Hi guys,

After attempting to build a custom kernel I broke my Slackware 12.2 installation. The steps I took aren't relevant at this point, as I decided to format the existing partitions and reinstall.

The package installation went fine but I only had CD1 and mistakenly selected a few packages that required the other CD which I don't have. No big deal I thought, I just hit cancel and figured I would just boot the new install and run netconfig and all that since the base system resides on the first disk anyway.

After a reboot I received LILO message stating it was booting but my screen went blank and would not respond to any keypresses. I think I fried my master boot record but I'm not certain.

I tried booting from the install CD again and I was able to mount my root partition and see the newly installed files. I'm not sure where to go from here though.

I remember that fdisk (the old DOS version) had a /mbr switch which would restore your master boot record but I don't know if the linux version would have that option.

What is the best way to restore my MBR? I appreciate any help or suggestions.

After the screen goes blank is the HDD still working, does it sound like the system is booting up normally, but you're just not seeing it ? In which case I would recommend that during the lilo install phase choose to boot to VGA console not framebuffer.

To restore the mbr simply re-install lilo from the install disk.

Thanks for the response. There are no signs that it is booting at all which is what made me suspect the MBR. It simply says loading linux.......... then goes blank with no disk activity.

Slackware installs LILO with the VGA console by default so I know it's not a unsupported screen resolution.

EDIT:
I just realized that when I cancelled the package installation I missed the step to install LILO as I believe that comes after packages are installed. Thanks TeXMex!

No problem, as long as it works out in the end