boot loader install failure
 

Hi all. I appreciate your help and I'm sorry if this is a duplicate, I've searched everywhere and can't find an answer that I can understand. I am total newbie and just following instructions as best I can.

I am attempting to install ubuntu 8.04 on a very old system, to use as a word processor. The specs are:

333 MHz Celeron processor
64 MB RAM
4 GB hard drive

I had DSL successfully installed but couldn't make it work properly (not user-friendly enough for me.) So I downloaded Ubuntu in the hopes that I could figure it out. I don't understand code, I'm totally new to this whole thing.

I have successfully installed the base system and software.
Now when I try to install either GRUB or LILO it fails.

I told it to install LILO to the MBR (/dev/sda) and tried installing it into the Ubuntu partition too (/dev/sda6). The error message I get for LILO is:

The LILO package failed to install into /target/.

When I tell it to continue anyway, it says:

Running "/sbin/lilo" failed with error code "1".

Trying to install GRUB gives me the same message:

The "grub" package failed to install into /target/.

I know I could select "continue without the boot loader" but I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to manually install one later.

Thanks for your help!

well, this might be a stupid question, but when you installed lilo did you run liloconfig after you installed lilo, or grubconfig after installing grub respectively?

Could you please give a more descriptive explanation of the steps you took to install? Perhaps it was just a missed step...

DragonM15

I'm guessing that Ubuntu is over the top for your system spec. E.g., SDA refers to the first SATA disk in your system, however, you have an IDE disk I would think. It would be referred to as HDA.

Have you thought about something like slackware? Probably will run better on that system....

Um, I'm just clicking on the menu selection. I have the Ubuntu installer main menu open, and I'm clicking on "install the LILO boot loader on a hard disk".

Here is an explanation of the "1" error code:

0x01
``Illegal command''. This shouldn't happen, but if it does, it may indicate an attempt to access a disk which is not supported by the BIOS.

http://www.linuxhelp.net/forums/lofi...php/t1438.html

You might try looking in your BIOS and see if the BIOS description of your hard drive corresponds to what you actually have installed.

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

P.S. An alternative explanation along the same lines is the one given by irishbitte that Ubuntu's description of your hard drive does not correspond to what you actually have.

I agree with you. Although if possible more RAM would be preferred, but disk space is fine. Slackware 12 might not be the way to go... io have 10.2/11 on a similar system.

DragonM15

I don't really understand this. I'm sorry, I always considered myself quite the expert in Windows but it turns out that all I knew was how to get around Windows' quirks!

When I had DSL installed before, it did name my disks HDA. I don't know what IDE is.

I'm not familiar with Slackware. I picked Ubuntu because everyone told me it was the easiest for a moron to use.

Maybe I should just find someone in Las Vegas who I can pay to install the dang thing. :( I've been trying to learn as I go, but it's a bit much.

Don't lose heart! Think of how good it will feel when you have installed everything!

OK, IDE means Integrated Drive Electronics.

SATA means Serial Advanced Technology Attachment.

Basically, IDE is nineties tech, and SATA is new tech. Don't worry about the difference. What is important is that ubuntu 'pretends' everything is SATA, but when GRUB or LILO comes along, it pretends nothing, it looks at the hardware, and tells you that the 'target', that is, SDA, does not physically exist.

I suggest you try an old flavour of slackware, 10 or 10.2 are good distros. They are a little more difficult to install than ubuntu, but they will work!

Keep asking the questions, loads of people around here to help!

Possible Solution........
 

Actually, try installing lilo to

and see if that works? It just might...

I tried that, but it still fails. I don't konw how to look and see what the partitions are really named. Especially without closing the menu which means I would have to start all over again!

Maybe if I "continue without boot loader" and then try something else?

Thank you for the help! Most of the time when people answer questions I don't understand the answer or don't know how to execute it.

The part about "hda" or "sda" is inconsequential as some newer distros now label everything (IDE or SATA) sda, sdb, etc. If you're installing Ubuntu to sda6, what else do you have on the computer. Are you able to use the CD to get to a command line to post results of "sudo fdisk -l"?

No problem, that is what we are here for. Also alot of people have their msn/aol/yahoo accounts shown so you may be able to talk to someone directly, however if you talk to someone directly then there wont be information on a great forum like LQ :)

DragonM15

Yancek just hit on something there I think. The boot partition of your OS needs to be mounted in a primary partition, that is, one of the first five partitions. You must have something else running on the PC?

SDA6 is an 'extended partition'. I know that sounds like gibberish, but don't worry for the moment about that. I reckon you have nothing else on there, but are trying to install using an extended partition for some reason.

If and ONLY IF, you have nothing else on your computer, try a full disk install, that is, use the complete hard drive, and allow ubuntu to use automatic partitioning when it gets that far. I bet GRUB or Lilo will install then! By the way, GRUB is the standard at this stage, why are you trying to use LILO?

I had a problem similar to this with my dell laptop now that I think of it. With my dell laptop if I ran my laptop without dma support (which was how it was by default) the hard drive would be hda, but with some kernel modification (NOT saying you need to do this, just part of the story) I could get it to use DMA with my hardware. The only thing is is the modifications I made to the kernel 1. obviously required a reboot to start the new kernel and 2. Changed all hda's to sda's. If you edit lilo to account for the sda's while the system is still in the previous kernel where it thinks the devices are hda lilo will error out and tell you you don't have and sda device.

In your case it is slightly different, however do you have a live linux distro? Live linux distro's are linux distributions that can be run completely off of CD without ANY modifications to the hard drive. I used PHLAK, however as of I think 2 years ago that distro has been discontinued, but your laptop is old, so support should be good. There are many other live distro's out there. Download one, burn it to CD, edit your lilo.conf/grub.conf while booted into the live distro, and run lilo/grub to apply the changed settings.

I am not entirely sure this will help you, but that is what helped me when I was in a "similar" predicament.

Hope this helps,
DragonM15

Was doing some thinking about this today, and whipped out an old xubuntu 6.06 CD, and threw it onto an old machine. I am now working on that old machine! I suggest you try downloading xubuntu, and giving it a go, you might have more joy than you have had so far?

Here is a link:

Download Xubuntu

Give it a go, it will definitely do the job you are asking of it.

Hey all, thanks SO much for all the advice.

irishbitte, I tried GRUB too but got the same error msg.
I tried xubuntu before, can't remember why it didn't work.
You are right, it will be awesome to conquer this thing and learn how it works. I really don't want to pay someone else and be a noob forever.

For some reason when I try to install ubuntu it takes about 20 hrs, I think it is just too much for the poor old thing!

Because I have DSL and it was previously working successfully on my machine, I think I will just re-install it and try to make it work.

The reason I was abandoning it was that I couldn't figure out how to use it, specifically how to get my network card to work or how to get anything off of a cd (for example madwifi). It's very confusing for someone who was used to clicking on "install" or "run" or an ".exe" file. But I hadn't found this forum so I was going it alone :) I will come back and ask for help with that.

The hardware problems were probably due to the kernel configuration. All you would have had to do (most likely) is just recompile your kernel. Here are multiple howto's out there describing this process in great detail. Keep in mind that there is the 2.4 kernel branch and the 2.6 .. The steps are almost identical. ALMOST. Also as a side note, anything regarding the kernel with an odd numbered version such as 2.5 is experimental.

I am not familiar with DSL, however I have been considering taking it for a spin on an old desktop. Let me know how it goes if you decide to try it again.

DragonM15

P.S. If you have any questions I would be glad to help as would anyone else on the forum I am sure.