upgraded Mandrake 9.0 -> 9.1 now has extra boot options?

King V · 08-07-2003, 09:37 PM

All,

Ok, after doing serious harm to my Mandrake 9.0 install, I opted to upgrade to 9.1

Now, for whatever reason, the installation, when I chose upgrade, decided to give me the graphical LILO instead of the text-LILO I once had.

I know how to change this via drakconf, but how do I change it "by hand"? That is, what files affect this, and what parts of said files are specific to the type of bootloader in this way?

Also, while I previously had the options of Windows, Linux, Linux-fb, and Failsafe, now I have a few extras...namely Floppy, Old-Linux, and 2419-16.

But a bunch of them seem to refer to the same thing....

Here's my /etc/lilo.conf PRIOR to my upgrade:

Code:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
default=windows
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
ignore-table
image=/boot/vmlinuz
        label=linux
        root=/dev/hdb1
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img
        append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
        read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
        label=linux-fb
        root=/dev/hdb1
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img
        append="quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
        vga=788
        read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
        label=failsafe
        root=/dev/hdb1
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img
        append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi"
        read-only
other=/dev/hda1
        label=windows
        table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/fd0
        label=floppy
        unsafe

And here it is now:

Code:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=menu
vga=normal
default="windows"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
        label="linux"
        root=/dev/hdb1
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img
        append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
        read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.19-16mdk
        label="linux-fb"
        root=/dev/hdb1
        initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.19-16mdk.img
        append="quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
        vga=788
        read-only
other=/dev/hda1
        label="windows"
        table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/fd0
        label="floppy"
        unsafe
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.19-16mdk
        label="old_linux"
        root=/dev/hdb1
        initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.19-16mdk.img
        append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
        read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.19-16mdk
        label="2419-16"
        root=/dev/hdb1
        initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.19-16mdk.img
        append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
        read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
        label="failsafe"
        root=/dev/hdb1
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img
        append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
        read-only

Now I'm pretty sure I can get rid of the items I didn't have before, as my new install with 9.1 works fine. However, the fact that Linux and Linux-fb point to different things whereas before they pointed to the same thing bothers me a bit....

Further, with all this info regarding previous installs . . are there a bunch of files from the 9.0 installation lying around somewhere that I won't need anymore? If so, what can I get rid of?

Thanks in advance...

Proud · 08-08-2003, 06:19 PM

Ok, as you've upgraded, I'm guessing it's placed the 2.4.21-0.13mdk kernel files in /boot, and changed where the symlinks in there point to, to reflect which is the new kernel in use. So previously things like vmlinuz were linked to the only kernel image, 2.4.19-16mdk, but now vmlinuz links to 2.4.21-0.1mdk, so it's taking this into account.

Note I've only skimmed through your configs, so I havent looked for anything odd. It does seem old_linux is your old 9.0 kernel, so 2.4.19-16mdk is redundant.
Check those links, but it does seem linux_fb is pointing to the old kernel+fb option, not the new one.

floppy is a very useful entry. Saves hastle of having to alter your BOIS, and it's via Lilo.

Edit: It's often said that it's far better to simply back up important data, and then clean install the newer OS, as so many core components can change. Even copying old config files across can be dodgy, try manually looking at differences before changing if you must restore some settings.