help getting lilo working

edman007 · 01-27-2004, 12:55 PM

lilo won't work at all, i'm installing it onto MBR and when i boot all i get is "L" and nothing else, i even used the slackware install script to try and do it

here is my lilo.conf file

-----------start of lilo.conf-------
Warning: /dev/hde is not on the first disk
Added Linux-2.6 *
root@mr-slack:/etc# cat lilo.conf
# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hde
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
prompt
timeout = 50
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
vga = 791
# Normal VGA console
#just a bunch of boring comments
# ramdisk = 0 # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
#--its not the kernel or path to it because
#--i have tested the kernel, and changing the path to the kernel in /boot doesn't help
image = /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage
root = /dev/hde2
label = Linux-2.6
read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends
---------end of lilo.conf-------

does anyone have a clue as to what is going wrong, i had it working on this disk before, i might have installed lilo from another disk though, the drive is a 80gb maxtor and using a promise sata controller if that makes a difference

the only thing i get when install lilo onto the MBR is it says the hde isn't the first disk

muah · 01-27-2004, 02:00 PM

Just an idea,
That warning that /dev/hde is not the first disk is probably there to remind u to change boot sequence in BIOS.

edman007 · 01-27-2004, 02:23 PM

thats what i thought, its not a real error, and my bios is set right so thats not the problem

homey · 01-27-2004, 02:46 PM

How many drives do you have installed?
Normally, if there is only one drive, it will be called /dev/hda

Whereby you have everything a /dev/hde for some reason.

edman007 · 01-27-2004, 03:17 PM

i have 2 drives installed+2 cd, one drive is PATA one is SATA, i have 2 PATA controllers for hda through hdd (hdc and hdd are the cd drives), then i have SATA witch is hde through hdj (maybe to hdl i haven't tried the other connectors but there is 4 SATA connectors 2 of witch say raid witch i'm not using)

i know that hde is right though, i have installed lilo onto hda witch i'm using right now to boot hde but i'm going to recompile the kernel so i have to reinstall lilo, so far the only way i can do reinstall lilo is to disconnect the SATA drive (no linux cd i have works with the SATA controller) , boot off a cd, install lilo onto the PATA drive, reconnect the SATA drive and boot using lilo on hda

obviously this is a big pain and i'd like to have lilo on the SATA incase i take out the slow PATA drive and easily reinstall lilo when i recompile the kernel

i have also tried installing lilo onto hda but is screws up in the same way is said above unless i boot off a cd and install lilo from there

edman007 · 01-28-2004, 05:38 PM

does this help anyone on what might be causing it, i ran lilo -v -v and got a few errors

Code:

root@mr-slack:~# lilo -v -v
LILO version 22.5.7.2, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2003 John Coffman
Released 20-Aug-2003 and compiled at 19:15:26 on Aug 25 2003.
 
Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
raid_setup returns offset = 00000000  ndisk = 0
 BIOS   VolumeID   Device
Reading boot sector from /dev/hde
Warning: Kernel & BIOS return differing head/sector geometries for device 0x80
    Kernel: 39693 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors
      BIOS: 1023 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors
pf_hard_disk_scan: ndevs=2
  0300  04AE04AD  /dev/hda
  2100  0AF6962E  /dev/hde
device codes (user assigned pf) = 0
device codes (user assigned) = 0
device codes (BIOS assigned) = 3
device codes (canonical) = 3
Warning: /dev/hde is not on the first disk
mode = 0x03,  columns = 80,  rows = 25,  page = 0
Using MENU secondary loader
Calling map_insert_data
Secondary loader: 17 sectors (0x3200 dataend).
bios_boot = 0x81  bios_map = 0x81  map==boot = 0  map S/N: 0AF6962E
BIOS data check was okay on the last boot
 
Boot image: /boot/linux
Setup length is 6 sectors.
Mapped 3862 sectors.
Added Linux-2.6 *
 
 BIOS   VolumeID   Device
  80    04AE04AD    0300
  81    0AF6962E    2100
Writing boot sector.
/boot/boot.2100 exists - no boot sector backup copy made.
Map file size: 32768 bytes.
RAID device mask 0x0000
root@mr-slack:~#

i see it says the bios and kernel have different disk info, could that be causing it?

homey · 01-28-2004, 05:50 PM

It may help to add lba and a map statement to the lilo.config

-----------start of lilo.conf-------
Warning: /dev/hde is not on the first disk
Added Linux-2.6 *
root@mr-slack:/etc# cat lilo.conf
# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hde
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
prompt
timeout = 50
LBA32
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
vga = 791
# Normal VGA console
#just a bunch of boring comments
# ramdisk = 0 # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
#--its not the kernel or path to it because
#--i have tested the kernel, and changing the path to the kernel in /boot doesn't help
image = /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage
root = /dev/hde2
label = Linux-2.6
read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Doomhammer · 01-28-2004, 08:05 PM

Why use Lilo? Why dont you use GRUB instead?

r_jensen11 · 07-03-2004, 02:19 PM

Can anyone help me out with a similar problem? My problem is quite the opposite:

I am supposed to get the message "Warning: /dev/hde is not on the first disk", but all I get is the responce saying:
*WindowsXP
Linux-2.6.7
Linux-2.4.26
Linux-original

The only time I get the warning is when I boot off of the CD-ROM, otherwise I never get it, and that's something that I need. I want to install LILO on my hde's MBR because I can boot off of it, leaving HDA's free so I can boot into Windows incase anything happens to my Linux drive and I have to swap it out (Meaning I wouldn't need a Windows boot disk to get into Windows with my setup). Here's my /etc/lilo.conf:

Code:

~$ cat /etc/lilo.conf
# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
append="hdd=ide-scsi acpi=on"
boot = /dev/hde
#compact        # faster, but won't work on all systems.
prompt
timeout = 50
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
vga = 773
# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# ramdisk = 0     # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda2
  label = WindowsXP
  table = /dev/hda
# Windows bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7
  root = /dev/hde3
  label = Linux-2.6.7
  read-only #
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.26-custom
  root = /dev/hde3
  label = Linux-2.4.26
  read-only #
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hde3
  label = Linux-original
  read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends
rob@4300:~$

Edit:

I thought it might help to know my drive layout:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 7 56196 16 Hidden FAT16
/dev/hda2 * 8 1919 15358140 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 1920 9729 62733825 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 1920 4667 22073278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6 4668 7107 19599268+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda7 7108 8523 11373988+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda8 8524 9729 9687163+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

/dev/hdb is all Windows NTFS partitions, pretty much like hda
/dev/hdc & /dev/hdd are DVD and CD-RW drives, respectively

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hde1 1 62 497983+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hde2 63 124 498015 83 Linux
/dev/hde3 125 4865 38082082+ 83 Linux

/dev/hda2 is my WindowsXP's C:\ partition, and I'm booting off of the MBR of hde