Error loading Lilo on Slackware 10.2

Hi,
I am installing Slackware 10.2 kernel 2.6 13 (test26.s bzImage) on a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop. The hard disk is partitioned as:
/dev/hdc1 - Dell Utility
/dev/hdc2 - NTFS(Windows)(Active Partition)
/dev/hdc3 - Extended
/dev/hdc5 - Linux swap (Logical)
/dev/hdc6 - Linux root (Logical) (ext2 file system)

The installation goes fine until I reach the step where I have to install Lilo. The boot loader fails to install. I tried to manually create a lilo.conf file but on running lilo-v I get an error message to the effect saying Inconsistent Partition table.
Any help in this matter will be appreciated.
I am a new Slackware user though have worked with RedHat/FedoraCore before.

Just to update further I am installing Lilo on the MBR. Further when I manually create lilo.conf and run lilo -v I get an error message saying Inconsistent Partition Table. Use either Fix-Table or Ignore-table. Did I mess up while partitioning my hard disk?

I could be mistaken, but I think lilo needs to be installed on the primary master disk.

Do you know what devices are in hda (primary master) and hdb (primary slave)?

Best regards,
...drkstr

@newvivs:

A hard disk can have a maximum of 4 primary partitions – don't ask me why, I don't know. Apart from primary partitions a hard disk can also have what is known as an extended partition which inturn can hold a number of logical partitions – I believe the number is close to 15. The extended partitions are not real partitions like primary or logical partitions in that they don't store data but are actually containers for logical partitions which is where data is actually stored – as you can see it is uneccessarily complex. Thus in Windows C is a primary partition and if you used Windows Fdisk – Windows Fdisk will not make more than one primary partition to partition your hard disk – D is usually the first logical partition of the extended partition. E would be the second logical partition and so on. In Linux things are slightly different. The first primary partition is called /dev/hda1, the second primary partition /dev/hda2 upto the fourth which is /dev/hda4. Linux refers to the an extended partition as in the case of a disk with 1 primary and one extended partition as /dev/hda1 for the primary and /dev/hda2 for the extended. The logical partitions of the extended partitions are referred to as /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6 and so on. The second hard disk would be referred to as /dev/hdb, the third /dev/hdc (usually the cdrom drive if set as secondary master) and the fourth and last hard disk as /dev/hdd (last because the motherboard has place for a maximum of 4 IDE devices) SCSI devices are referred to as /dev/sda – thank god for that.

(http://www.linux.com/howtos/Install-...gies/x72.shtml)

so thats your prob right?
you should make a primary root and an extended as swap.
hope thats it.

Oops, I didn't notice he was using a logical partition as root. Good catch y0shi!

...drkstr

Originally Posted by drkstr I could be mistaken, but I think lilo needs to be installed on the primary master disk. Do you know what devices are in hda (primary master) and hdb (primary slave)? Best regards, ...drkstr

Hey drkstr, good to see you around. afaik you can install lilo in the mbr of any disk your bios can be selected to boot from. I have boxes with multiple drives and I always do lilo on the mbrs of all drives so that if I lose a drive all I have to do is switch the boot order and all my systems that still exist are bootable.

OP, please post your lilo.conf and the output of fdisk -l so we can see what you have.

Lilo failing in the installer is NOT unheard of. However we have always gotten lilo to work in command line mode.

Rand

It worked after I swtiched to expert mode in LILO. I think it had to do something with the partition table entries. I am going to try your idea of installing Linux on a primary partition along with Windows on another primary on a different laptop.
Thanks.

newvivs, Don't go for it

This is a gross misinformation saying lilo cannot be installed from a logical partition.

My 145 systems have about 35% using Lilo as the boot loader and the way I boot them is to place Lilo inside the root partition of the Linux, the highest Lilo gets to is hdc59, and chainloaded by one Grub.

There is absolutely no problem for Lilo to boot from any logical partition at any where inside a hard disk but older version of Lilo may be handicapped by the ability of the older kernel to break through the 137Gb barrier in a hard disk.

The last link of my signature has

Task H1 - to mount an unbootable Linux A with a bootup Linux B from a Live CD

Task H2 - To use a Live CD Linux B to get inside an unbootable Linux A

Task B3 - To restore Lilo back to the MBR

One can use Task H2 to get inside Slackware and run "liloconfig" directly to generate a new copy of Lilo.

