Boot Up problems

Raines · 12-31-2012, 07:51 PM

Hi, I just got a computer from a friend. I put my old Hard Drive in it which has Slackware, but I cant get it to boot up. Help please!

MSI motherboard
Western Digital SATA HD

frankbell · 12-31-2012, 08:51 PM

I would try booting to a Live Cd of something just to ensure that the computer will boot and that the old hard drive can be mounted and read.

If they do, please come back with more information, such as:

Where exactly does the boot process fail and what, if any error, messages are posted?

What version of Slackware is on that old hard drive?

What make/model computer and what model motherboard with which processor and how many RAMs?

malekmustaq · 01-01-2013, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raines

Hi, I just got a computer from a friend. I put my old Hard Drive in it which has Slackware, but I cant get it to boot up. Help please!
MSI motherboard
Western Digital SATA HD

Hi Raine, Welcome to LQ!

Slackware installation has the option to install or not to install the boot loader; now, as far as you can remember "did you install Lilo bootloader or not"?

Please post us the answers to this question first:

1. What version of Slackware you have installed?
2. Did the installation give no error message? or did installation reached completion without any issue?
3. Did the installer boot your hardware without any issue?

To share my experience: I always avoided installation of Lilo because I opted for Grub bootloader (just a matter of personal choice, nothing in between, I only preferred to learn the more powerful boot loader, Grub 1 (legacy) and then today Grub 2.)

So if you did not install the grub boot loader you can boot again the installer and look for the grub2----.txz and install it this way--

Code:

~# installpkg grub2*txz <Enter>

There is also a possibility that you have installed lilo boot loader but shunned from installing it to the MBR, this way when rebooted you will miss what you just installed

...

Until you will let us know more about what you have done and what are the answers of above questions we wouldn't be able to help much.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

dgashu · 01-02-2013, 01:29 AM

Hi ,

1. Check if the CURRENT MOTHERBOARD [of your friend's] and your previous MOTHERBOARD
are same or at least belong to same family.

I have faced this issue.....If the motherboard are of different chipset/family your hard
disk wont boot.

2. Also if possible check the HDD with your previous MOTHERBOARD , so that you are sure that
HDD is functional

Ashish
[Banglore /India]

onebuck · 01-02-2013, 08:29 AM

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raines

Hi, I just got a computer from a friend. I put my old Hard Drive in it which has Slackware, but I cant get it to boot up. Help please!

MSI motherboard
Western Digital SATA HD

You really have not provided enough information for us to aid in diagnosis for the problem. Please read the following;

Quote:

FYI: Netiquette is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums.

FYI: I suggest that you look at 'How to Ask Questions the Smart Way' so in the future your queries provide information that will aid us in diagnosis of the problem or query.

Probably a configuration problem. I would use the Slackware InstallCD/DVD to boot the system then use the following to make corrections;

Quote:

The easiest way would be to use Slackware install media to boot the system as if you were going to install. Be sure to do a 'fdisk -l' once you boot the InstallCD/DVD to show device assignments after login.

After you get to the login then from the cli (command line);

Code:

  ~#fdisk -l                 #Show HD partition info to make any changes to /slacktemp/etc/fstab
 
 ~#mkdir /slacktemp                                 #temporary mount point
  ~#mount /dev/your_device /slacktemp  #device you installed to
  ~#chroot /slacktemp                                #change to yours
  ~#cd /slacktemp/etc                                 #change to directory with lilo.conf   
  ~#vi lilo.conf                                            #edit lilo.conf, if need be
  ~#lilo -v -t -b /dev/your_device             #sda, hda this will only test   
  ~#lilo -v -b /dev/your_device                 #this will write to your boot device

Plus be sure to have the proper assignments for the '/slacktemp/etc/fstab' assigned for the new hardware. You can edit '/slacktemp/etc/fstab/' to make the changes for your new configuration.

You can 'man commands' in the above example to get a full understanding of the commands and options.

HTH!