Bootloader problems - I get booted into a command line of some sorts
 

Let me first start off by saying that I now love Slack's setup and such. It was fairly easy and I actually learned something. But let me start from the beginning and slowly work into the problems that I now have. First I put on Fedora a day or two ago, didn't like it and my friend kept teasing me by saying he had Slack. This eavning I decide to put in my discs and not leave my chair until I was done with this. It worked. I partitioned the drives with only minimal swearing and my new love, cfdisk. I went into the setup with only minor confusion throughout it (near the end of it). But now when I reboot my PC Slack will not come up, Win will not come up either... When I reboot it gives me something like this:

boot from CD
boot from CD....
GRUB

and stuff above that is just master/slave drive info, those are the last three lines I see. And the dreaded GRUB makes me shudder. I'm pretty sure I know what I did. When it was asking me about Lilo, I told it to do the default "safe" way which is the console (I dunno why I did this, I'm kind of slow sometimes). But that is Lilo - not GRUB. What's going on here?? It should say LILO instead of GRUB, right? I can't access anything on my computer right now and it really sucks, because I did everything right with Slack and I STILL CANNOT RUN IT!! ::bashes face into desk::

I really don't want to have to run the Win Recovery thing. Where's Lilo? Where's my Slack? Where is anything but a GRUB command line when I reboot?! I'm really frusterated. Any help would be appreciated at the highest level. Take your time on the replys because I need to go to bed now.


Final note: Thanks to everyone here, without your help Slackware would still be sitting in my CD rack still in their ISO's. Thanks.

It looks like when you had fedora you installed grub to the master boot record and then when you installed lilo to the safe choice which is NOT the master boot record it just left grub where it was. You need to pop in the first slackware cd mount the partitions you created for root with cfdisk to a direcotory such as /mnt and if you created a boot partition make sure you mount that as well to /mnt/boot then run
chroot /mnt
liloconfig
and this time install lilo to the master boot record so that it will overwrite grub.

OK thanks. My main goal is to get Win up though (don't flame please) because I have some files that I really need to access for a project that is due soon. Can I just type something in the GRUB command line to boot Win temporarily? (I will do what you said above - just a bit later).

What's your Win version?
If it is win XP you'd better have a bootable cd..
follow the steps until you're asked to repair, install or exit..
choose repair and when you enter the console, type FIXMBR
if your first bootable partition is Windows, you'll enter windows automatically
if your first bootable partition is Linux, you'll get to linux

But MBR MUST be clean if you chose to install lilo on the boot sector of the primary partition..

OK let me be a bit more detailed. This is mainly what I see:

Verifying DMI Pool Data..................................
Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM:
Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM:
GRUB [then it's a blank cursor but it won't let me type anything]


That is all I see. Am I even in a Grub command line? I run Win XP on my computer, I don't like it that much (compared to Linux) but I need it to get onto Powerpoint. I do have my Service Pack 2 disc to boot, but I'd like to resolve this in the Grub command line if I can...

So I just put in the Win disc, choose repair and type in FIXMBR? to fix the master boot record? Or do I type this in the Grub command line? I'll just reinstall Slack, it's not that big of a deal I just need Win back right now.

Well, I'm in the recovery center, but it's asking me for an admin password, which my dad only has... I need another way to fix this before my project is due. I might be able to get an extension on the project but my teacher is an idiot towards computers and he wouldn't understand....

Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.net/) to the rescue! If you have access to another computer or a friend with an internet connection, download the Knoppix iso, burn it to a CD, fire it in the CD drive, and boot up! Knoppix runs from the CD and will let you read all the drives on your computer, even if you're main OS is shot. If Knoppix detected your internet connection or if you have a USB pen/external drive, simply copy the files over to another computer using Samba, FTP, SSH, or whatever, or to your USB pen/external drive. Heck, with Knoppix, you could even leave the files on your existing drives, finish your project running Knoppix and save everything to an external drive or another computer. Good luck!

Late post on me
 

I'm really being serious - I need this for my computers class. If I can't print this presentation out I'm screwed. I need Windows! I guess I'll just have to wait for my dad to call me back because only he has the admin pw. I guess the only easy way to get back Win is to use the recovery center..


Not typing this from my PC obviously, so I'm kind of pressing for a quick response to some of my latter questions. Sorry for the rush, but I need to go home soon. Thanks.

Alright! I have Knoppix 3.7 on an ISO thanks!!


OK, I'm typing from the library, but I'm going home - time to finish this project.

OK, back at my house and I'm typing from Knoppix. I can access all my drives from here. I'll be able to print my project from here just fine. Thanks again bildur.

Still need to get back to Slack though. That can come tomorrow I guess ... but I am itching to be able to run this...

I'm glad to help you out! My fiancee was amazed by how well the Knoppix Live CD worked at getting much-needed files off of her computer when her Windows XP box crashed something nasty. I carry a Knoppix CD around in my briefcase and give it out to co-workers who can't restart their Windows machines...it's nice.

Yeah, I have two live-CDs, Damn Small Linux 9 something, and Knoppix 3.7 and I completely forgot that Knoppix shows all of your drives. I thought Knoppix was kind of a waste of time and effort when I first booted it, but I've changed my mind. It's actually quite helpful.

::goes on killing rampage::

I STILL CANNOT ACCESS SLACKWARE!! Please! You all know what my problem is with Grub, if nobody can help me could someone give me a good guide or book to check into? I really want Slackware to boot! I want Win to boot! I just want a bootloader that will work period!!

So far, some have given me excellent help. But some posts it's as if I know what you are talking about, I know what I need to do, but I just can't fix the problem. I tried FIXMBR in Win Recovery but it claimed it would erase all my partitions and I can't have that. Kinney's help looked quite solid and helpful but I don't know what he's really talking about. I went to cfdisk and said "now what do I do?"

I'm just really frusterated right now is all, I think bootloaders are on of the most troublesome things on running two or more OS's on your system.

To be completely honest - I don't even know if I'm in a Grub command line! It says: "GRUB" and that's it. It shows a blinking cursor but will not let me type if I slam on the keys angrily I will eventually hear a clicking noise seemingly coming from the computer itself. I then consult my giant book on Linux which has plenty of helpful commands to use for Grub, yet none of them work. Which makes me wonder what is even going on when my PC reboots...

Am I in a Grub command line? What do I do? (in disturbingly newbie detail please). Should I reinstall Slack? Delete partitions? What?? Thanks for the help.

Well thanks for the help I was able to get, but I figured it out with a lot of profane language and my Linux in a Nutshell book. Now if I could just log in to this thing I'd be in business...

So what did you end up doing, and whats your problem logging in? Sorry I wasn't more help.