Hi ....

I hav a problem when i load RH7.3 using LILO. I use Win98 in my primary partition and so installed LILO on first boot sector.I used floppy to initially access Linux, but when i configure smart boot manager to load linux using lilo , i only hav a L prompt coming and my machine stops there without processing on...
So each time to access Linux i use boot floppy....


Can anyone figure out the problem and help me...

Cheers,
Naresh

This method will probably replace "smart boot manager" with Lilo.

When you boot into Linux, at command line as root, type "lilo".
Should return "added linux", "added dos", etc....
If there are no error messages, reboot.
Does it work now?

If you want to keep your "smart boot manager", then configure lilo.conf so lilo will install on your linux root partition, (if windows was there before linux, the that would be /dev/hda2 upwards), and then get smart boot to load lilo on the root partition.

The reason your seeing lilo fail is because it was installed on the master boot record and smart boot overwrote it.

HI ,

I get a warning message when i run /sbin/lilo it says warning:/dev/hdb5 is not a bootable partition
added linux *
added windows

then when i reboot the macine and enter into linux mode i only get
L

nothin else appears...

I only want to have lilo to load linux after i choose linux entry from smart boot manager....

Regards
Naresh

Hmmm.....didnt know linux was on the second physical drive.
Use cfdisk (or fdisk) from linux command line (as root) to mark /dev/hdb5 as bootable.....might work....

What else have you got on HDB?

Hi cinders,

Thanks for your response but the actual problem i hav sorted out is that when LILO gets started to boot linux i only have a,
L
displayed and machine stops....this might be bcos LILO is not able to go to the secondary boot loader.
Is there any solution to solving this problem or is this a problem in bios...

Regards
Naresh

No, that would be LI according to the LILO manual. L means a problem in the first stage loader such as a disk with >1023 cylinders. There should have been a hex error code after the L though.

It might be worth a try to make a small boot partition somewhere below the 1024:th cylinder; GNU parted will help you with that although it is difficult to shrink a partition while moving its start position.

An easier approach would be to try the linear or lba32 options in the lilo.conf file. Or try another boot loader such as GRUB (which I personally think is much nicer than LILO).