Well, Here we go. I think I got my LILO problem figured out. I HAVE to get a partition on the primary HD for it to work, or boot from floppy. Fine I can deal with that.

I am still having kernel compiling problems. Actually I got it compiled, bzimage d, but where I have been reading to make changes in some folders i am not seeing the folders in the locations the guides are saying there in.

So, on a last ditch effort to get this working and working right I have what is probably going to be the only way left I am going to get this working right. Does anyone use any voice-enabled chat programs that have a compatible program in windows, and would be willing to walk thru it with me?

I have a pile of guides 2" high that I have tried following but none are followable (<is that a word?) to completeion. I have tried getting help in #debian on irc.debian.org, but they all seem to think that everyone should know everything. I am trying to learn but this is getting amazingly confusing. It can't be hard to compile a kernal to be able to install drivers/etc. I think at this point the version of debian I have downloaded may put some of the folders in different places?

Nope you do not need a primary partition , all you need is an entry in lilo.config that points the boot loader to where your root partition is !!!

If you need the exact code, can sort it out monday for you, i'm home at the moment and booting from a primary.. so it's not needed.

Evil!!

If you need a guide for kernel compiling, i'll be available tomorrow. drop me a mail and we'll sort it out..

Hello there! What's the actual problem though, I'm not sure I follow. I see that you are having some difficulty with something, but I can't really tell what?

Is it installing, kernel compiling, partitioning, configuring LILO, or all of the above and more?

Do you believe your problem to be Debian specific, and you might be better helped in the Debian forum? If so, I'll be happy to move your post for you.

Cool

that would be kewl! the way it is now when I try to boot I just get 01 01 01 01 thru the whole screen. I tried re-running lilo but same thing happens

Post up your lilo.conf and in the meantime, I'll move this to the Debian forum...

Cool

check that:
1-lilo is in the first 1024 cylinders of HD(cylinders 0<->1023)
2-LBA mode is off(or on?can't remember.... )(you can change this in your BIOS)

well, I tried grub, and got the same thing. How do I know if it is in the FIRST 1024? it was supposed to be put in the mbr ofthe pri master. Anyone know of any problems with ASUS a7n8x boards an booting?


The History:
Drives are running in LBA mode.

Primary Master 40gig This drive has Windows XP pro on it NTFS file format.

Primary Slave: 80 Gig This is in ntfs format and has all my download files.

Secondary Master: 60Gig Linux drive: Has boot part, root, usr, and home parts.

the MBR is in the first 1024 cylinder but you can also put LILO in second or third partition, so it can be out of 1024 cylinder anyway.
Try to set LBA mode off...
To tell the whole true...i found these hints in an HOWTO, but they didn't work in my case, so i switched to GRUB and it worked!
If you can, try to make a 5-10 MB partition in PRI MASTER, and be sure is the first partition on that disk(starting on the 0 cylinder).
Mount it as /boot and put LILO in it...usually work!