Lilo not recognized how can I get linux to boot?

okos · 03-07-2008, 10:17 PM

I screwed up my system

.
I have xp and slackware as a dual boot.
I was running out of room on my "/" root partition, hdc5 so I decided to make a bit more room by moving things over.
I defragged xp and reduced it by 1 gig. Moved my swap and reduced it to 800 mb. Then increased my "/" root partition by 1+ gig. Now my system wont boot. Grrrrrrr. Im currently running from a live cd.

When I boot my computer I only get this,"99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99."

How can I fix this? Your help would be much appreciated!

okos

Junior Hacker · 03-07-2008, 11:18 PM

Changing the size of swap probably did her in. I use bootitng for my boot manager, I can move swap around and my Linux systems will boot and resume swap without editing anything, but I haven't tried changing the size of swap.
Some Linux may still keep track of the exact location of the partition on the drive and refuse to boot if they are not where expected.
Some Linux may not work if the start of the / partition's location has changed.
With my boot manager and the distributions I've installed, these issues are not an issue.

Wim Sturkenboom · 03-07-2008, 11:51 PM

Personally, I don't think that the change of the swapsize is responsible for the 99. Reason is that the system (to my knowledge) has not even attempted yet to setup the swap.

Did you run lilo (as a command) after you made the changes?

If not, the following is what I would try (no guarantee whatsoever)
boot from slack CD and login (like with install)
mount hdc5
chroot to the directory where you mounted hdc5
run lilo
if no errors, reboot
else fix them in the lilo configuration file (no slack at hand, so not sure what the file is called (menu.lst? lilo.conf?))

hope it does the trick

PS make backups if your data is important

elsheepo · 03-08-2008, 12:08 AM

I have a similar problem, trying to get rid of my windows partiton and merge the free space into my linux primary. ? any advice?

okos · 03-08-2008, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wim Sturkenboom

Personally, I don't think that the change of the swapsize is responsible for the 99. Reason is that the system (to my knowledge) has not even attempted yet to setup the swap.

I agree

Quote:

Did you run lilo (as a command) after you made the changes?

If not, the following is what I would try (no guarantee whatsoever)
boot from slack CD and login (like with install)
mount hdc5

I am using backtrack live cd. It is the only live cd I have other then the slack12 install disks.
I tried the following:

Code:

cd /mnt/hdc5/sbin/
./lilo

I wanted to make sure to run the lilo from my hd and not from the cdrom. I am not sure if that makes any difference. I got the following error

Quote:

Fatal: raid_setup: stat("/dev/sda")

However I do not have a scsi drive. I tried just lilo and had the same error.

I am not shure about what you are saying here.

Quote:

chroot to the directory where you mounted hdc5
run lilo

Lilo is configured with lilo.conf. It just directs where the kernel is located

Quote:

if no errors, reboot
else fix them in the lilo configuration file (no slack at hand, so not sure what the file is called (menu.lst? lilo.conf?))

update--
I did the following command,

Code:

 chroot /mnt/hdc5 lilo
Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
Warning: '/proc/partitions' does not exist, disk scan bypassed
Added Slack-2.6.24 *
Added Slack
Added XP
2 warnings were issued.

Im not sure about what the warning means or how to fix it.

Thanks okos

okos · 03-08-2008, 12:38 AM

update---
Hey it worked!

I really appreciate the help.
I also learned a new command chroot.

okos

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-08-2008, 03:27 AM

Good to hear. Remember to run '/sbin/lilo' whenever you make changes to the kernel (like install a new one) or when you resize partitions.

ararus · 03-08-2008, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by okos

Im not sure about what the warning means or how to fix it.

The LBA warning should be harmless, unless you are using something with a really old BIOS (>10 years). You can get rid of the warning by adding the 'lba32' keyword to /etc/lilo.conf.

The /proc/partitions warning is just because you have chroot'd and there is no /proc mounted (in the chroot).

It's not a problem but is easily fixed as lilo has an option to chroot itself, -r, i.e.

Code:

/sbin/lilo -r /mnt/hdc5

okos · 03-08-2008, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H

Good to hear. Remember to run '/sbin/lilo' whenever you make changes to the kernel (like install a new one) or when you resize partitions.

The chroot was a new one for me.
I tried to run lilo on my hd by

Code:

cd /mnt/hdc5/sbin/
./lilo

But that did not work.

Quote:

You can get rid of the warning by adding the 'lba32' keyword to /etc/lilo.conf.

Just put "lba32" (without the quotes) in my lilo.conf and run lilo again?

Thanks guys!

onebuck · 03-08-2008, 08:29 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by okos

The chroot was a new one for me.
I tried to run lilo on my hd by

Code:

cd /mnt/hdc5/sbin/
./lilo

But that did not work.

Just put "lba32" (without the quotes) in my lilo.conf and run lilo again?

Thanks guys!

The reason was that you had to change to the mount point of the chroot you desired.

The easiest way would be to use the install cd1 to boot the system as if you were going to install. Then after you get to the login from the cli (command line);

Code:

~#mkdir /slacktemp                   #temporary mount point
~#mount /dev/your_device /slacktemp  #this is the 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 MBR to your_device

You should now be able to re-boot your system.

BTW, you can add the lba32 then run 'lilo'.

okos · 03-08-2008, 09:42 PM

I added lba32 to lilo.conf ran lilo and all looks great!

Thanks