First, I admit I didn't do much searching on the forum to correct the problem, but frankly I'm exhausted researching the in's and out's of linux for several weeks now. I also have a bit of trouble finding help a lot because of how my rig is set up (duel boot with windows with 1 ssd for linux, a spare hdd, and two 1 tb hdds set together in two R0 partitions and 1 R1 partition (I know... long story).

Anyhow, for windows to work properly with the intel rapid response tech on the gigabyte mobo, I gave it 35ish gb of the ssd for cache. The rest is linux.

With Ubuntu, I put the bootloader on the ssd in general, 60gb for root, and 20 for home. Tried that today after downloading Slackware 14, and no go. I did make the usb drive at the end of the install for what I thought was supposed to be a backup bootloader, but it didn't work. I know I probably sound like an idiot right now, but I'm exhausted and just wanted to see my new os at least boot up.

I ended up choosing slackware because Ubuntu wouldn't use the hardware resources even close to what I wanted, I did some research, found out it catered more to laptops. I gave mint a try because it was supposed to be it for desktops, and I couldn't stand AT ALL. I really like the terminal so I can see exactly what the hell is going on, and after talking to someone more familiar with a variety of distros said slack should really be for me. I'm freakin excited to get it fired up, but too tired to figure it out on my own, lol. Somebody throw me a bone.

Hello Grimace78, welcome to LQ,

to give us an overview of your setup, please boot Linx (Slackware or Ubuntu or Live-CD/DVD), fire up a terminal and post the output of the following command: You are right that the usb-drive you can create at the end of the installation can be used as a backup-bootloader. But note that your Computer must support booting from USB for it to work, besides this your computer must have the correct boot-order (USB before Harddrive).

Didn't you install lilo while the installation? Did you install Slackware from DVD/CD? if so, you could simply boot the install-DVD again and reinstall lilo. If it's possible for you, you should also post your /etc/lilo.conf file here. This may help a lot. To achieve this, please when you've booted Linux, mount the partition where your Slackware / (root) resides and find lilo.conf in the /etc directory.

Markus

I will have the partition list up in a few, but can answer most of the questions already. As to booting from a usb, I have already booted into acronis recovery with a usb, and bios gives the option to boot from usb-hdd, usb-zip, and one more option (don't remember but will tell you in a sec. Since lilo installation failed, I just hit F12 and told it to boot from the usb, I got a symlink message, and the pc reboots itself back to the bios startup screen.
1. Installed 64bit with "huge" kernel from dvd iso
2. I did try to install lilo (twice actually) but it only gave me three options as to where. The first was what it referred to as the ssd "superblock", which failed even by using all the "safe" options for the install. The second was a floppy, which I would like to avoid, and the third was where the mbr for windows partition was, which is less than ideal since it is on a "fake raid" partition. The one gig I set aside for lilo didn't show up as an option.

3. Using fdisk, I set aside on the ssd these partitions:

dev/sdd1/ 1gb (intended for lilo)
dev/sdd5/ 60gb (for root)
dev/sdd6/ 20gb (for home)
dev/sdd7/ 8gb (for swap, specified 8gb to match my memory)

Thats what I got from memory, so I'll boot into it now and get the rest. Thanks for looking into this btw.

mh, lilo doesn't have it's own partition. You have for lilo (or any other bootloader) three options.
1) an external bootmedium like an USB-memorystick
2) the superblock of the / partition of the Slackwareinstallation
3) the MBR (masterbootrecord) of the harddisk.
The option 3) is useful in most cases when dualbooting with Windows. The option 2 is useful if you have other Linux-installations on the computer and one of the others has it's bootload installed into the MBR.

When you once have installed Ubuntu, where was it's bootloader (grub) installed? you should do the same with lilo. Did you delete the Ubuntu-installation? if not you could configure grub from Ubuntu to boot Slackware.

As of the RAID, the bootloader is not installed on a partition but in it's superblock or the MBR of the disk respectively, this means it resides outside of the partitions!

Could you please post your lilo.conf?

Markus

I would absolutely love to post my lilo.conf, but apparently I don't have one.

I'm a bit aggravated at this point. I may be a newb, and I do have a diagnosed attention problem, but I made the installation process simple freakin stupid. I disconnected all drives except the single SSD. I used cfdisk to make the entire drive a single bootable partition, which was later formatted to ext4. At every point in the install process, I used the "safe" option; everything seems good to go. Then comes lilo.

I tried the following options:

1. Install lilo automatically (on mbr, superblock, and floppy): RESULTS=FAIL
2. Make backup boot usb, which at this point booted the system 1 out of 10 times.
3. I created a lilo.conf in "expert" mode (which also failed to install), again, using the mbr option, the floppy option, and the superblock option. All failed.

If I use one hard drive, and choose all defaults for the install, what exactly is the point in having an automated installation process for lilo if it will not install using any of the options that it provides? 1 hd, 1 os, all defaults, auto install lilo in all three available locations provided in options and nothing but failure to install on a pc that has already duel booted windows with 2 different linux distributions.

If I understand you correctly, you have Ubuntu still running. Couldn't you configure Ubuntu (grub) to boot also Slackware?

The default, which most likely works is "Install lilo automatically" and then choose "install lilo into the MBR of the disk" this would automatically add Windows to the bootoptions and you'll have both Slackware and Windows bootable.

The problem is, when the computer isn't configured (in the bios) to boot from the ssd, you can do what you want, it will never work. Because in the moment you insert the other harddisk the bootorder will be the same as before. Note that the bootloader doesn't (can not!) change the bootorder of the disks. If you have lilo on the ssd installed you must configure your bios so that the ssd boots first.

Can't you (when Ubuntu is running) please open the rootdirectory of your Slackware-installation and check the lilo.conf, as well please post the output of fdisk -l (whenn all disks are inserted into the computer).

Markus

Firstly, I hope my irritation doesn't seem directed at you, and I realize that I am terrible at communicating when I get irritated. I'm going to go through your post word for word, and color code each of your statements with each of my responses so I can hopefully be a little more clear.

[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]No, Ubuntu was uninstalled when I installed the latest version of mint. Mint was uninstalled when I installed Slackware. [/COLOR]

That was actually the first thing that I tried, which resulted in Windows 7 becoming unbootable. Thankfully, I was able to restore the mbr with Acronis.

This is not the problems, as I have had the ssd first in line for the boot sequence for months, besides the fact that regardless of the boot order, I have always been able to boot from any drive in the hard drive array, including usb and cd/dvd/bluray rom, by hitting f12 and choosing which drive I want to boot from. Also, when there is only one source to boot from, (at least with my own hardware setup) the bios recognizes that when it boots, and attempts to boot from the only available source. I thought all pc's were like that, but I could be wrong as this is my first pc build and the issue never came up with the laptop I had before

I did not reconnect any of the other drives after I installed Slackware. Like I said, I did everything I could think of to reduce the variables down to a single operating system on a single boot source and boot it.

I will boot from the install disk and look for the lilo.config file again. If I can find it, I will post it. I looked for it in /etc/fstab before, but I know it's quite possible that I just missed it or was looking in the wrong place. It may take a while, but can't be helped. If you get sick of trying to help, trust me I get it and don't blame you.

When you have the install disk booted, simply (when logged in as root) execute
this will create a textfile fdisk.txt Which you should store anywhere and the post here.
If can (in the output of fdisk -l) can locate the directory of your Slackwareinstallation, you can mount it:
you can then store the lilo.conf anywhere and post here.

Markus