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Lilo displaying "01010101010101"

I recently installed Slackware 12.1 on a computer at work with hopes that it would work perfectly. Only to find out that when I rebooted I received the message "01 01 01" scrolling across the screen. I looked up the error message and it means:

Code:

Illegal Command

    This shouldn't happen, but if it does, it may indicate an attempt to access a disk which is not supported by the BIOS. Definitely check to see if the disk is seen by the BIOS first

However the disk is recognized by the bios. It has windows on it and worked perfectly fine before Slackware.

I CAN boot into it from the slackware cd via: 'hugesmp.s root=/dev/hda3 rinit= ro' and everything works perfect. I edited the lilo.conf file so it uses 'VGA = normal' instead of 1024x768x256. I ran /sbin/lilo and it gave me an error message stating:

Code:

Warning: Unable to determine video adapter in use in the present system.

Warning: Video Adapter does not support VESA BIOS extensions needed for display of 256 colors. Boot loader will fall back to TEXT only operation.

The video card I am using is an nVidia GeForce MX200. lspci recognizes it as that also. After slackware is booted from the install CD, I can start X and everything works perfect. It is just Lilo that has the problems.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
DragonM15

yes yes i think i remember this from a long time ago. why are you fiddling with VGA parameters?

to fix it i think maybe you can try putting grub on to the bootsector from a live CD, if that'll work. i dont know how though, you'll have to search.

The only reason that i messed with the VGA parameters was because it said it didn't support VESA BIOS extensions needed to display 256 colors. And 'VGA=NORMAL' fixed one of my other computers in the past. Although not from this error, but I figured it was worth a try. By default it was set to 256 colors so I thought that might help.

But WHY am I getting this error? It should be fine. Fresh install, and the bios recognizes the hard drive. I don't understand what the problem is here.

DragonM15

If you have more than one disk, the BIOS may report them in the wrong order. You can fix this by editing /boot/grub/device.map. An '01 01 01 ...' repeating error looks like you
installed Lilo rather than grub. Was there an "L" or "LI" or "LIL" or "LILO before the 01?

Slackware's default bootloader is lilo. I've no idea what the problem is, but maybe this should be moved to the Slackware forum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal (Post 3220102)

I restarted to check and see. It DOES display an L which indicates that the lilo bootloader cant load the second stage. Or at least that is hwat I have found online.

Yes I did install lilo as it is the default slackware bootloader.

Also, this might need to be moved to the slackware forum, but I thought I would get better responses in the Desktop forum since this is a desktop and I didnt think of it as OS specific. But I guess more OS's come with grub rather than lilo.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
DragonM15

Alright. I came up with the bright idea of running:

Code:

lilo -M /dev/hda

Thinking that the -M would reinstall lilo to the MBR (hence the -M), but now I have no boot-loader and M$ has taken control (my computer now boots XP by default and only slackware by CD)

Any ideas? I have ran out of mine.

Thanks,
DragonM15

No, not much idea here. You could try getting to your /etc/lilo.conf, with a live CD, see what that says, possibly edit it, then rerun lilo. :scratch:

You could also try GRUB if there isn't a specific reason you wan't to use LILO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL (Post 3231820)

No, not much idea here. You could try getting to your /etc/lilo.conf, with a live CD, see what that says, possibly edit it, then rerun lilo. :scratch:

I can boot into linux just fine with the Slackware install disk, lilo.conf is as follows:

Code:

# LILO configuration file

# generated by 'liloconfig'

#

# Start LILO global section

# Append any additional kernel parameters:

append=" vt.default_utf8=0"

boot = /dev/hda



# Boot BMP Image.

# Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8

  bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp

# Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted

# foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow):

  bmp-colors = 255,0,255,0,255,0

# Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of

# columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many

# entries must be in the first column before the next begins to

# be used.  We don't specify it here, as there's just one column.

  bmp-table = 60,6,1,16

# Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color,

# background color, shadow color.

  bmp-timer = 65,27,0,255



# Standard menu.

# Or, you can comment out the bitmap menu above and 

# use a boot message with the standard menu:

#message = /boot/boot_message.txt



# Wait until the timeout to boot (if commented out, boot the

# first entry immediately):

prompt

# Timeout before the first entry boots.

# This is given in tenths of a second, so 600 for every minute:

timeout = 1200

# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:

change-rules

  reset

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256

# vga = 773

# Normal VGA console

vga = normal

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k

# vga=791

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k

# vga=790

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256

# vga=773

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k

# vga=788

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k

# vga=787

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256

# vga=771

# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k

# vga=785

# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k

# vga=784

# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256

# vga=769

# End LILO global section

# Linux bootable partition config begins

image = /boot/vmlinuz

  root = /dev/hda3

  label = Linux

  read-only

# Linux bootable partition config ends

# Windows bootable partition config starts

other = /dev/hda1

  label = Windows

  table = /dev/hda

# Windows bootable partition config ends

Fadoksi, I am highly considering using grub. I will have to do some research on installing it. Have you had any experience installing grub from a system that originally comes with lilo?

