[SOLVED] Just Installed Slackware 13... Now What?

S1NN3R · 10-17-2009, 09:09 PM

OK i'm trying to keep the freak out to a minimum.. but freaking a little bit. i just installed Slackware 13 and it bring me to the Slackware splash where it says choose linux or windows. i've got windows installed on one hd and slackware on the other. however when i choose windows it just goes to "Loading Windows" and hangs with a blinking cursor, left it 5min and still nothing. so if anyone could walk me through how to get in windows that'd be great, i'll be refreshing a every couple mins.

slackd · 10-17-2009, 09:21 PM

please post your lilo.conf file.

edit: did u install lilo to ur mbr or the superblock of your linux partition.

S1NN3R · 10-17-2009, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slackd

please post your lilo.conf file.

edit: did u install lilo to ur mbr or the superblock of your linux partition.

installed to mbr, and how to i get to see what's in my lilo.conf file?

lumak · 10-17-2009, 09:51 PM

BOOT into linux.

Without seeing your /etc/lilo.conf file, I would guess you installed lilo to the master boot record. Don't panic.

if your lilo config has:

Code:

boot = /dev/hda
# or
# boot = /dev/sda
# or a device node WITHOUT a number

Then you should change this to the partition number of your root "/" partition. Make sure you know what it is

Code:

# example:
boot = /dev/hda1

then re run lilo as root.

NOW, pop in your windows CD reboot into recovery mode and type FIXMBR.

lumak · 10-17-2009, 09:56 PM

Extra Notes

Don't know what partition is root?

Code:

# in linux type:
readlink /dev/root

# that will output "hda1" or similar


# or if /dev/root isn't created for some reason
df

# then look for the Filesystem that is "Mounted on"  '/'

Also, we need to know how new to linux you are to know how much detail to explain.

EDIT:
Of course, whatever partition superblock has lilo (the '/' partition ), will also have to be set to "bootable'. you can do this from linux with "/usr/sbin/cfdisk /dev/hda"

S1NN3R · 10-17-2009, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lumak

BOOT into linux.

Without seeing your /etc/lilo.conf file, I would guess you installed lilo to the master boot record. Don't panic.

if your lilo config has:

Code:

boot = /dev/hda
# or
# boot = /dev/sda
# or a device node WITHOUT a number

Then you should change this to the partition number of your root "/" partition. Make sure you know what it is

Code:

# example:
boot = /dev/hda1

then re run lilo as root.

NOW, pop in your windows CD reboot into recovery mode and type FIXMBR.

yeah it's got

boot = /dev/sda

so just tack a 1 on the end of sda, run lilo from root, and do windows repair?

lumak · 10-17-2009, 10:26 PM

Make sure you know which partition is your '/' partition.

Code:

readlink /dev/root

then put that in your lilo.conf. readlink will only output the partion (example: sda1). lilo.conf should include the '/dev/' portion as well.
Make sure that partition is bootable.

Code:

# as root user:
/usr/sbin/cfdisk /dev/sda

and use the [Bootable] option to toggle the "Flag" to Boot on ONLY your '/' partition.

Code:

# run lilo as root user:
lilo

Reboot using windows CD and the recovery option

Code:

# then type
FIXMBR

BrZ · 10-17-2009, 10:28 PM

stay away from windows for some time. can you boot slackware? and look at /etc.lilo.conf? and mount/see you windows disk?

S1NN3R · 10-17-2009, 10:52 PM

crap! now i'm really jammed, did the fixmbr and now i'm getting a "NTLDR is missing" and i can't load slack or XP

any suggestions?

slackd · 10-17-2009, 10:54 PM

try both fixboot and fixmbr

S1NN3R · 10-17-2009, 11:02 PM

OK just ran fixboot and fixmbr, reinstalled Slackware 13, but instead of installing LILO to the MBR i did it to the superblock. however i'm again having the issue with not being able to load windows. if i disable the linux drive i can load XP, but not through LILO. however i can get into Slackware again, so what's my remedy now that i'm at a fresh start and not getting the "NTLDR is missing"? should i just changemy

Quote:

# boot = /dev/sda

to

Quote:

# boot = /dev/sda1

and running LILO from root? or is there a step i'm missing?

lumak · 10-18-2009, 01:06 AM

the only drive and partition that should be flagged as bootable is the partition with the super block containing Lilo, Your can check this with cfdisk. If windows & Linux are on physically different hard drives, your bios has to know which one to boot. it would help if we knew how many harddrives you hare and what partitions are used for what,

S1NN3R · 10-18-2009, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lumak

the only drive and partition that should be flagged as bootable is the partition with the super block containing Lilo, Your can check this with cfdisk. If windows & Linux are on physically different hard drives, your bios has to know which one to boot. it would help if we knew how many harddrives you hare and what partitions are used for what,

i've got two hard drives. they're maxtor sata drives, drive 0 has linux on it drive 1 has windows. if that helps...

voyciz · 10-18-2009, 02:39 AM

Check lilo.conf and at the bottom will be something like this:

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda3
label = Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Now don't change this. Instead, add this to the end of the file:

# Windows config begins
other = /dev/sdb1
label = Windows
# Windows config ends

And then run lilo and hopefully you won't get any errors.
Now try it. Of course, you'll need to change /dev/sdb1 to whatever your Windows partition is. If it's the secondary SATA drive, it will probably be /dev/sdb1. If in doubt, run "fdisk -l".

arubin · 10-18-2009, 04:33 PM

I have a similar setup with Windows on sda and linux on sdb. One possible cause of your problems is that your Windows setup has a small recovery partition on sdb1 and what you really need to boot is sdb2. You can check this out by running fdisk -l as root.