Unable to Boot up from Secondary disk

k1ll3r_x · 05-28-2007, 03:40 AM

Hey guys, I just recently installed Slack 11.0 on my pc. I have two hard drives, one being an IDE and another one being an SATA. My SATA is primary and my IDE is secondary. IDE is connected through a PCI card and has a Windows on /dec/hdc1 and Linux on /dev/hdc5
If im not wrong since its the second partition on the hard drive, i cant boot it up using lilo installed neither super block or mbr. i don't have a problem using the dvd to boot up, but whats the command? ha ha every time i try it gives me an error. I tried the typical sata.i root=/dev/hda5 noinitdr dc which i think if i didn't spell wrong is on the default screen. if anyone could help me out id really appreciate ha ha i'm kind of stuck here. thanks guyz
Jerry [k1ll3r_x]

Randux · 05-28-2007, 02:30 PM

What does "fdisk -l" give you? When we know what the kernel sees we'll have a better idea how to boot from it.

k1ll3r_x · 05-28-2007, 04:11 PM

it shows both partitions, since i coulndnt get it working, what i did was that i switched them so now the linux partition starts at cylinder 1, and i forgot where it ends. the name changed to hdc4 now and i made it bootable, yet i cant install lilo either super block nor mbr. Any ideas how to boot?

Randux · 05-29-2007, 06:07 AM

Please paste the output here, it will help understand what you have.

LILO should be installed to the MBR, not the superblock, unless you have a special setup. A normal multiboot doesn't require that. But if you have Solaris and you want to use LILO for Slackware then you will have to use LILO in the partition superblock.

Also please paste the output of your LILO command (and the command itself) so we can see what's happening.

saikee · 05-29-2007, 10:47 AM

Yes items of information required

(1) Content of /etc/lilo.conf of Slackware so that we know how it was originally installed.

(2) Output of "fdisk -l" so that every partition in every disk is displayed.

(3) Tell us which disk boots first, IDE or sata? Tell us which system boot successfully and stick with the boot disk order.

Swapping the disk order is the simplest way of destroying the booting because every OS when installed will have the disk number and partition number written inside. ALtering the disk order means the OS ending up at the wrong disk to load system files.