Can't install boot loader- both Grub and Lilo failed. And other problems.
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Can't install boot loader- both Grub and Lilo failed. And other problems.
I have a Dell Inspiron 1721. Recently I replaced Windows Vista Home Edition (32 bit) with Slackware Linux 13.
Lilo wouldn't work, when I turned on the computer it printed "Li" and then 20 lines of 090909... and then the computer would hang up. So I just used my Slackware-boot-flashdrive-thing that I created during installation to boot my computer and told myself that I would fix it later.
Also, when I installed, cfdisk (or it might have been sfdisk) complained that /dev/sda did not contain a valid MS-DOS partition table. fdisk still worked, so I used it to create a new table, and cfdisk worked fine and the installation went along normally.
I reinstalled Slackware about two days later (I realized that I had installed the 32 bit version instead of the 64 bit). Lilo still didn't work.
I thought it might be something wrong with the Slackware DVD, so I downloaded and attempted to install about 4 different distributions. None of the CDs would work. The computer would start up, Linux would start to load, and the computer would freeze.
Xubuntu was the only distro I had that I could get to install. Halfway through the installation, (Surprise!) I got an error, something like "Package Grub failed to install, you will not be able to boot your new operating system".
The rest of the install went fine, so I restarted my computer and tried to use another one of my CDs to boot Xubuntu. I got the error "/dev/sda does not contain a valid partition table", and later "ext4-fs: checksum failed on dev sda at sector...", and "please specify a valid partition for root=". I am absolutely positive that I entered the correct partition, I triple checked and entered other partition names to make sure.
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I'd also like to add that the computer makes horrible crunching noises when it starts up and when I do stuff like press keys. So is something seriously wrong with my hardware, or is there another explanation for all of this? Because I really don't want to have to try to repair the computer and can't pay to have it repaired.
I originally thought that your BIOS may have boot sector protection enabled but after you mentioned crunching noises I would have to guess your hard disk is on the way out, try replacing it.
I had a similar problem with my current disk. I couldn't install Grub and I couldn't install LILO. I know that the HDD is dying, but that doesn't seem to have been the problem with the boot loader. What I had to do was to use fdisk to write an empty partition table, then add my partitions (I chose one primary for / and 2 logicals on an extended partition for /swap /home, then when the Slack installer asked I did the SLOW option to format the primary partition that checks for errors. For /home I just used the regular method because all the bad blocks caused the install to just sit for a couple of hours. I then installed LILO to the MBR when asked and all has been working fine.
EDIT: I also set the primary partition / as bootable in fdisk before entering setup.
This may or may not work for you, but it did get me a litlle life out of a dying drive.
I had a similar problem with my current disk...
This may or may not work for you, but it did get me a litlle life out of a dying drive.
Oh! When I ran fdisk again and I got the following warning:
The number of cylinders on this disk is set to [a large number] This is slightly larger than [a slightly smaller number], which may cause problems with some software that runs at boot, such as older versions of LILO.
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