Not your usual dual boot problem.
 

I dual boot windows 98 and mandrake 8.2 on the same hardrive, using lilo as my boot loader.When I first start my computer lilo comes up and I can boot into windows or linux no problems.
When I choose windows then boot into linux no problems either.
When I'm in linux and I try to go back to windows, windows starts to boot and then hangs, it will eventually boot into windows but takes about 15-20 min. Also when I'm in linux if I try to reboot linux, it will start to boot then hang and I have to shutdown. I have looked at other peoples lilo.conf that they posted here and it pretty much looks the same, but if you want to see mine I will post it. And I'm pretty sure lilo is in my mbr, if that even matters.
I have looked around google but all I come up with is you usual lilo problems, and nothing like what I'm gettting. If you need anymore info let me know. Tia.

Steve.:confused:

This problem is a real stumper. I would guess that the problem has something to do with the BIOS initializing differently after a reboot than it does after a power up. I would start diagnosing this problem by looking at the BIOS power saving options and see if they are different immediately after power up than they are immediately after reboot.


___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Thanks jailbait for getting back to me on this one.
I have a compaq presario, with phoenix bios, and there's really not to much in there. Haven't been in the bios in awhile, but a couple months back went thru it pretty good and I don't remember seeing anything on power savings ,but I'll take a another look. Another thing I couldn't get into the bios while rebooting, but I'll give that another try.
Thanks again jailbait, and I'll let you know what I find.

Ok, it seems something wron during the Linux shutdown proccess. Is there any error message during it? Did you change the runlevels scripts?

When and how did thsi problem start? did you do anything unusual (installed, edited, uninstalled, deleted, configured, etc anything?) on any OS?

Jailbait, the only thing that I have under power in the bios is "power loss management" and it's set to "return to last state" the other choices are "always restart" or "remain off".
That's all that's in the bios for power. Thanks again for your reply..

Hi Ciccio. I haven't noticed any shutdown errors, but I'll make sure to look when I shutdown later. Didn't do anything to the runlevel scripts.
The problem started when I installed mandrake around a year ago, wasn't to worried about cause it still worked. Then about 6 months ago I reinstalled mandrake, and still the same problem.Iv'e installed, deleted, config, done all the things you mentioned above, but the problem started right after the install of mandrake, before I had a chance to do any of the above. Thanks for you reply ciccio.

If I don't get this fixed, no big deal really, I can work around it just glad I'm still able to use both os's, just curious what it is causing it . Thanks again guys..

Now, it looks like something else... probably hardware-related. What BIOS version are you running? I used to have a problem with a Compaq Presario (5333 I think) that at EVERY boot it took about 8 minutes with a blank screen and a blinking dash (like a cursor) at the top left corner. Keyboard didn't work, and after a while it would just boot and work fine. The problem was the SCSI Adapter, somehow it was screwing things up. I just replaced it and it started working well (not VERY good, but what else could you expect from a Compaq Presario?)

Do you have any unusual configuration in your BIOS? what MOBO are you using? SCSI? Could you give us a full hardware desription... perhaps the problem is there...

I agree with Ciccio that the problem is somewhere in your hardware. Somehow the hardware is handling powerup differently than reboot.

Ciccio mentioned a problem with a SCSI adapter. Whenever you boot the BIOS resets every piece of hardware and queries for status. Maybe some piece of hardware is returning its status promptly on power up but not doing so doing the reboot process. Maybe the BIOS is hanging waiting for an answer from a device that never answers.


___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

I'm running Phoenix bios version EPP revision 9.0,
AMD-K7 700mhz processor
maxtor 40 gig hardrive
diamond stealth 3 16mb s540 graphics card
creative sound blaster audio pci 128
I don't know the scsi adapter still looking into that, and the motherboard, I get the feeling compaq doesn't want you to know which one you have. I was inside the box awhile back and i wrote every number i could find down and did a search and came up with nothing. On the board was written Aspen II, I found the company and emailed them and they said they were a reseller and to contact compaq, which I did and they never got back to me. So I'm still working on that also.

Sorry it took so long to get back to ya but been busy, if there's anything else i forgot let me know. I got most of the hardware info from my hwinfo utility in windows, and i was looking into if linux had one that might work better and list everything, still looking into that. gotta go thanks again..

Steve

What model of computer did you buy? I mean, presario <number> or deskpro<whatever>. Perhaps they have some troubleshooting on that on their website or their bugzilla (do they have a bug reporting system???).

HIH.

A. B.

It's a compaq presario 7970. Not sure if they have a bug reporting system, I'll have to check.

I finally fixed it. Compaq had a bios upgrade and I downloaded it and flashed my bios and problem solved, I can switch back and forth from linux to windows.

Thanks again ciccio and jailbait, don't think I could have done it without your help.I thought it was a problem with mandrake. Beers on me..

I'm glad I helped. Thanks for posting the solution.