Thanks,
DragonM15

Alright, so I removed lilo, and installed grub from the slackware cd's 'extra' folder. I ran grubconfig and my menu.lst file looks like:

Code:

# GRUB configuration file '/boot/grub/menu.lst'.

# generated by 'grubconfig'.  Thu Jul 31 08:20:30 2008

#

# The backup copy of the MBR for drive '/dev/hda' is

# here '/boot/grub/mbr.hda.3624'.  You can restore it like this.

# dd if=mbr.hda.3624 of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

#

# Start GRUB global section

#timeout 30

#color light-gray/blue black/light-gray

# End GRUB global section

# Other bootable partition config begins

  title Windows on (/dev/hda1)

  rootnoverify (hd0,0)

  makeactive

  chainloader +1

# Other bootable partition config ends

# Linux bootable partition config begins

  title Linux on (/dev/hda3)

  root (hd0,2)

  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 ro vga=773

# Linux bootable partition config ends

title --- For help press 'c', type: 'help'

root (hd0)

title --- For usage examples, type: 'cat /boot/grub/grub.txt'

root (hd0)

However, when I boot I receive the following error:

Code:

Grub loading stage1.5

Grub loading, please wait... 

Error 17

I did some looking and one of the ideas for fixing this problem is to go into the bios and changing settings of the hard drive to 'drive type=user' and 'mode=Auto'. I switched the type to user, but i couldnt find anything for mode that had LBA, large, normal, and auto anywhere in my bios. I am sure that these errors are related. should I run a tool such as spinrite to check the drive for errors? Or do you think it is a bios problem? I have looked through my bios and haven't found anything that looks out of the ordinary.

Thanks,
DragonM15

I haven't a clue as to what the solution is. The menu.lst and lilo.conf both look OK as far as I can tell. Need someone with more knowledge to notice this.

It might help if you gave more details regarding your hardware, mobo, drives, bios etc.

To me, it sounds like a BIOS problem, or, not a problem, but the way the disk is set up in bios. If you have a grub boot disk, have you tried booting from the grub prompt from the boot disk rather than installing it to the MBR?

The video non recognition also points to an unusual bios setup. Sometime "shadowing" of ROM in RAM is setup in the bios or some other unusual memory setup. These should be turned off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mostlyharmless (Post 3232373)

It might help if you gave more details regarding your hardware, mobo, drives, bios etc.

Output of lspci:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82850 850 (Tehama) Chipset Host Bridge (MCH) (rev 04)

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82850 850 (Tehama) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 04)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 04)

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801BA IDE U100 Controller (rev 04)

00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 04)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller (rev 04)

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11DDR [GeForce2 MX200] (rev b2)

02:01.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)

02:01.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)

02:01.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 02)

02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM/CA/CAM Ethernet Controller (rev 03)

02:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] (rev 09)

hdparm -iI output:

Code:

/dev/hda:



 Model=Maxtor 6Y160P0, FwRev=YAR41BW0, SerialNo=Y41SAF1E

 Config={ Fixed }

 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57

 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=7936kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off

 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=320173056

 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}

 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 

 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 

 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6 

 AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled

 Drive conforms to: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 0:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7



 * signifies the current active mode





ATA device, with non-removable media

        Model Number:      Maxtor 6Y160P0                          

        Serial Number:      Y41SAF1E            

        Firmware Revision:  YAR41BW0

Standards:

        Used: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 0 

        Supported: 7 6 5 4 

Configuration:

        Logical                max        current

        cylinders        16383        16383

        heads                16        16

        sectors/track        63        63

        --

        CHS current addressable sectors:  16514064

        LBA    user addressable sectors:  268435455

        LBA48  user addressable sectors:  320173056

        device size with M = 1024*1024:      156334 MBytes

        device size with M = 1000*1000:      163928 MBytes (163 GB)

Capabilities:

        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)

        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum

        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16        Current = 0

        Advanced power management level: disabled

        Recommended acoustic management value: 192, current value: 254

        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6 

            Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns

        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 

            Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns

Commands/features:

        Enabled        Supported:

