lilo stops at startup

alainhenry · 03-12-2005, 04:28 PM

I installed Mandrake 10.1 on my new PC Asus motherboard P4P800S-X, Pentium IV at 3 gHz. It went well.

However, when rebooting, Lilo stops at the very start. There is just a single "L" on the screen (obviously, the first letter that Lilo displays before shwing the menu.

I tried replacing Lilo by Grub, to no avail. It displays GRUB and then hangs.

I sort of remember reading on this issue before, but can't remember what it was about. Can anyone help ?

Thanks

Alain

opjose · 03-12-2005, 06:19 PM

Usually this is either because Lilo/Grub was installed on a drive that is not correctly reporting drive parameters back to the kernel (check your CMOS, and/or try ZEROing out the drive before installing Mandrake... using a zeroing utility...) or because Lilo/Grub was not written to the correct location on the drive.

jschiwal · 03-12-2005, 08:08 PM

If there was any type of problem, such as one of the devices not existing, then the second part of lilo will not be written to disk. You will need to get into the rescue mode and fix things up and rerun /sbin/lilo to procede. I've outlined the steps here. I hope it helps.

Code:

1) Boot up with the disk and enter the option 'rescue'.
This will get you into the rescue mode.

2)You may want to start out by selecting the menu option to load drivers.
Select the menu option to 'mount system under /mnt'
3) Change to the /mnt directory: cd /mnt

4) Change the root directory to /mnt: chroot /mnt

5) We want to set up the normal paths for root: bash -l

6) Get a listing of the hard drives and partitions: fdisk -l
     (    It would be a good idea to compare this listing with the 
       /etc/lilo.conf file.   Make sure any references to drives and 
       partitions exist. )

7) View and possibly edit /etc/lilo.conf: vim /etc/lilo.conf
    ( note: You can use a different console based editor if you want )
    ( note:  When in the rescue shell, use 'vim-minimal' as vim isn't 
       available yet. )
    ( note:  If you are not familiar with vi, the 'i'' key will get you into the edit mode.
                To get out of the edit mode, press [ESC]
                To save your changes, press
                :wq
     )
8) Try to write the mbr again: /sbin/lilo
    a)  Executing lilo from the console, we have feedback on whether
         things were successful.  The name of each section is printed
         out.  If there is an error you will need to fix the problem and
         rerun /sbin/lilo.  

9)  If lilo was successfully written, then you can exit the chroot'd
     shell by pressing [CTRL-d].  Reboot and cross your fingers.
     ( crossing your toes is optional )

Good Luck!

d4d4n9 · 03-12-2005, 11:18 PM

I suggest that you install lilo or grub bootloader into your primary master harddisk MBR because that is the place where linux searches the bootloader. Are you using a multi booting box ? If you are, just be informed that installing lilo or grub into primary master harddisk MBR will replace windowze own bootloader

Hope this help.

alainhenry · 03-13-2005, 01:14 AM

Thanks for the advices. I tried installing on MBR, which gave the results I described above.

Because I have Ubuntu on the same machine, I also tried installing lilo at the start of the root partition and using GRUB on the MBR from Ubuntu to launch Mandrake, but it dit not work either. I stopped after displaying the text of menu option I selected in Grub.

BTW, I installed Ubuntu on another partition of the same disk, and in this case, Grub on the MBR works well, while it did not for Mandrake.

I will explore your advice and report back (when I have time, I am not sure when. Fortunately, I have my old machine fit and running!)

Alain

d4d4n9 · 03-13-2005, 09:30 AM

Hi Alain,
Perhaps you can post your partitions info and your ubuntu's grub menu.list. May be we can discuss the solution that you need.
We can not imagine the problems you had without those infos.

Regards,

Amri

alainhenry · 03-14-2005, 02:27 AM

Thanks for helping. What do you mean exactly by partition info? Any config file of something like that ?
Alain

d4d4n9 · 03-14-2005, 07:10 PM

Hi Alain,

Sorry for not so detail

What I meant are :
1. How many harddisks are your box have ?
2. How do you divide your harddisks into partitions ?