It is very common for the installer to fail to get Lilo working during an installation. I wouldn't lose sleep on it at all. Just edit the /etc/lilo.conf and revalidate it with the "lilo -b /dev/{whatever device}"

If you have an issue with the partition table do what Randux suggested, post the output of "fdisk -l" here.

Yeah I faced something similar b4. I was installing on a comp with hda being CD ROM and hdb being IDE HDD.

when I came to lilo part during installation, the auto install(simple mode) tried to install lilo on /dev/hda which obviously it couldn't
Then I had to go in expert mode and do it. Didn't help that it was my first Slackware install!


Asking all ppl here, esp. Saikee,
I always thought that you had to install linux to a primary partition on your HDD and not on an extended partition (says so in Slackbook) . Is this true? If no, can you show me some reference, and why is it written like that in Slackbook? If yes, still why is it so?

Saikee, how did you manage to install to hdc59? Was it Slackware that you installed?
I dont have a prob with installing Lilo there , but how did you install Slackware there?

duryodhan,

I think you must be reading a write-up when Lilo could not cross the 1024 cylinder barrier in a hard disk. It makes sense to install a Linux close to the hard disk front end so that it can be addressed within the 1024 cylinder limit.

I entered Linux 2.5 years ago and has never met a Lilo that hasn't got a LBA mode capability.

In the 145 systems link I got Slackware 10 in hda27, Slackware 10.2 in hdc35 and Slackware 11 in sdb12.

We can always tell an installer which partition we wish the distro to be installed to. It is our God-given right!

Linux is one of the few OSs that has no particular use of a primary partition, which is needed by systems that can only be booted if its bootable flag has been make "active". Such systems are pioneered by MS and Solaris and most of the BSDs also follow this route. If you look at Lilo or Grub you will notice a Linux boot loader always declares the partition to be booted up front. Therefore whether it is a primary or a logical has no consequence because Linux never uses the bootable flag.

In the 145-system link I have the 152 partitions done first, install Grub to boot all the partitions when they are all empty and then install the systems one by one.

The only necessary condition for my scheme to work is to tell each installer to keep its boot loader inside its root partition.

I could have used Lilo to multi boot but it is too clever for its own good and it didn't work out because

(1) Lilo can boot a maximum 27 images

(2) Lilo checks every partition it is asked to boot and rejects the command if the partition is empty or its boot loader has not been installed inside.

(3) Lilo cannot operate without a Linux.

(4) Lilo cannot boot systems manually.

I never said that lilo will give a problem with a non primary partition. That would just be sucidal for a BOOT Loader i.e it will support only 4 OS per HDD.

I said the Slackbook says ,

You need to make sure you create primary partitions.

slackbook/html/installation-partitioning.html

Why is that? did they say that cos of Lilo?

And no offense but I am not going to agree that I can install on logical partition based on only 1 persons experience, I hope other ppl validate the same!

duryodhan,

I think you got the wrong end of the stick. Nobody can install an operating system in an extended partition but everybody can with a Linux in a logical partition.

An extended partition is only the border of a set of logical partitions. It has no storage of its own.

yeah! that was a typo...
sorry! fixed!

duryodhan,

I am not going to agree that I can install on logical partition based on only 1 persons experience

That is a very bold statement.

It implies

(1) I am the only one who put Linux in logical partitions.

(2) 2.5 years of assembling over 100 distros mainly in logical partitions is not supported by any of the distros even all of them work. As Dos, Windows, BSD and Solaris systems need to be installed and booted from primary partitions I habitually install Linux always in logical partitions.

(3) That in the entire forum every member put Linux only in primary partitions.

You will have a problem of getting others to agree, especially Item (3), by just taking a look at the forum other posts.

As all logical partitions must start at the 5th position and Linux user would not be able to put Linux in partition number higher than hda4 or sda4 if your view is upheld.

I have no interest in the argument but only wish to state information technically correct (or technically possible if you prefer). I do have a problem in your above statement based purely on something you read and not by technical explanations. I also couldn't find such a reference in your suggested link.

Many technical information can have errors in the same way a software can have bugs.

First of all anybody who argues with Saikee about booting is making a big mistake It's like arguing with Richard Stallman about Emacs. Not exactly but pretty close.

I've personally never installed Linux in a primary partition.

So few primaries, so many *BSD.......