bootable floppy problem

thrix · 01-24-2004, 10:55 AM

Hi there,
I've just installed my new kernel 2.6.1 to my RedHat 9.0 linux and want to make a boot floppy, to be able to run the new kernel. I have damaged MBR on my main disk, so I can't boot from it. When I installed RedHat i created a boot floppy too, which i use for booting instead of hdd.
But when i boot now from it, it boots the old kernel. how could i make a new one to boot with my new kernel?
thanx

g-rod · 01-24-2004, 12:21 PM

I would fix you MBR first.
1) Boot using the floppy.
2) Run grub-install (as root)
3) Reboot without the floppy
If that works then add the new kernel to /etc/grub.conf.
The floppy actually has the kernel on it. It is not a boot loader. It loads kernel and then mounts you filesystem. Unlike a boot load which looks for a kernel to load and loads the kernel and then passes everything off to that kernel. I have over simplified this, but you get the idea.

thrix · 01-25-2004, 04:59 AM

Thanx g-rod,
but my hdd is somehow damaged and i can't boot from it.
I tried to fix MBR, but it didn't work. I tried couple times low level format, but it helped me only once. Is there any utility which could somehoew diagnose my problem?

UltimaGuy · 01-25-2004, 05:57 AM

Try to see if your RH install disk-1 detects your HDD...

thrix · 01-25-2004, 06:08 AM

Sure it does, with instalation wasn.t any problem. Only when I boot from hdd it writes out only LILO and freezes. Once I made a low level and it worked, but after i installed linux and it was the sme bug again. I don't know how to solve this disc puzzle. Is there any utility for complete MBR check?

UltimaGuy · 01-25-2004, 06:24 AM

Did you check for bad sectors in your hdd before installing linux?

thrix · 01-25-2004, 08:33 AM

no i didn't but i did it, when i was using fat32 on it, and no bad sectors were found!

UltimaGuy · 01-25-2004, 08:47 AM

Maybe the problem is with lilo. Will you please post what the error messages are so that we can get a better understanding?

Quite a few times, problems with lilo stop the system, so post the lilo messages. They are quite useful for diagnostics too...

thrix · 01-25-2004, 08:50 AM

Sure i can, but the problem isn't with lilo, because grub does the same. And winXp too, Dos boot too. So the problem must be with my hdd, i think i will try a low level on it sometimes again.

g-rod · 01-25-2004, 08:50 AM

OK. You are using LILO as you boot loader not grub. If during boot you get LILO that means that LILO has loaded correctly. Your MBR is not damage, but it doesn't know what to do next.
Boot the system using the floppy and run lilo. Try to reboot without the floppy. If that does not work then post you
/etc/lilo.conf and /etc/fstab files
and the output from
fdisk -l;
mount;

thrix · 01-25-2004, 08:55 AM

g-rod
then why does winxp booting, dos booting and grub do the same?

UltimaGuy · 01-25-2004, 08:55 AM

Yes, if lilo loads then the problem is not with the MBR. That's why I asked for the errors that lilo gave, as it will generally be very informative.

UltimaGuy · 01-25-2004, 08:57 AM

WinXP,grub anything will not boot if the partition info stored is not correct!

Generally, the errors given out by lilo or grub in this regard is very informative, but that is not the case of WinXP.

thrix · 01-25-2004, 08:59 AM

Ok, just a simple question. I now have 2 hdd. the hdc is that with booting problems, and hda is the good one, where i have winxp installed. now what i have to change to boot from hdc?

UltimaGuy · 01-25-2004, 09:00 AM

Where is the boot loader installed?

In hda or hdc?