This was originally posted at the end of a dying thread and got no response, hence the repost.

hda is Win2k Pro (ntfs) , mandrake is installed on hdb1. Mdk runs fine, I just have to boot from a diskette. I tried installing lilo on MBR, but just as lilo starts to kick in I get 070707070707070707 written to the screen and I have to manually restart.

After reformatting MBR for windows, I installed lilo to hdb1 and used the windows bootloader. Now, on boot, the windows bootloader comes up and Win2K boots fine. But, if I choose Mandrake, I'm greeted with the 070707070707 again.

Do you think this is a LILO problem or a Mandrake problem? I don't know much about GRUB, but my next thought is to search the forum and see how to install it.

Would it help if I created a /boot partition and installed LILO there?

Any other ideas?

You may have a broken lilo, but that's unlikely (it probably wouldn't have installed, if that was the case). Personally I do have a separate partition for /boot, but that's because of needs to do with playing around with different installations.

What exactly happens? Is it that Lilo gives you 07070707, or is it that when you go to the Mandrake option on the Lilo menu that you're given 0707070707? If it is the latter, and yet you can still boot from the Mandrake boot floppy, then it could be a corruption of the kernel image on your harddisk, in which case you could try booting from the floppy and copying the kernel image over to the harddisk. Bear in mind, though, that you might need to ru-run Lilo to get things to work.

As for installing GRUB, why don't you give it a go?

Thanks for the reply.

What exactly happens is after the system beep, when you would expect to see the LILO menu, the 07's fill the screen.

When using the Win2K bootloader, the menu from boot.ini comes up, and if you choose the Mandrake option and hit Enter, the 07's fill the screen.

I could install grub, but then I wouldn't know why I can't get lilo to work, and that's no fun!

Yeah, but if it is a problem with Lilo itself (very slight error on the CD that just happens to be in the middle of the lilo-something.rpm, for example), then you're not gonna be able to sort it without booting to Linux .

If the NT bootloader works fine (i.e. the menu comes up and you can actually boot into Windows), then the problem is not going to be with the MBR, so it's looking more and more likely that it's a problem with Lilo itself.

If you can boot to Linux from the floppy, try doing so and re-installing Lilo from the CD. Or, download the newest copy.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/lilo/