Mandrake 9.1 Image will not boot

Linuxpenguin · 07-16-2003, 10:01 AM

I installed and configured Mandrake 9.1 on a Dell Optiplex GX110. Then I uploaded the image to my image server with a network boot disk and Symantec's Ghost 7.5. I downloaded the image onto another GX110 (hardware is exactly the same) and it will not boot. When I start the computer It does this: 99999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999

Ghost 7.5 is the corporate edition of Ghost 2003. There site says it supports the following:

Supports sector copies

Supports EXT2 native copies

Supports EXT3 native copies

But I'm a

so I'm not sure about that stuff. Also in the site it says that 7.5 has been tested on Mandrake version 6.0, 6.1, 7.0.

Thanks in advance!

fancypiper · 07-16-2003, 10:35 AM

You have no linux loader installed to the mbr.

You will have to install lilo or grub in order to boot linux or use a boot floppy.

LILO mini HOWTO
Multiboot with GRUB Mini-HOWTO
Installing a bootloader

Proud · 07-16-2003, 01:46 PM

I believe the above poster is wrong, and that the 9999s are a Lilo error code, as Lilo is the default bootloader for Mdk9.1

Quote:

99 invalid second stage index sector (LILO)
Errors 99 and 9A usually mean the map file (-m or map=) is not readable, likely because LILO was not re-run after some system change, or there is a geometry mis-match between what LILO used (lilo -v3 to display) and what is actually being used by the BIOS (one of the lilo diagnostic disks, available in the source distribution, may be needed to diagnose this problem).

I think the problem is to do with something not being installed onto the harddrive properly, despite the Ghost imaging.

I think you'll find native linux tools like dd or some other low level drive tools can copy all the bits exactly.

fancypiper · 07-16-2003, 01:54 PM

Perhaps I should have more correctly said lilo is misconfigured.

LILO fails: Error messages and their interpretation

Linuxpenguin · 07-16-2003, 02:26 PM

It's working!!

Between you guys, a post o another forum, and some experimenting I've gotten it to boot again!

For anyone else that has this problem this is what I did.

I made a Linux boot disk on another working system: mkbootdisk

Proud · 07-16-2003, 02:27 PM

I think you could have booted off the 1st installation cd, entered Rescue mode, and reinstalled lilo.

Linuxpenguin · 07-16-2003, 02:39 PM

It's working!!

Between you guys, a post from another forum, and some experimenting I've gotten it to boot again!

For anyone else that has this problem this is what I did.

I made a Linux boot disk on another working system:
(if necessary unmount the floppy: umount /dev/fdo)
mkbootdisk 2.4.21-0.13mdk (the numbers correspond to your kernel version, I found the correct version number in /lib/modules)

Boot the problem system with the boot floppy. Once you have booted, go into the terminal as root or use the "super user" terminal and run: /sbin/lilo

That's it!! You should be able to boot from your hard drive again!

Thanks again everyone for your help!

Linuxpenguin · 07-16-2003, 02:40 PM

Sorry about the half-post before.