Install LILO onto a Win98 [only] system

DaveQB · 10-03-2005, 06:44 PM

Got a mate and his wifes computer here. There MBR is messed up. Just need to get a bootloader on there to boot Win98. Apparently, from what i have read, the fdisk /mbr command doesnt over wipe an XP or LILO bootloader.

So i need to config a lilo.conf file to boot Win98 and run it.

Thought this would be easy with a LiveCD but no.

Get the error:

"/boot/map~ is read-only"

I have altered the lilo.conf not to reference the /boot dir but still get the same error. So how does one install LILO from a LiveCD ???

thanx

michaelk · 10-03-2005, 07:18 PM

Yes, fdisk /mbr will overwrite lilo as well as anything existing from XP.

DaveQB · 10-03-2005, 07:55 PM

Hmmm i did that, several times, and lilo still pops up, (which currently has no reference to the Win98 install)

[had to copy system from old failing disk to a spare one, imaging wouldnt work.]

Hope to get them on Linux soon, but first things first, they are a sceptical pair, so need some work

b0nd · 10-03-2005, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DaveQB
Got a mate and his wifes computer here. There MBR is messed up. Just need to get a bootloader on there to boot Win98. Apparently, from what i have read, the fdisk /mbr command doesnt over wipe an XP or LILO bootloader.

So i need to config a lilo.conf file to boot Win98 and run it.

Thought this would be easy with a LiveCD but no.

Get the error:

"/boot/map~ is read-only"

I have altered the lilo.conf not to reference the /boot dir but still get the same error. So how does one install LILO from a LiveCD ???

thanx

Hello,
you can restore original MBR by either:

1. fdisk /mbr ( which u have already tried )
2. /sbin/lilo -u ( run this command from linux console )

regards

DaveQB · 10-03-2005, 10:30 PM

So run lilo -u from a LiveCD ???

Where would lilo reads its configuration from then, then??

b0nd · 10-04-2005, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DaveQB
So run lilo -u from a LiveCD ???

Where would lilo reads its configuration from then, then??

one thing i'm not clear is that whether u have access to windows or linux ???

anyways. if u have to linux just get in and run
#/sbin/lilo -u

if u don't have access then using live cd u can do this

regards

DaveQB · 10-05-2005, 12:38 AM

Perhaps I should of made it clearer in the title of the thread.

Its a Win98 system ONLY.

looking up the lilo man pages it says the -u switch is to "Uninstall lilo by copying the saved boot sector back. "

But running froma liveCD there would be no saved boot sector

b0nd · 10-05-2005, 01:12 AM

hello,
read this

if it doesn't helps u, intimate us.
regards

mangec · 10-05-2005, 01:53 AM

Try lilo -U, so that it doesn t try to restore the old one.

DaveQB · 10-05-2005, 06:52 AM

Well with all this fiddling around the partition table became corupt. So took the gamble and fdisked the disk again, with the win98 fdisk, formatted with win98 boot CD and copied over the data again. The donor HDD stayed alive long enough to do this opertion again and it was bootable with old fdisk /mbr

Thanx guys.