99 ...". It also hangs on another 32-bit machine I tried it on. The BIOS are all of course different, but all the USB settings appear to be similar. I would appreciate any ideas on how to solve this.
The linux I installed is 32 bit. The problem I think is the boot sector. The stall with "LILO 99 99 99" usually indicates a corrupt boot sector. However, it boots fine on one machine and not on another. So there is probably something different about the sectors are being read on different platforms.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ondoho
i think you would have to create a linux install specifically with hardware compatibility in mind.
i take what you installed is indeed 32bit? 64bit install won't run on 32bit hardware.
i'm totally no expert in these things, but i think grub is more tolerant and better suited to adapt to different hardware.
or, at least it's easier to edit the command line.
I haven't used LILO in decades so I can't answer. I too might guess that lilo is the fault. Someone with lilo skills may be able to fix it. Grub2 ought to fix it as ondoho suggests.
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