LILO Multiboot problem

DIGITAL39 · 08-23-2007, 04:07 PM

I am quad booting Backtrack, Slackware, Fedora, and Windows XP on my laptop. The problem comes in when I try to boot Fedora. This is the error I receive.

Code:

Creating root device.
Mounting root filesystem.
mount: could not find filesystem '/dev/root'
Setting up other filesystems.
Setting up new root fs
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
no fstab.sys, mounting internal defaults
setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
Switching to new root and running init.
unmounting old /dev
unmounting old /proc
unmounting old /sys
switchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory
Booting has failed.
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Here is my lilo.conf

Code:

boot = /dev/hda
prompt
timeout = 50
bitmap = /boot/splash.bmp
change-rules
reset
vga = 0x317

# BackTrack 2.0 Final
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hda1
  label = BackTrack
  initrd = /boot/splash.initrd
  read-only

# Slackware 12.0
image = /mnt/hda2/boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hda2
  label = Slackware
  read-only

# Fedora 7
image = /mnt/hda5/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7
  root = /dev/hda5
  label = Fedora
  initrd = /mnt/hda5/boot/initrd-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7.img
  read-only

# Windows XP
other = /dev/hda3
  label = Windows
  table = /dev/hda

# EOF

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

- Pete

Gins · 08-23-2007, 04:28 PM

What is your Fedora version?
Because Fedora 7 has grave problems with SATA hard drives.
I am forced to install Fedora 7 on an IDE hard drive.

Many people who benefits by participating in this forum have problems installing Fedora 7 on SATA hard drives.

DIGITAL39 · 08-23-2007, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gins

What is your Fedora version?
Because Fedora 7 has grave problems with SATA hard drives.
I am forced to install Fedora 7 on an IDE hard drive.

Many people who benefits by participating in this forum have problems installing Fedora 7 on SATA hard drives.

I am running Fedora 7.

The hard drive is a IDE drive in a laptop.

saikee · 08-23-2007, 04:47 PM

Fedora likes to sell every user a LVM. Did you have one? If you do then the root should point to the LVM partition.

DIGITAL39 · 08-23-2007, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saikee

Fedora likes to sell every user a LVM. Did you have one? If you do then the root should point to the LVM partition.

I used a custom layout and specified sda5 in Fedora. Thinking about it that might be an issue, if I am setting root in lilo.conf as /dev/hda5 maybe Fedora is not seeing it because it expects /dev/sda5.

I tried specifying sda5 just for kicks in lilo and it wouldnt take. What are some thoughts on that?

saikee · 08-23-2007, 05:34 PM

The 2.6.20 and newer kernel abandon the Pata disk names and group Pata devices same as Sata/SCSI/USB disks.

It is highly probably the the Fedora 7 only recognise sda5 although I know some distros still support hda devices.

Before I can advise you any further I need your confirmation of the following

(1) Have you got Grub inside Fedora or you just use Lilo throughout?
(2) It is highly irregular to put the kernel and initrd in /mnt directory. Should you not have the red bits removed?

Code:

# Fedora 7
image = /mnt/hda5/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7
  root = /dev/hda5
  label = Fedora
  initrd = /mnt/hda5/boot/initrd-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7.img
  read-only

For example My Fedora 7 menu.lst looks like this

Code:

title Fedora (2.6.22.1-41.fc7)
        root (hd1,5)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.1-41.fc7 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.1-41.fc7.img

As far as I am aware all distros put their kernel and initrd in the /boot directory, although there is nothing to stop a user to place them somewhere else.