lilo fatal: first sector.....

HmmLinux · 09-22-2005, 10:23 AM

after having installed a new kernel I configured lilo so it will boot with the new kernel but when i run lilo I get this error.

Code:

Fatal: First sector of /dev/hda1 doesn't have a valid boot signature

fdisk -l /dev/hda gives:

Code:

Device Boot      Start End     Blocks           ID     System
 /dev/hda1          1     62     497983+        82    Linux/swap
 /dev/hda2*       63   1886  14651280      83    Linux
 /dev/hda3       1887 4865  23928817+    83    Linux

anyone who knows why it does what it do, and what to do to correct it?

thanks for helping out

/ Tony

jailbait · 09-22-2005, 12:05 PM

"anyone who knows why it does what it do, and what to do to correct it?"

The problem might be in your /etc/lilo.conf file. Could you post /etc/lilo.conf?

--------------------------------
Steve Stites

HmmLinux · 09-22-2005, 01:01 PM

what's not showing here is comment out from lilo.conf. hope this will help

Code:

lba32
boot=/dev/hda
root=/dev/hda2
install=/boot/boot-menu.b
map=/boot/map
delay=20
vga=normal

image=/vmlinuz
    label=Linux
     read-only
#   restricted
#   alias=1

image=/vmlinuz.old
    label=LinuxOLD
    read-only
#   optional
#   restricted
#   alias=2

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.2.6.8
    label=Debian-2.6.8
    read-only
#   alias=n
#   vga=ask
#   optional

jailbait · 09-22-2005, 05:14 PM

"Fatal: First sector of /dev/hda1 doesn't have a valid boot signature"

This messge means that lilo has been told to install its boot record on /dev/hda1 and that is an invalid place to put it. In your lilo.conf the line:
boot=/dev/hda
tells lilo to put its boot record on the MBR. Did you tell lilo otherwise when you ran the lilo command? If you just ran the command:
lilo
then lilo should have placed the boot record on the MBR and everything should work OK.

-----------------------------
Steve Stites

saikee · 09-22-2005, 06:53 PM

Just do a

lilo -b /dev/hda

that will place lilo in the MBR for you.

HmmLinux · 09-26-2005, 06:48 PM

This is what i have done so far without any result.

First I did:

Code:

lilo -b /dev/hda

After that:

Code:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/mbr_hda bs=512 count=1

I have opend the file /home/mbr_hda with an hexeditor and changed the value on 0000:01BE from 00 to 80.

I have also tried fdisk like this:

Code:

fdisk /dev/hda
a
1
w

Tried this as well:

Code:

lilo -P fix -v 5

what more can I do? nothing seems to work. any more ideas, anyone? I really want the box to work.

saikee · 10-14-2005, 09:30 AM

Not sure of the various alternatives you have tried, but

When the command

lilo -b /dev/hda

is issued while you are running the Linux as the root user, Lilo would report any error if there is one. Normally it would confirm every booting entry has been "added" or reports a "fatal error" if it finds the partition unbootable.

sbrookfield · 01-08-2009, 12:10 PM

I just had a similar problem and fixed it by reducing the amount of entries in my lilo.conf, hope it helps the next person!