[SOLVED] 32-bit upgrade 14.1 to 14.2: no lilo display
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I'm not terribly familiar with innards of the install process, but I believe it is created when doing the lilo portion in the setup wizard after installation has completed (but before the installer actually exits... this is the same timeframe that network config, timezone config, etc are done).
That would explain the situation.
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But the error file might give a bit more of an indication on what is going on. Is it a text file that you can view?
I did not try to view it. I'd need to go through the entire installation process again to see if a new one is created; the one I saw might have been the result of my keystrokes trying to run 'joe lilo.conf.'
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Are you by chance running a newer system with UEFI? Maybe there is something going on with it that is causing your lilo issue. If you are running a UEFI-based system, you need to make sure you're running legacy (or mixed) mode to emulate BIOS support, or you'll need to switch to a UEFI-capable boot manager, since lilo doesn't support UEFI booting (elilo is used by default in Slackware, but it also includes grub2 -- both of which support UEFI).
Far from it. The Dell Latitude 2100 came out in 2009; I've no idea when they stopped production but it was a while ago. It has the Intel Atom N270 CPU and the Intel 945 PM/GS Express chipset. When I bought this used last year some time I had no problems installing Slackware-14.1/X86_i686 on it.
Before a reboot when installing Slackware, try looking in /mnt/etc which is where the new system should have been installed.
That's what I did when I dropped to a shell rather than reboot. There was no /etc/lilo.conf.
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When running lilo a second time you may have to use the -C option to point to the desired configuration file in /mnt/etc.
When I tried yesterday, /etc/lilo.conf existed and I checked that the display resolution was vga=normal. Trying to run /sbin/lilo failed as lilo could not find /etc/lilo.conf, even with the -C option.
Clarification to both Bassmadrigal and TracyTiger:
Apparently much is done by the installer in the short time between choosing to reboot after opening the optical drive door and the system rebooting, including creating /etc/lilo.conf and many other files in /etc.
I just booted off the installation dvd, logged in as root, and mounted /dev/sdb1 on /mnt. Viewing /mnt/etc/lilo.conf I see that it's already has the append line: append="nomodeset vt_default_utf8=0". This is the result of accepting defaults during installation.
One of the local linux guys seems to have found the source of the problem: on this 32-bit system using cfdisk and gpt partitions is not compatible with lilo. I had no issues using cfdisk and creating gpt partitions on the other two portables (both using the BIOS rather than UEFI).
I can use parted but that still seems to default to gpt partitions. The old standby, fdisk, gives me choices: gpt, dos, bsd, sci, and sun. I used fdisk years ago, never used parted and the help lists commands without teaching me how to use it.
There's a web page <http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:slackware_admin:installing_with_gpt_without_uefi>. I don't know if this will work on the 32-bit Latitude 2100.
Currently, the system is off with an empty partition table. Your advice, suggestions, and guidance continue to be appreciated.
I've been working with one of the SBo package maintainers Who has much deeper knowledge of Slackware than do I; for me, computers are tools and not ends of themselves. I've repartitioned the SSD from gpt to msdos, added nomodeset to /etc/lilo.conf (after mounting /dev/sda1 on /mnt and chroot there), and ran lilo. Did not see the expected message about adding kernels and assuming large disks.
My expert friend and I will get together, perhaps this coming weekend, and work to figure out just why I cannot see the lilo screen and boot the system on the internal drive.
Found the problem: bad medium. The 64-bit side of the DVD works fine, but the 32-bit side has some problem that does not appear until after installation when I try to boot the system. Installing over the network from an NFS drive works: the system boots now.
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