Lilo only on MBR?

Teoryn · 01-25-2004, 11:45 AM

I have tried installing Slackware a few times now, but every time I was only successful if Lilo was installed to the MBR. I never tried floppy because I don't want to boot off floppies, and when I did it on the Hard drive in the linux partition, it didn't work. The computer turned on and after displaying the regular BIOS stuff and "Loading OS" it just displayed LS 99 99 99 and so on for about 10-15 rows. I am Running a Dell XPS H266 (not related to the new XPS's, this is about 7 years old i think)

Thanks,
Teoryn

jtshaw · 01-25-2004, 11:55 AM

Is installing LILO on the MBR a problem for you? It can boot any OS, not just linux so I don't know why you wouldn't want it on the MBR.

Teoryn · 01-25-2004, 02:47 PM

No, It isnt a problem, it's just I wondered why it didnt work.

gnashley · 01-25-2004, 03:12 PM

From what I understand you would install lilo to the superblock of the linux partition when you want to use another boot loader such as grub. grub resides in the MBR and is then pointed to the superblock and lilo runs from there.

jtshaw · 01-25-2004, 03:19 PM

Ya, that would work, but it is pretty silly because grub can boot linux directly just as well as lilo can. I think that would only be worth while if you had a bootloader you couldn't get ride of on the MBR that didn't know how to boot linux but could chainload other bootloaders.

Teoryn · 01-25-2004, 03:26 PM

Ok, Thanks, now I understand.

Allen614 · 01-28-2004, 07:11 AM

You can use the "ntldr" for Windows instead of Lilo. It's a fairly simple setup.

nesware · 01-28-2004, 05:04 PM

change the drive LBA setting in the BIOS ... just change it and rerun lilo...until all lilo errors disapear... could also be a simple jumper on the drive... like master or one drive only settings...
the linux kernel is really good but lilo is REALLY bad... hhehehehe

subaruwrx · 03-28-2004, 03:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by nesware
change the drive LBA setting in the BIOS ... just change it and rerun lilo...until all lilo errors disapear... could also be a simple jumper on the drive... like master or one drive only settings...
the linux kernel is really good but lilo is REALLY bad... hhehehehe

Sorry whats the LBA drive settings about? It made my friend lost all the files on his HDD.

subaruwrx · 03-30-2004, 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by subaruwrx
Sorry whats the LBA drive settings about? It made my friend lost all the files on his HDD.

yea?