After reinstalling both Windows and Linux (Slackware), LILO no longer "works"
 

Greetings.

So long story short, I was messing around resizing partitions and jacked up my system. No biggie. I had a happily coexisting Windows 10 and Slackware 14.2 system on a single SSD.

Since I ONLY use Windows for playing World of Warcraft with my daughter, I wanted to slim the partition down to the bare minimum to get more space freed up for Linux. I jacked up the Windows install, so decided to basically reformat everything and start over. Since I didn't want to mess with my Linux partitions just to add a few Gigs, and I had nothing of importance on this system, I completely reformatted.

I installed Windows first, as is usually recommended and has worked fine for me in the past. Then, I ran through the Slackware installation-as-usual. No errors. I never had any problems allowing Slack to try to "automatically configure LILO", and I did (again, as before/usual) install to the MBR. I thought I was good-to-go until reboot, when I go straight in to Windows and LILO isn't working.

I booted again with the Installation USB that I made and tried to reinstall LILO. I was surprised to "not" find a way to only reinstall LILO. So, I went through the entire installation again, with identical results (no errors, no LILO).

Can anyone please recommend the next step? I NEVER had a problem with LILO until now, so I would like to stick with it, if possible. But, should I consider GRUB/GRUB2? What is the best way to ONLY install a boot loader, as my OS installations are fine. I just don't want to jack up Windows again because, unlike Linux, it is a sickeningly drawn out, dumbed-down, non-interactive yet interactive and restricting install process.

Regards and Thanks,

Auroch

1. https://docs.slackware.com/slackbook:booting

2. Reinstalling Lilohttp://www.slackwiki.com/Reinstalling_Lilo

3. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/



liloconfig

slack 14.2 comes with grub installed too, just try using it to see

http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:sla..._first_install

I have never had any luck with "automatically" installing LiLo with Slackware.

Try booting to the installation media, running Setup again, and skip right to the "Configure" step, then rerun the Lilo installation using the manual method.

Be very careful to complete every step of the LiLo installation; there's one point at which you can think you are done, but really are not. It sort of throws you back to the Configuration menu, but LiLo is not quite set up yet. Unfortunately, it's been so long since I've done it I can remember exactly which step it is.

Thanks guys...working on it now.

Auroch

OK. Bizzare.

I rebooted with my installation media (USB). I tried to "skip ahead" to the option that the installer GUI has that says "Reconfigure Slackware", but whenever I move to it and hit enter, it does nothing. I've had this problem before. It's like it wants you to go through each step sequentially. For instance, if you already have manually partitioned your HD/SSD, it still says you need to do that step in order to proceed with the installation. Anyway (and I can't BELIEVE this), after messing with this yesterday and rebooting at least a dozen times with no luck, after booting with my USB installation media, achieving nothing, making no changes etc., I rebooted and yanked my flash drive (to get back in to Windows so I could come here), what do I see? LILO. Unbelievable.

So, I seem to have it working now. But my question (for learning/future reference type shit) is this: "How do you manipulate your bootloader from Linux, if you can't boot in to Linux, and running the installation media again does not have a clear option?" I mean, I know (because you've given me) the commands, but the installer command line doesn't have liloconfig, or anything really. If I can't boot in to my (installed) Linux, I can't run the Linux commands that would fix it, what then? Should I keep-on-hand some sort of bootable USB stick that has tools like gparted, LILO, GRUB, etc. to fix this kind of shit? Basically, every command that I'm told to run "doesn't work" when booting the slack installation image. I'm assuming it's a stripped-down, kernel-only or whatever, OS at that time.

Humbly,

Auroch

if it is installed then use your boot usb and do not try setup but boot huge root=/dev/sdx ro

how ever that screen tells you to write it in then you can boot into your already installed Slack then run as root

https://docs.slackware.com/slackbook:booting

Nothing to do with your bootloader problems, but I used to play WoW using wine and it worked very well. So you could just remove that windows partition completely if you wanted :)

BW: Thanks as always. I need to make that boot USB.

af: I thought of using WINE, but I'm running 64 bit and I've heard you need to install all of the 32 bit libraries to run WINE. It's for sure on my list of shit to do though. I have other stupidity going on now though, like trouble with the proprietary Radeon driver NOT working....grrr. Back to work.

Thanks!

Auroch

no just use that boot install usb It works I know I did it just a bit ago. jut got to read what it says to write, tell it where your root dir is at and huge root=/dev/sdx and some line about ro then hit enter. and you're in

You don't need to install any 32 bit libraries. Wine works with 64bit too - you only need 32bit libs if you are running 32bit windows programs.
WoW has had a 64 bit version for a while now, and I don't think I ever had to do any special winetricks stuff to get it (or the blizz launcher) working.

edit:
I just remembered I have always had compat32 libs installed, so it's possible my wine installation was using 32bit libs without me noticing. I know I didn't have to set my WINEARCH=win32 after blizzard released the 64bit WoW though.