Linux boot and NTLDR issues.

cface · 10-19-2007, 01:25 PM

Hello,
Well as you can see by my post count I am new here and just like most other newbies i came with a question. Today i tried installing mandrake 10.0 on my old computer. since i was just basically bored. The basic question i have is "How do i boot mandrake from windows boot menu?" a simple question with an answer that could have been found on google. well let me explain my scenario.

This morning on a whim I decided to install mandrake 10.0 on my old computer. So I made my partitions one ext2 and 1 swap. (keep in mind that this computer has windows xp and windows MCE already installed.) After i made my partitions I went ahead and installed mandrake. Installed pulled out the disk and restarted. on restart i get a screen with "L 99 99 99..."
Im like "wtf? w/e" pop in the cd and tell it to fix the loader. reboot agian and still the same. so i go "okay eff you ill use windows loader" So i restored NTLDR.

I read some stuff and tried like 2 things. but from what i read linux loader needs to work. I dont think that mandrak 10.0 uses gurb im not sure what it uses actually. since everything i read talks about grub im like "b4 i bust my head over this let me just ask" and this is where I am now.
So please assist

saikee · 10-19-2007, 02:05 PM

Suggest to try Task B3, in the last link of my signature, to restore Lilo first. It is pretty common for an installer to install Lilo. A screenful of L 99 99 99 ............... is an indication Lilo is not well.

If you still want to go ahead with booting Linux by NTLDR check out Task E4 which summarizes the steps.

Yes you need Lilo bootable first before the Linux can be booted by NTLDR.

Compare with Grub, Windows way of multi boot takes 10 times the effort to produce 1/10 the result as Linux.

I expect when you restore Lilo it should dual boot your Windows.

Grub is also available in Mandrake 10 because that is how i boot it.

Mandrake has been superseded by Mandriiva for a few years already.

cface · 10-19-2007, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saikee

Suggest to try Task B3, in the last link of my signature, to restore Lilo first. It is pretty common for an installer to install Lilo. A screenful of L 99 99 99 ............... is an indication Lilo is not well.

If you still want to go ahead with booting Linux by NTLDR check out Task E4 which summarizes the steps.

Yes you need Lilo bootable first before the Linux can be booted by NTLDR.

Compare with Grub, Windows way of multi boot takes 10 times the effort to produce 1/10 the result as Linux.

I expect when you restore Lilo it should dual boot your Windows.

Grub is also available in Mandrake 10 because that is how i boot it.

Mandrake has been superseded by Mandriiva for a few years already.

Thanks.
I thought that i needed to fix lilo 1st witch is why i didn't bother figuring out how to make it work with NTLDR. would have just gave me a headache when it didn't work.

and well that computer is quite old and since i found my old mandrake CDs around I wanted to play with it ^^

Thanks for the help & guides

-Cface

cface · 10-20-2007, 12:21 PM

Well I read your guide and it was quite interesting, but it didn't help.
For some reason theres something wrong with lilo and cant be fixed.
So I went ahead and reinstalled it but to the same conclusion.
So I simply decided to download and install the latest version of mandrvia
Guess I burned it wrong cause it didn't work

Anyways so eff that waste of CD I guess.

After reading your guide i was interested in making a grub boot disk or usb. lol I tried that as well but i didn't understand. the floppy seemed the easiest to make but for the life of me I couldn't find a floppy anywhere in my house

So if anyone knows how to boot grub from a disk and keep the NTLDR intact please assist

-Cface

saikee · 10-20-2007, 12:52 PM

If you want to fix a Linux boot loader you either run the installation CD or use a Linux Live CD.

No toot then no cure.

You can save a lot of bother by restoring Lilo using the Task B3 I mentioned earlier.

If you want to fix it with Grub here is a way out.

(1) Download Yoper, as this is the only Live CD that has Grub allowing you to use its Grub prompt (the other one I found is Solarix Express or Solaris 10).

(2) Burn the Yoper iso into a bootable CD. When it boot up, press the "Esc" key to see the Grub screen and hit "c" to drop into a Grub prompt.

(3) You ask Grub to tell you which partition hold the Lilo configuration file by command

Code:

find lilo.conf

The answer should be something like say (hd0,0)

(4) You then ask Grub to display lilo's configuration by command

Code:

cat (hd0,0)/etc/lilo.conf

, pay particular attention to the first line with "image=" and the first line with "initrd=". Write it down if you have to. You can repeat the command as often as you want.

(5) Grub needs 4 lines to boot a Mandrake, a "root" statement, a "kernel" statement, a "initrd" statement and a "boot" statement.

You can use Mandrake's lilo.conf information to boot it manually by Grub.

These are the commands in a Grub prompt I boot up my Mandrake 10 in hda8 known to Grub as (hd0,7)

Code:

root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-enterprise ro root=/dev/hda8 
initrd /boot/initrd-enterprise.img
boot