          *        SMART feature set

                    Security Mode feature set

          *        Power Management feature set

          *        Write cache

          *        Look-ahead

          *        Host Protected Area feature set

          *        WRITE_VERIFY command

          *        WRITE_BUFFER command

          *        READ_BUFFER command

          *        NOP cmd

          *        DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE

                    Advanced Power Management feature set

                    SET_MAX security extension

          *        Automatic Acoustic Management feature set

          *        48-bit Address feature set

          *        Device Configuration Overlay feature set

          *        Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE

          *        FLUSH_CACHE_EXT

          *        SMART error logging

          *        SMART self-test

Security: 

        Master password revision code = 65534

                supported

        not        enabled

        not        locked

                frozen

        not        expired: security count

        not        supported: enhanced erase

HW reset results:

        CBLID- above Vih

        Device num = 0 determined by CSEL

Checksum: correct

cpuinfo output:

Code:

processor        : 0

vendor_id        : GenuineIntel

cpu family        : 15

model                : 1

model name        : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.80GHz

stepping        : 2

cpu MHz                : 1794.595

cache size        : 256 KB

fdiv_bug        : no

hlt_bug                : no

f00f_bug        : no

coma_bug        : no

fpu                : yes

fpu_exception        : yes

cpuid level        : 2

wp                : yes

flags                : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm up pebs bts sync_rdtsc

bogomips        : 3593.15

clflush size        : 64

meminfo output:

Code:

MemTotal:      1030188 kB

MemFree:        77892 kB

Buffers:        68312 kB

Cached:        566032 kB

SwapCached:          0 kB

Active:        452124 kB

Inactive:      443620 kB

HighTotal:      130816 kB

HighFree:          260 kB

LowTotal:      899372 kB

LowFree:        77632 kB

SwapTotal:      498004 kB

SwapFree:      498004 kB

Dirty:            2856 kB

Writeback:          0 kB

AnonPages:      261400 kB

Mapped:          76800 kB

Slab:            36504 kB

SReclaimable:    25732 kB

SUnreclaim:      10772 kB

PageTables:      1876 kB

NFS_Unstable:        0 kB

Bounce:              0 kB

CommitLimit:  1013096 kB

Committed_AS:  731416 kB

VmallocTotal:  114680 kB

VmallocUsed:    29388 kB

VmallocChunk:    81908 kB

The desktop is a Gateway E4650 with the stock motherboard
Intel bios version MV85010A.a5A.0035.P04

I did some poking around in google but couldn't find a bios manual for your specific model. Doesn't look like Gateway keeps those things on record for their legacy products. However, I'm surprised that there isn't a LBA/auto option anywhere in the bios, as the Intel site seemed to indicate that it was an option. Boards of this era (mine is of similar vintage) typically did not support LBA2 out of the box. For Windows, typically a driver from Intel or Microsoft (XP SP1 and after) provided support > 128 G. Of course, once you get past BIOS and boot the system, slackware, like Windows, will have no problem supporting the hardware. You might try some lilo options like "lba32" or "linear" if you want to go back to lilo, I'm not sure about the relevant options for grub.

Sounds like some kind of windows problem

Quote:

Originally Posted by MafiaTux (Post 3233985)

Sounds like some kind of windows problem

Umm. Not quite sure how you mean, considering windows isnt started up yet, nor have I started it in the last few days... Yes windows did take control when I "installed" lilo to the master boot record of hda, however after I installed grub it gave me another error message. So what exactly do you mean its a "windows problem"?

DragonM15

Quote:

Fadoksi, I am highly considering using grub. I will have to do some research on installing it. Have you had any experience installing grub from a system that originally comes with lilo?

When I had Slackware some time in the past, I replaced LILO with GRUB since I like it more. I had no problems with it. If the BIOS causes the problem maybe a BIOS upgrade would be a good idea.

I didn't see any support, including BIOS upgrade for his system on Gateway's site.

I am a dozy **** (as we say in Oldham), I should have noticed lba32 was missing from your lilo.conf, it's recommended to put it in the global options. Although I wouldn't have known whether that was causing the problem.

