LQ Community,

I've got an interesting situtation.

I would like to triple boot Mandrake 10.1, Gentoo 2004.3 and WinXP. Currently Mandrake and win xp boot fine, I'm currently adding gentoo.

Problem: After compiling Gentoo with 2.6.9-gentoo-r1 kernel source (using a level 3 installation), I proceed to add the necessary information to the lilo config file, but when I attempt to write the info to the MBR, I get the error message: "/dev/hdg7/kernel-2.6.9-gentoo-r1 is not a directory." and MBR installation fails.

First, here is my machine setup:

Dell Dimension 8100 P4 1.7
Promise Ultra 100 ATA IDE PCI card
1) 60gb HD (housing winxp (NTFS) 2x Fat32 Partitions)
2) 80gb HD (housing Mandrake 10.1 and Gentoo 2004.3)

Here is the partition information for the 80 GB HD with the Linux Systems
Disk /dev/hdg: 82.3 GB, 82348277760 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 159560 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdg1 * 1 12190 6143728+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdg2 12191 159560 74274480 5 Extended
/dev/hdg5 12191 14424 1125904+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdg6 14425 136590 61571632+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdg7 136591 136655 32728+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdg8 136656 137695 524128+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdg9 137696 159560 11019928+ 83 Linux

hdg 1,2,5,6 all belong to Mandrake 10.1
hdg 7,8,9 all belong to Gentoo (7 is boot, 8 is swap, 9 is root)

Here is my lilo config file:
# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

default="linux"
boot=/dev/hde
map=/boot/map
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw

image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/hdg1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdg5 splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hdg1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdg5"
read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hdg1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdg5"
read-only

other=/dev/hde1
label="Windows_XP_SP2"
table=/dev/hde

image=/dev/hdg7/kernel-2.6.9-gentoo-r1
label="Gentoo"
root=/dev/ram0
initrd=/dev/hdg7/initrd-2.6.9-gentoo-r1
append="init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hdg9"
vga=791
read-only

image=/dev/hdg7/kernel-2.6.9-gentoo-r1
label="Gentoo_VGA"
root=/dev/hdg9
append="vga=791"
read-only

I have attempted to use the Mandrake Boot Loader Configurator, as well as editing the file by hand. Both times, the result is the same.

Any suggestions on the matter would be great.

Thanks!

Have a look here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/256956
Regards
Sharke

That answers my questions. I try to search throughly before I post, must have missed that one.

Thanks!!