Dear All,
I have slack9 linux alongwith win98(only since some other family members too use this PC

I had made a slack bootable floppy and was booting Slack with floppy. Unfortunately the floppy is overwritten by something else.

My question is how do I make another bootable floppy for this Linux?

Thanks for your time and knowldge.
Rajesh.

If your system uses mkbootdisk, that would be much easier which is described below. The second method is abit more stuff to do but it works also.

Easy Way.
Create a linux boot floppy mkbootdisk - -device <device> < kernel version>
At the prompt, type: uname –r ( to find the kernel version)
mkbootdisk - - device /dev/fd0 2.4.18-24.8.0


Harder Way. Not too bad though.
fdformat /dev/fd0 and mkfs.ext2 /dev/fd0

mount /mnt/floppy
cd /mnt/floppy
mkdir etc
mkdir boot
cp /boot/boot.b /mnt/floppy/boot
cp /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-24.8.0 /mnt/floppy/boot
cp /boot/initrd-2.4.18-24.8.0.img /mnt/floppy/boot

Start editing etc/lilo.conf (make sure you edit the one on the floppy).
In my example I am using the vi editor but you can use other methods to edit the /etc/lilo.conf if you want.

vi /mnt/floppy/etc/lilo.conf
boot=/dev/fd0
install=/boot/boot.b
MAP=/mnt/floppy/boot/map
read-only
lba32
image=/mnt/floppy/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-24.8.0
label=linux
root=/dev/hda1

Note: change the kernel version and root line to suit your system

Thanks.
But this all will work when my linux partition will boot.
I am not able to boot my linux partition. Also there is no fdformat command on my slackware Distribution CD.

Is there any way that I can recover my linux partition making it bootable without using anything else than my own computer, my slackware distribution cd and a blank floppy?

Please help.
Thanks.
Rajesh.

If your computer is capable of booting from CD (some older ones aren't), then you can use your install disc to boot. When it gets to the first prompt, type:

mount root=/dev/hda2 (assuming that your root partition is hda2, of course)

You can find more information about this in FAQ.TXT and BOOTING.TXT on the install disc.

Then you can use the makebootdisk command. In Slackware, you don't need to use any options, though. The command makebootdisk will launch a ncurses-based program that will guide you through the process of creating the floppy. But then again, unless you're planning to compile a custom kernel, you can skip making a boot floppy and always use your install disc to boot.

Enjoy!
--- Cerbere

[edit]
If you can't boot from a CD, then (in window$) read the file loadlin16c.txt in the /kernels directory of your install disc. It has instructions for booting from DOS to Linux.
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