Code:

    e.g : a.   /dev/hda1  -> first partition on primary master
          b.   /dev/hda2  -> your extended partition on primary master
                             can be divide into more logical partitions
          c.   /dev/hdb1  -> first partition on secondary master
and so on.

You wrote that you install two distros i.e Ubuntu and Mandrake 10.1
In what partition did you install Ubuntu and Mandrake 10.1 ?

Ubuntu uses grub as bootloader and the setting is in /boot/grub/menu.lst
Can you post that menu.lst ?

If I am wrong, please someone correct me

BTW, please check this thread : http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...postid=1208786

Hope this help.

alainhenry · 03-15-2005, 03:15 AM

Great, I see what I must do. I am at work now. I'll do that tonight (Belgian time).

Alain

alainhenry · 03-15-2005, 12:08 PM

Hello,

The one hard disk is partitioned like this:

hda1-20 Gb : primary partition, will be windows98
hda5- 10Gb : ext3, root for Ubuntu
hda6- 2 Gb : swap
hda7- 40Gb: ext3, home partition for Ubuntu
hda8- 10Gb: ext3, root partition for Mandrake
hda9- 40 Gb: ext3, home partition for Mandrake

Here is my menu.lst file. I removed the default options at the start of the file. By the way, it is the menu.lst from Ubuntu, because there is no menu.lst on the drive written by Mandrake (I checked using Ubuntu). Launching Mandrake from Ubuntu/Grub results in a freeze with the message:
Booting 'Mandrake10.1 (on /dev/hda8)'
root (hd0,7)
_ (I mean a blinking cursor)
and that's it.

Any help appreciated, I'm lost.

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.8.1-3-386
root (hd0,4)

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hda5 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-386
savedefault
boot

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.8.1-3-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hda5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-386
savedefault
boot

title Memory test
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root

# From old PC
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Windows 95/98/Me
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
chainloader +1

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda8.
title Mandrake10.1 (on /dev/hda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 ro devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6
initrd /boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda8.
title linux-nonfb (on /dev/hda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 ro acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6
initrd /boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda8.
title failsafe (on /dev/hda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 ro failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6
initrd /boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

d4d4n9 · 03-16-2005, 02:14 AM

I was just curious, which partition did you use as root of ubuntu because you wrote that you have assigned hda5 and hda7 partitions as home partitions for ubuntu ?

Need more info

alainhenry · 03-16-2005, 06:10 AM

Zut! I missed that. I use hda5 as root for Ubuntu. I'll fix it in the original message.

Alain

d4d4n9 · 03-17-2005, 12:25 AM

Hi Alain,
I have checked my ubuntu's menu.lst, the relevant part as below :

Code:

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.8.1-3-386 
root		(hd0,4)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hda5 ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-386
savedefault
boot

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.8.1-3-386 (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,4)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hda5 ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-386
savedefault
boot

title		Memory test
root		(hd0,4)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title		Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title		Windows 95/98/Me
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
chainloader	+1

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/hda8.
title		Mandrake_10.1 (on /dev/hda8)
root		(hd0,7)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 ro acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent devfs=nomount
initrd		/boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

You see that it's almost like your own, except I have "devfs=nomount" meanwhile yours is "devfs=mount".
Don't know if it matter, but you can try it to modify your menu.lst

HTH

alainhenry · 03-17-2005, 02:10 AM

Thanks,

I quickly tried that this morning, but had the same result. I'l ldouble check this week-end as I was in a rush. Going through alt.os.linux.mandrake yesterday, I wonder if I shoudl try to start from scratch, using Mandrake installer to format the entire disk again. Though I don't see why Ubuntu's partman should not be OK.

Alain

d4d4n9 · 03-17-2005, 02:33 AM

Hi Alain,
Sorry to hear that you still stumbled by your bootloader problem.

Just a thought

What do you think, if you try again to re-install Mandrake 10.1 and choose lilo as bootloader into primary master MBR.
It will recognize the windoze and ubuntu partitions and set it in /etc/lilo.conf
I got a nearly same situation before and I corrected it by re-install Mandrake 10.1

Anyhow, try again and again 'till succeed.

That the way of linux

Regards.

Amri