alright, i recently reinstalled windows on my machinedon't kill me, i want windows.

*ditto ducks the incoming fruit...

anyhows, when i use the mdk rescue utility to reinstall lilo, it complains about an image not existing for a kernel, i hate to say no longer exists (so i was lazy and never removed it from the list). now it won't restore lilo into the MBR.

so is there an easy way to use the rescue disk, to go into the directory where the lilo configuration file and use vim (which exists on this rescue disk BTW) to edit it?

all i really need to know is where the lilo configuration files are located in mandrake.

i'm not sure why, but the "dir" command is missing in the rescue disk, so i can't just start snooping on my own for the lilo file...

i made a floppy rescue disk for linux before installing windows, but i never tested it, and low and behold, it doesn't work!!



thanks for your help.

Boot from your Mandy rescue CD.
Select 'mount your partitions under /mnt', when that's done, 'go to console'.
The type:
chroot /mnt (this changed your current / to what was just mounted as /mnt)
lilo (this should run lilo and put your config back into your mbr, if that's where it was before your decided to dance with the devil )

hehe, let me try that, be back in a few minutes.

i don't dance with evil...i let it in my sandbox...to kick sand in it's eyes :P

first it says that it's "added entry-foo" all 5 entries are added, at the end it says:

Fatal: no images defined or default image doesn't exist

come to think of it there was no default image, i set lilo up so i had to select an os each time.

and one of the entries as i said, doesn't point to a valid image, or a valid root path.

Ok, are you happy editing your lilo.conf file by hand (emacs or vi should both work in rescue mode, especially after you've chrooted)? If so, then do the necessary and rerun lilo, if not, then try and post the contents of your lilo.conf file here.

Oh, and if you're lucky, after you've chrooted, you might be able to type init 3 (or even 5) and get to a working Linux system. If you'd be more comfortable editing/reconfiguring from there, then give it a go.

<edit>
Oh, and you might want to put in a default image. If you want to make it so that you must select an OS to boot, then remove the 'timeout=xx' line, but make sure you still have the 'prompt' line.
</edit>

i'll try it through vi first.

where is the lilo.conf located?

vi, vim or emacs DON'T work in chroot. emacs doesn't exist in normal rescue either.

edit:
oh, yeah i'll add a default.
init doesn't work.

oops, forgot the don't...

emacs doesn't exists on the rescue disk (it is bloody huge), but when you've chrooted, if it was on your original Mandy system, you can use it.

Oh, and the lilo.conf file will be in /etc, so once you've chrooted, type emacs /etc/lilo.conf (or vi )

hmmm, strange, maybe i didn't do soething right...i'll try again

hmm, vi still don't work under chroot....

when i tell the rescue disk to mount everything to /mnt it says that my /home and /usr partitions won't because i either have too many mount points, or because that the fs type is wrong. they are both ext3.

So long as those are the only two, you should still be fine.
Rescue menu --> mount partitions under /mnt
Rescue menu --> goto console
Console --> chroot /mnt
Console --> emacs /etc/lilo.conf
(make changes)
Console --> lilo
Console --> reboot

This should work absolutely fine - I had to do it myself earlier (I added something to my append section that would completely lock things up, hey ho).

hmm, still won't work, but i can still use vim without chroot.

and because /etc is mounted at "/mnt/etc" i can edit the file from there.

If you do so before chrooting. Sure, go for it. Edit the file, chroot and then lilo. Fingers crossed.

man i hate being a newbie...

it sucks.

anyway that worked, and lilo boots right. thanks again for your help.

Hey, we've all got to start somewhere! Keep at it.