friends,
i lost my windows setup today and installed it again.it rechanged the order of my partitions and cdrom.my linux is installed(/) on hda8 but now its renamed as hda9.plz tell me if i can resue the installed linux or i have to install it all again.
linux rescue doesnt help either.lilo gets back to the same path.functions like dir,cd etc doesnt work on it.i have no access to /etc/lilo.conf
plz help

Try to boot with the installed system with the Mandrake CD/DVD.
Then you have to edit /etc/fstab, /etc/mtab and /etc/lilo.conf.
It is also possible to use the rescue system.

The Linux can be saved.

Perhaps the best way is to use a Live CD, just about any one will do. You boot to a Live CD, make a temp directory on /mnt, mount your hda9 on it then you edit /etc/fstab and /etc/lilo.conf to update all the partition references of hda8 to hda9. Finally you need to change root to hda9 and issue the "lilo" command in bash shell to update Lilo. The Linux should then be bootable.

I have moved Linux from a Sata to a IDE and from computer to computer and can confirm that there is nothing to worry about.

I provide the following instructions for you to consider

mkdir /mnt/temp
mount /dev/hda9 /mnt/temp

It would be better if you use the Live CD Linux desktop to edit the above two files.

For /etc/fstab you need to amend the first line which is the root and possibly the swap partition if it has been altered.

For /etc/lilo.conf it is the line "boot=" and the "root=" you may need to change. Not much to do really.

On completion of editing you change root into the distressed Linux by

chroot /mnt/temp
lilo

Lilo should inform you any error. Chances are you should get it bootable again.

If everything fails the system can still be booted by a Grub floppy. We can go into that later if needed.

By the way you do realise if you take out one logical partition between hda5 to hd8 then the whole thing will shift bach to the original position. You still need to do the change root and "lilo" bits if the relative position of hda8 has been altered by even one byte.

Thank you very much!!!
I have got Ubuntu live cd but it does not mount the partitions on its own.Of course the commands u gave will be easy for me to use.But what about -
On completion of editing you change root into the distressed Linux by
chroot /mnt/temp
lilo
What does this mean?I have to carry out those during my live cd session,isnt it?during the mandriva rescue mode i wonder why,it doesnt accpet the command cd/type and lilo.editing lilo.conf and etc/fstab wont do?

Thank you very much again,
bill

Thank you!
I was able to boot!
i used ubuntu live cd and edited lilo.conf and fstab but i want able to run chroot /mnt/temp as u mentioned.i did run lilo also.i hope it doesnt mean anything wrong.
i hope i woudnt be facing any problem again as identity of linux partions have changed.
thanks a lot.
bill

When you do a "chroot" you hoop from one Linux into another. That is an extremely powerful feature in Linux because you can then carry out rescuse work "inside" the distressed Linux.

Lilo boots by the recorded position of the hard disk (cylinder/head/sector position). If you change it you must re-validate it with the "lilo" command so that it can write out a revision of the boot loader. This is a particular feature of Lilo that "lilo" must be issued every time its configuration is altered, normally after an edit with lilo.conf.

Don't be afraid of the boot loaders because they are only here to serve you. The command "lilo" re-validates everything record Lilo keeps. Not issuing this command means Lilo will continue to use the old configuration which may not work in the changed environment. Lilo will then tell you with a screen with of 99 and L.