I have Slackware 10 and Windows XP dual booted, had to reinstall Windows XP and now I don't get my boot loader it boots straight into Windows, is there a way I can fix this if I use the Slackware 10 installation CD?

Thanks!

You can boot into linux using the slackware cd.

when the cd boots you get a screen:

boot: _

type

boot: bare.i root=/dev/hd(letter and number that linux root partition is on) noinitrd ro

Should boot into your linux partition. Then depending on which boot loader your using reinstall it.


Kyle

Windows is such an idiot that it wipes out any boot loader other than itself. You can select rescue mode from your linux distro cd, run mkbootdisk $(uname -r), but make sure you have mounted your linux / filesystem, to make a bootdisk. After that, boot from the boot disk, and when you get into linux, reinstall lilo or grub.

I don't know which /dev/hd* is my linux partition. I tried a few but none worked, either write protected or wrong fs. how do I find this out from windows?

boot with your slack cd, at the prompt, log in as root, and type fdisk /dev/hda...once there, hit p and it will list your partitions....if you only have slack installed, look for which hda# is listed next to "/", then restart, and boot to that partition

alright I've managed to log in as root on my console. Next I run liloconfig. I go thru expert mode and at the end it says it's installing, but it dumps me back into a console. I reboot and it goes straight into windows still. What do I do?

Okay, so when I was installing lilo over and over again for about 30 minutes I decided to try writing to my master boot record, it did warn me not to. So I've at this point seriously fucked up my computer. lol

I've reinstalled linux a couple of times now and it doesn't boot. Infact my machine doesn't boot into anything. The screen looks sorta like this:

99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99

99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99

99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99

I can however boot into my fresh linux install using 'bare.i root=/dev/hdd2 noinitrd ro' if I boot from CD. The only problem is that I was never prompted to setup a password for root, or to setup a username and password for my own acct during installation. So I get my login prompt, but I can't log in. Anybody know the best way to unfukc this without losing anything on my windows partition? I just want to back up some files from windows to linux before I nuke my windows partition and start over.

the 99s are a LILO boot error code...boot into slack, and install LILO again...that should fix it for ya

So um... being unable to log-in to my own box, how do I install lilo on it? I get a prompt, but I don't have a password for root... Can I use fdisk to setup a bootable partition for linux and just reinstall? If so how do I go about this procedure. Sorry if I'm getting annoying, but I have some files I really need access to which are on my windows partition, which also won't boot.

Hi, may be the software explore2fs solves your problem on indentifying partitions and tranfering important files from linux to windows.
Unfortunately, your windows isn't working now to do that,
but you can remake the win-boot with "format /mbr" (or "fdisk /mbr"?) after booting from a windows floppy rescue disk.