Hi all,
I'm troubleshooting my dual boot machine (Mdk and Win2k) it had been running windows for some time until I was able to get Realplayer streaming under Linux.
So I went to boot back into the linux disk (hdd) but it ended with the infamous "no init found" message.
I don't understand how the partition table would have changed - no hardware changes were made - but it won't boot

I've found lots of people with the problem, though not exactly the same as mine.

What I'd like to know is what command do I need to issue in order to access /hdd from a rescue disk... like knoppix or pclinux OS.... and once I get in what files do I need to look at? I have another mandrake installation I can use to compare, I'm just not sure what I'm looking for.

Any hints would be much appreciated
gd

if this is a problem with the bootloader, you may want to boot from a rescue disk and repair the bootloader (if you don't know how, just ask ) if it's a problem with the partition itself you have a bigger problem I don't know about (yet)...

greetz,
.-=~ iluvatar ~=-.

godsdog; this may or not help however try n way,http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/Installation in detail etc. ,word of advise expand every thing to get every detail. about 25 pages or so. it is thorough.

The link returns this:

The document or page you requested could not be found. Here are some pages on the Linux Documentation Project site that may help you:

The links to HOWTOs on this page gives Partitioning and partition rescue.... did you mean one of these?

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html

or

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition-Rescue/index.html

gd

LILO allows me to choose the LInux install - just won't boot.... this means LILO's ok, no?

gd

well there could be a small problem with the root partition setup in your lilo.conf, however if you didn't change this file and it worked before it should be all ok... if you can access your /etc/lilo.conf file by using a rescue disc you can post the contents of this file and your partition setup, so we can really make sure lilo is ok.

greetz,
.-=~ iluvatar ~=-.

I guess rerunning lilo won't harm anything....



I think this is where I'm stuck/confused - the rescue disc is /hdb but the hard drive in question is /hdd....vi /etc/lilo.conf will just get me to hdb's lilo.conf, yes?

gd

that's right but you can try to mount the /hdd from within the rescue system to check the settings
if the mount doesn't work, something more complicated is wrong...

greetz,
.-=~ iluvatar ~=-.

Well.... this is the problem... I tried cd /mnt then mount /dev/hdd, but it tells me it can't find /dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/disc in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

Host0 is the primary IDE controller is it not, while hdd is the secondary slave?

isn't it looking at fstab on the RAMdisk for a hard disk that isn't there?

Sorry, I'm still a bit command line challenged.

gd

could it be that /dev/hdd is a symlink to /dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/disc ? in that case it tries to mount the wrong /dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/disc wich isn't there. Or you have some kind of scsi / raid system? in that case the devices in /dev are somewhat different than /dev/hdx I guess (don't know for sure, I don't have it). try "ls -al /dev/hdd" to check if it's a symlink to some other device. If so, check somehow if this is correct for your harddrive... don't know how, I'm not very well known with the /dev dir and devices...

greetz & success,
.-=~ iluvatar ~=-.

godsdog; try reading the raid section , & from the hardware sections harddisks and scsi in depth(extended) http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX table of contents 4.1.9 RAID, hardware 4.3.11 harddisks and 4.3.17
scsi. these may help point in right direction.

Ummm.... ok I'll take a look but there's no RAID or SCSI - except fpr the module that was originally installed when I had a SCSI controller in the machine - it's not in there now.

edit:

Hmmm... could that hve anything to do with the error? The SCSI controller being removed?
The controller was used for an external CD R/RW.

godsdog; that was just a pointer to lead maybe solution and help. hope it works for you.