Hi again.

Same as other posts here: after initial instal (BearOPs v3, kernel 2.4.18), the LILO gets halfway through re-boot then hangs with a kernel panic. I have tried 20 instals 20 ways, and no luck.

BearOPS tells me that LILO wasn't written to the drive. (Their instal routine doesn't show any evidence of this while you are installing. It is also a very user-friendly instal & partition tool. It's a value-packed distro).

In the past, I cleaned my drives off with MaxBlast, and all works flawlessly. BearOps tells me that MaxBlast totally screws my drives. If they are "totally screwed", then why do they work flawlessly under windows?

One post here mentions that to avoid LILO hanging at a kernel panic, you have to have hda & hdc the same size. I can't. I am using a 45 Gig WD with Win 98 on a 13 Gig partition, and Linux (boot, swap, & root) get the rest (just over 30 Gigs). The other physical drive is a FuJitsu 4.3 Gig (slower 33 UDMA), with a 1.5 Gig section for Win, and the remaining 2.6 Gig as Linux hdc - just for library storage.

What do I do here? Should I physically remove the little Fujitsu, and, with the 45 Gig WD, just wipe it clean (No Windows at all), and do a total one root Linux box totally take-over the 45 Gig drive? (I can maybe "slave" my other PC (Win98) for MIDI stuff from the Linux box I hope).

Thanks! -Tunes.

It depends on your purpose: if you want to prove the distro isn't corrupted, dedicate one HD to Linux on a machine. No other HD's. Format it anyway you want. Let BearOps take over from there.

If you want to dual/multi-boot, keep the HD's the way they are. Check all the cables & jumpers. NOOOO cable select. Make sure they boot up in correct order: first HD1, 2nd HD2, etc. Or CD first. I would recommend using the entire 4.5G HD for Linux. It's more than enough. 2GB full install, usually.

Remove all partitions with DOS FDISK. Reboot as many times as necessary.
Format 4.5G HD with DOS FORMAT. No quick.
Boot to BearOps, choose custom/expert install. Select 4.5G and delete any partitions. Try Auto-partition, no luck? Manually make one giant 4.5G, mount point is /.
Install, write lilo to /dev/hdb, no numbering, write bootdisc.
Try bootdisc, if ok, boot to Linux and write lilo to MBR or /dev/hda.

My setup isn't too different from yours. Maxtor 40GB laid out like this: (3 primary & secondary)

good ol' lilo text boot screen
5g, fat32, w98
20mb, ext2, /boot (not used anymore)
3g, ufs, FreeBSD
--
30gig extended
3g, ntfs, empty
3g, ext2, linux, /dev/hda6
3g, ext2, linux, /dev/hda7
5g, fat32, w98 backup (ghosted)
5g, fat32, d:\games
10g, fat32, e:\my doc (all distros & storage)

It took me a few sleepless nights to set it all up. It's multi-booting fine. I use Partition Magic. The 20mb is in there before 8GB limit, in case, some old or weird distro requires /boot before the 1024 cylinder. Most recent distros don't need it. BTW, PM lets me MOVE the partitions back & forth. It takes time. No biggie for UDMA 100 & 7200rpm.