Fixing MBR with lilo with a non-boot drive

galapogos · 01-30-2011, 11:56 PM

Hi,

I'm trying to update the kernel on a hard drive with Linux installed on it. Let's call this HDD1. HDD1 doesn't allow me to boot up normally, so there's no way I can get a shell on it and apply lilo as a boot drive.

I have another Linux installation which I boot from. Let's call this HDD2. I then connect HDD1 to the system that is booted up to HDD2. HDD2 is detected as /dev/sda and HDD1 is detected as /dev/sdb.

I then mount HDD1 on some directory, say /fix, as follows:

Code:

mount /dev/sdb1 /fix

Then I go to /fix/etc and edit the lilo.conf to point to the new kernel in the "image = " section.

How can I apply lilo and write to the boot sector of HDD1 instead of HDD2? Is it the following?

Code:

chroot /fix/ /sbin/lilo -v -v

Thanks.

amani · 01-31-2011, 09:23 AM

no

http://linux.die.net/man/8/lilo

amani · 01-31-2011, 09:24 AM

what should you try to write to the boot sector?

galapogos · 01-31-2011, 02:04 PM

I've checked the man pages, but couldn't find any definitive guide to doing what I wish to do. Any help?