I use Lilo on redhat 9 dual booting windows XP

Each OS is on its own drive, linux boots fine but XP boots to

Loading WindowsXP
L?

my Lilo conf is:
prompt
timeout=50
default=RedHat9
boot=/dev/hde
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
linear

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
label=RedHat9
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
read-only
append="hdf=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

other=/dev/hdg1
optional
label=WindowsXP


I have no idea how to troubleshoot this. When i disconnect the linux drive which has the master boot record and boot strait off the XP drive it boots fine.


Thanks for the help
--
Jared

You could try this:

other=/dev/hdg1
label=WindowsXP
table=/dev/hdg
optional

You don't need the optional unless this is a drive which might get switched out.

Same Problem:
Loading WindowsXP
L?

this screen comes up instantly and i cant do anything but cnt-alt-del

any other thought

Thanks so much!
--
Jared

Did you use fdisk and make /dev/hdg1 bootable?

I don't use NT but when using Windows9X on ide drives, windows insists on being on first ide controller specifically on hda drive. So to put windows on hdb you have to trick bios by putting in these lines in the Windows image section.
map-drive = 0x80
to = 0x81
map-drive = 0x81
to = 0x80

i have run:
fidsk /mbr

on the windows partition from a dos boot disk to fix the mbr of the XP partition to get it bootable when i remove the linux disk. [just to be able to get to it] and becuase I thought i might have had a bad lilo mbr on the hdg1 partition that was giving me the L? when the good lilo from hde was loading hdg.
is fixing the mbr from dos what you meant by "Did you use fdisk and make /dev/hdg1 bootable?"
I have updated the lilo conf file:

/etc/lilo.conf
prompt
timeout=50
default=RedHat9
boot=/dev/hde
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
linear

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
label=RedHat9
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
read-only
append="hdf=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"


other=/dev/hdg1
label=WindowsXP
table=/dev/hdg
map-drive = 0x80
to = 0x81
map-drive = 0x81
to = 0x80

same problem, any suggestions?

Thanks a lot man!

When I posted the map-drive I was just suggesting that, it might be necessary. I don't know if it is or not but it probably would not be like that:

This is if windows is on a partition on hdb. It would probably be different for drive hdg.
map-drive = 0x80
to = 0x81
map-drive = 0x81
to = 0x80
I would suggest removeing that.

One thing you can try is replace the append LABEL= with a root= line.
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
label=RedHat9
root=/dev/hde1
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
read-only
append="hdf=ide-scsi"

[root]# cat /etc/lilo.conf
prompt
timeout=50
default=RedHat9
boot=/dev/hde
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
linear

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
label=RedHat9
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
read-only
append="hdf=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"


other=/dev/hdg1
label=WindowsXP
root=/dev/hdg1
table=/dev/hdg

[root]# lilo
Added RedHat9 *
Added WindowsXP
Syntax error near line 19 in file /etc/lilo.conf


i am continuously getting :

[select WindowsXP from lilo]
Loading WindowsXP
L?

I cant search for L? using google beucase google takes the ? as an command and not an argument in the search. I'm lost for options =[


--
Jared

The root=/dev/hde1 needs to be in the RedHat section. The XP section should not have a root= statement.

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
label=RedHat9
root=/dev/hde1
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
read-only
append="hdf=ide-scsi"

same exact problem.

could this be a problem with the mbe on the XP drive? is there anything I need to do to that drive? lilo seems to write something to it becuase when i yank the linux drive and boot with only the xp drive it needs an "fdisk \mbr" to work

thanks

changing:
append="hdf=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"
to:
append="hdf=ide-scsi"
caused:
Kernel Panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel


=[

it was actualy:
root=/dev/hde1
That was causing the init error