How to boot sda from hda LILO

Mallegonian · 08-19-2007, 10:42 AM

I have a nuked linux install (distro=DSL? / "Kernel Panic") on hda1, which is about 8 gigs. The hard drive has LILO on it, which is the most useful thing at the moment.

I am trying to either chainload to sda or boot directly to sda1/boot/vmlinuz with root=sda1.

The problems: There is no CD drive, only floppy, and the BIOS will not boot to a thumb drive.

I know that there is a way to do this from the lilo boot.time prompt, but I don't know how.

Thank you,
The Mallegonian
mallegonian@gmail.com

Dankles · 08-19-2007, 03:34 PM

I'm pretty sure you can fix this. But first, what OS is on /dev/sda1? Slackware? if its slackware, just add this to lilo.conf:

Code:

image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda1
  label = Linux_Slackware
  read-only

what kind of drive is sda1? a usb stick or SATA or somthing?

duryodhan · 08-19-2007, 11:15 PM

If you can't edit the lilo.conf file , there is pretty much nothing you can do afaik.

If you had grub then maybe you could have done something.

You are better off booting sda1 directly by selecting it as main boot device in BIOS.

Dankles · 08-20-2007, 12:08 AM

A linux boot floppy always works. then you can 'chroot' in and fix it up.

onebuck · 08-20-2007, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dankles

A linux boot floppy always works. then you can 'chroot' in and fix it up.

Hi,

Not with Slackware 12, or for that matter a 2.6 kernel. The image is too big. You could use tomsrtbt floppy as a means to boot a floppy recovery method.

You could also possibly use sbootmgr to see if a usb is recognized via sbootmgr.

You could also reference 'Slackware-Links' which was compiled from 'Slackware LQ Suggestions Links!' for other recovery methods.

Dankles · 08-20-2007, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onebuck

Hi,

Not with Slackware 12, or for that matter a 2.6 kernel. The image is too big. You could use tomsrtbt floppy as a means to boot a floppy recovery method.

You could also possibly use sbootmgr to see if a usb is recognized via sbootmgr.

You could also reference 'Slackware-Links' which was compiled from 'Slackware LQ Suggestions Links!' for other recovery methods.

Dude, you don't need a "slackware 12" boot floppy to do it. Any boot floppy that can chroot in will work, even if its a redhat boot floppy.

onebuck · 08-20-2007, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dankles

Dude, you don't need a "slackware 12" boot floppy to do it. Any boot floppy that can chroot in will work, even if its a redhat boot floppy.

Hi,

I didn't say anything about using a Slackware 12 boot floppy other than you cannot use one. I gave a link to tomsrtbt as a rescue floppy. Sure you can use any boot floppy, I never said you couldn't.

And yes the the OP said that floppy was all he had but a usb was available but would not boot from BIOS. That is why I suggest the 'sbootmgr'.

If you read the README_USB.TXT;

Quote:

excerpt from README_USB.TXT
With the release of Slackware 12.0, the era of floppy-boot has come
to a definite end. The reason is simple - the Linux 2.6 kernel will not
fit on a single floppy, even in it's most condensed configuration.
In this README, I will show you how to use a bootable USB stick to
install Slackware. This method - creating the USB equivalent of a
boot/root floppy pair - is easy to use and fast. It requires that your
computer is able to boot from USB-HDD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dankles

A linux boot floppy always works. then you can 'chroot' in and fix it up.

Not always! First you must have the hardware. Second the kernel image must support said hardware. My meaning is you will need a floppy disk that will read the format of the floppy. You will then need to be sure the hardware will support the image on the floppy. That said, you could boot the image then mount a valid filesystem that contains the kernel and chroot to that system. Then modify as needed.

I would suggest that you read the thread again! I have.

Mallegonian · 08-20-2007, 11:52 AM

Thank you for your replies.

I could not get any of the floppy distros I tried ('E', tomsrtbt, small, ...) to mount the drive because of FS errors.
I tried to repartition and reformat it, but none of the disks have mkfs.ext3 or 2.
I cannot even mount the thumb drive (sda1) because they all said that their kernels did not support vfat or fat32.

In sbootmgr there is an option for 'Quit to BIOS', 'Power Off', 'Reboot', 'Floppy', and 'Harddisk'. The flash drive is in.

Is there any way to get it formatted from a floppy?? If there is, I could copy the needed files to it over the network...

I might end up having to go and buy an adapter to plug the laptop(this computer's) HD in to a desktop to install something.

Thanks,
The Mallegonian