LILO Installation Probs

skubik · 05-03-2003, 06:31 AM

I've recently installed Slackware 9.0, but did NOT install LILO with it. I have been booting using a boot floppy created by the setup script, and it's worked great.

My system has Win2000, WinXP Pro. & Linux on it now. Win2000 is located on /dev/hda1, WinXP is on /dev/hde1, Linux root is at /dev/hde8.

Slackware *did* store a kernel in /boot for me, however... and I get to it with the boot floppy. Now, I want to add Linux to my WinNT Bootloader, but am having some problems properly installing LILO in order to do this, as most tutorials I have found on the 'net suggest.

I downloaded the LILO source and compiled and installed it. I wrote a fresh lilo.conf that looks like:

Code:

append="ide2=0xb800,0xb402 ide3=-0xb007,0xa805"

boot=/dev/hde8
map=/boot/System.map
image=/boot/vmlinuz
   root=/dev/hde8
   label=Linux
   read-only

So now I run lilo. Now, based on my config file, lilo should install itself into the MBR of /dev/hde8 right? But how can /dev/hde8 HAVE a MBR? So I question whether this is correct or not.

Anyways, when I run lilo, I get the following error:

Error: /dev/hde1 and /dev/hda1 have duplicate volume IDs (serial numbers)
Fatal: Duplicate volume IDs must be resolved before installation can proceed.
Use the '-z' and '-M <dev>' switches to erase the conflicts.

My biggest fear is wiping out the MBR on my /dev/hda1 drive, hence making the system unbootable from the NT loader by doing that.

Anyone have any ideas how I can go about properly doing this without screwing myself?

Thanks,

- skubik.

Misel · 05-03-2003, 06:48 AM

Of course the partition does not have an MBR but something similar. At the beginning of each partition is enough space for lilo to be stored there.

you should now copy that bootsector to a place that Linux can write to and windows can read from. If your Windows versions run on NTFS alone then use a floppy.

Copy with the following command:

dd if=/dev/hda8 of=/mnt/windows/c/bootsect.lnx block=512 count=1

now you have a file of the bootsector that you must copy to C:\ of your windows and edit your boot.ini accordingly (AFAIK the bootmanagers of XP and 2K are pretty much the same)

This could be done by adding this line:

bootsect.lnx="Linux"

under [Operating Systems].

Then you should be able to boot Linux with the Windows Bootmanager.

Please check the commands against some websites as I'm not sure whether I typed them correctly!

I suggest however that you continue to use Lilo on a floppy as it is much less hassle when you have to change lilo (which happens each time you compile a new kernel and much other stuff). You can destroy the MBR quite easily.

skubik · 05-03-2003, 01:58 PM

Thanks for the input.

Didn't know that about the partition... that makes sense now. But I'm still confused about the errors LILO is giving me. I did try installing lilo directly onto a floppy disk by changing the 'boot' parameter in lilo.conf to point to /dev/fd0 instead of /dev/hde8, but it gave me an error about that disk does not have a primary partition or something along those lines. So I just asumed LILO can't be installed onto floppy. So if it can, how does one go about doing that?

And then, the error I posted in my original post still confuses me. I have two seperate physical disks, but LILO is reporting that they have the same serial ID and I have use flags '-z' and '-M <dev>' to make it work. But wouldn't that write to the MBR of the boot disk (/dev/hda1), or is it that I can say something like:

lilo -z -M /dev/fd0 OR lilo -z -M /dev/hde8

... and it will install LILO to the MBR of THAT floppy or THAT partition only?

Just need some clarification of what I'm doing I guess. :^)

Thanx,

- skubik.