After Installation Slackware Won't Boot & Lilo won't install
 

:newbie:
I have made 4 partitions /dev/hda1 reiserfs primary bootable, /dev/hda6 fat, /dev/hda7 ntfs and /dev/hda8 swap(the last 3 logical). I have tried installing slackware on hda1. When I skip the lilo-installation(had read in the slackware book that this should work fine), the system shows "Unable to load operating system" after reboot. I have tried to install lilo in both MBR and the first sector of hda1 but I become the same message "Sorry can't install lilo to..." (or something very similar, the message goes away too fast). My computer does not own floppy drive, so there is no other option for me.
Previously I had Win XP(on the first primary partion) and Slack on hda7 and it was not a problem to install lilo in MBR, so I think there isn't any BIOS restriction. But I want to get rid of windows. Now I don't know what else i can do. Any help would be usefull, for which I want to thank in advance.
_______________________________________
Slackware 10.2 with dafault kernel
Laptop, 1.5GHz,512Mb,hdd 60Gig

Don't worry, you can still boot into Slackware using the CD.
Put CD 1, but normally, once you get to the prompt do this:
In liloconfig choose expert mode and install to MBR.
Be sure you don't have any USB pendrive/harddisk plugged in, it may cause some conflicts...

Did you use fidsk or cfdisk to make the partitions.
I had almost the same problems when I used cfdisk to make the partitions. When I used fdisk I made my partitions making the swap /dev/hda1 and the root /dev/hda2. Installed the default kernel and put LILO on mbr and all my problems went away.

It seems in cfdisk the hda# is assigned random and with fdisk you say partition #1 is this and #2 is that.

Just goes to show the command prompt is always the best.

Good Luck
Bob Oehler
:newbie:

Hi,

Bob, cfdisk doesn't assign random partition numbers! It assigns the same as fdisk. But there have been issues with cfdisk. I always recommend that you write your partition table then reboot to bring the new partition table that was updated.

As for the OP, your IPL may be corrupted on the MBR. One easy way is to use utility to update/ rewrite the IPL. Ranish is a good choice. You can get it with the SystemRescueCD (live-cd).

http://oldzipsarchive.dyndns.org/gho...D_homepage.htm

Another way would be rewrite it using dd, this has been covered many times. I'll leave it as a google assignment.


HTH!

How did you wipe you wipe W2000? SW installer can't do it if ntfs partitions involved. PM8($70 and requires win/dos) or qtparted from linux rescue live-cd or mepis,kanotix live-cds can or UBCD4Win or linux version at www.ultimatebootcd.com can also. Debian's partman can too. You can have 4 primary partitions on HD, an extended partitn. can have any number of logical partitns. Linux can install to logical or primary.
Hope you can rescue your SW install. But new install can work with some disk preparation. Happy slacking:)

Try boot with a win98 cd to DOS CLI, then fdisk/mbr

after that, boot with slackware cd, do all the installations. When get to the lilo installation part, choose expert mode, generate a lilo.conf file, install on MBR. Then skip the lilo install.

When everything is done, goto /mnt/etc, type 'lilo lilo.conf'. If you get something like:

Linux *
Windows

Then it should be okay.

I overwrote MBR with fdisk, now everything works fine. Thanks everybody for the help.:)