I am not sure where to go from here. I have looked through the bios multiple times trying to find something that I didnt see the time before and have come up empty handed. I added lba32 to my lilo.conf and reloaded lilo, but it still gives me the "L 01 01 01" error. My lilo.conf now looks like this:

Code:

# LILO configuration file

# generated by 'liloconfig'

#

# Start LILO global section

# Append any additional kernel parameters:

append=" vt.default_utf8=0"

boot = /dev/hda



# Boot BMP Image.

# Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8

  bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp

# Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted

# foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow):

  bmp-colors = 255,0,255,0,255,0

# Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of

# columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many

# entries must be in the first column before the next begins to

# be used.  We don't specify it here, as there's just one column.

  bmp-table = 60,6,1,16

# Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color,

# background color, shadow color.

  bmp-timer = 65,27,0,255



# Standard menu.

# Or, you can comment out the bitmap menu above and

# use a boot message with the standard menu:

#message = /boot/boot_message.txt



# Wait until the timeout to boot (if commented out, boot the

# first entry immediately):

prompt

# Timeout before the first entry boots.

# This is given in tenths of a second, so 600 for every minute:

timeout = 1200

# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:

lba32

change-rules

  reset

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256

# vga = 773

# Normal VGA console

vga = normal

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k

# vga=791

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k

# vga=790

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256

# vga=773

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k

# vga=788

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k

# vga=787

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256

# vga=771

# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k

# vga=785

# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k

# vga=784

# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256

# vga=769

# End LILO global section

# Windows bootable partition config begins

other = /dev/hda1

  label = Windows

  table = /dev/hda

# Windows bootable partition config ends

# Linux bootable partition config begins

image = /boot/vmlinuz

  root = /dev/hda3

  label = Linux

  read-only

# Linux bootable partition config ends

Should the lba32 option be put somewhere else, or is it fine where it is at?

Thanks,
DragonM15

I put it just after reset, before all the framebuffer entries. Not sure if it matters, as long as it's in the global options.

Did you try "linear"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mostlyharmless (Post 3241268)

Did you try "linear"?

I tried linear, lba32, and I also moved it up to in between the framebuffer entries and reset. All no no avail. I still receive the
L 01 01 01 01.... error.

I am convinced at this point that the problem exists in the bios, but I have looked and looked and can't find anything that looks wrong. I find it kinda wierd that I have never had this problem on ANY other computer I have installed linux on. Anyways, I will take another look through the bios for the heck of it and hope I can see something.

DragonM15

Just an idea, since nothing else is working..

Going back to Grub, I wonder whether the problem is at Stage 1.5 or 2; rather than try grubconfig (which I've had problems with), try making a grub boot floppy or use SuperGrub (http://www.supergrubdisk.org )and install grub straight from the grub prompt. If nothing else, the grub shell commands about the geometry might be helpful or illuminating.

I had this problem a while back. I think its an MBR problem, I just cant remember what I did to fix it :(

but I dont think its logical to install grub (and you say you have done that, and it still wont work) lilo works perfectly well, somethings just gone a bit wrong in this case.

as a last resort I think if you re-installed slackware it would probably solve the problem.

I think that may have been what I did in the end.

I have no experience with LILO, but seeing as you received a GRUB error 17 i know what the problem is. Your hard drive order is all screwey (or not). I've come across this many many times and the solution is almost always the same. It's rather difficult to explain this, but here's my attempt:

BIOS is reporting your hard drives to GRUB as:

hd0
hd1
hd2

GRUB sees these drives in the same manor, which is why GRUB started to load (the MBR for the correct drive was obviously found). However, the GRUB menu.lst config file reports the drives as they're /dev name:

hda
hdb
hdc

Here's the neat part that angers me. Not always does hda = hd0 etc etc. This is when errors start to happen. GRUB from MBR is looking for /boot in the wrong place because the naming scheme got all whack somewhere during installation/probing. Solution: Manually locate /boot and re-establish GRUB's understanding of its location.

Here's how:

As stated before, make a GRUB boot floppy disk and boot up the computer with this floppy (if no floppy drive is available i think a USB flashdrive might work, but i haven't tried it). You will be presented with the GRUB prompt.

From the GRUB prompt you need to determine which drive is what (hd0, hd1, etc) including their partitions (hd0,0 hd0,1 etc). You need to get a clear understanding and pin point your /boot directory (it's in / partition unless you gave /boot its own partition) and you also need to pinpoint which drive's MBR contains GRUB.

Now, let's tell GRUB which partition contains /boot. Example:

root (hd0,1)

Now lets re-setup GRUB in the MBR. Example:

setup (hd0)

That should be it. If you've correctly identified the correct drives & partitions when you reboot GRUB should load. If not, try try again. ;)

i had the same problem and i remember what i did , since it happen recently
i had the hda1 (with the mbr ofc ) on the primary IDE as a SLAVE
it seems that there was some confusion with the entries and identifications of hda1 since it searched it as Master
so i opened the case and switched from SLAVE TO MASTER the hd and the dvd-r on primary IDE
hope it hlps :)