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Old 03-10-2004, 07:54 PM   #1
bigjohn
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boot problem with 9.1


Having just spent over 3 hour's trying to install gentoo onto a spare partition (and failing dismally), I now find that my boot loader is hosed and I can't boot back into my mandrake 9.1 install.

I've tried booting with my install dvd, and using the rescue facility to re-install the bootloader, but to no avail.

I'm just getting a failure notice from the dialogue and when I try a reboot, I just get the old L99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 routine.

I have been able to restore the windows boot loader and I also had the presence of mind to make a boot floppy, so I can get into my mandrake install.

But how do I get the bootloader back?

any idea's please ?

regards

John

Last edited by bigjohn; 03-10-2004 at 07:56 PM.
 
Old 03-10-2004, 09:03 PM   #2
kilgoretrout
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You'll probably get the same error messages but try booting into mdk with the floppy, Open a console, su to root and run:

# /sbin/lilo -v

and see what you get. Report any error messages. The "-v"(verbose mode) should give you more detailed error messages.
 
Old 03-10-2004, 10:27 PM   #3
pzatch
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You could try installing lilo again but I think it just uses a lilo config file in the root partition to backup from when you do that and if the partition table have changed then it might not work.
Try removing the gento partitions if all else fails.
 
Old 03-11-2004, 03:47 AM   #4
bigjohn
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well the /sbin/lilo -v command gives me this

Reading boot sector from /dev/hda
Using MENU secondary loader
Calling map_insert_data
Mapping message file /boot/message
Fatal: open /boot/message: No such file or directory


though I don't follow whats missing ??

regards

John
 
Old 03-11-2004, 10:50 AM   #5
kilgoretrout
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Post your lilo.conf file. As the error message indicates, /boot/message is a configuration file in your /boot directory. Actually it's a link to /boot/message-graphic, i.e. it problably controls the graphic backsplash for lilo. Anyway, it appears that the gentoo install trashed it somehow. The good news is I don't think you need it to boot; you just won't have a nice graphic for lilo. In your lilo.conf, try commenting out this line at the begginning by placing a "#" sign in front of :

message=/boot/message

Then try the lilo -v thing again and see if lilo will write to the mbr.


Last edited by kilgoretrout; 03-11-2004 at 12:01 PM.
 
Old 03-13-2004, 07:44 PM   #6
bigjohn
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This is what my lilo.conf looks like
Quote:
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
default="XP"
keytable=/boot/uk.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="Mandrake"
root=/dev/hda6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hda6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hda6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="XP"
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe
I'll go and see if commenting out the boot message line works and report back.

regards

John
 
Old 03-13-2004, 07:55 PM   #7
bigjohn
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Quote:
[root@johnsPC john]# vi /etc/lilo.conf
[root@johnsPC john]# /sbin/lilo -v
LILO version 22.4.1, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2002 John Coffman
Released 27-Jan-2003 and compiled at 11:11:26 on Feb 5 2003.

Reading boot sector from /dev/hda
Using MENU secondary loader
Calling map_insert_data
Fatal: open /boot/uk.klt: No such file or directory
Is what I get with the /boot/message commented out. I'm presuming that that's saying that it can't see my keyboard file ? I think.

So on removing the comment, it reverts to this

Quote:
[root@johnsPC john]# vi /etc/lilo.conf
[root@johnsPC john]# /sbin/lilo -v
LILO version 22.4.1, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2002 John Coffman
Released 27-Jan-2003 and compiled at 11:11:26 on Feb 5 2003.

Reading boot sector from /dev/hda
Using MENU secondary loader
Calling map_insert_data
Mapping message file /boot/message
Fatal: open /boot/message: No such file or directory
Where it just can't see the "/boot/message" and this is what's confusing me. I'm sorry if this sounds like a very stupid question, but for the life of me, I can't think of what else I need to check.

regards

John
 
Old 03-13-2004, 10:34 PM   #8
kilgoretrout
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Open up /boot and see what's there. It sounds like the /boot directory was pretty screwed up during the gentoo install. I know gentoo will make a separate boot partition by default. You can post the output of:

$ ls /boot

and I will check it against mine.

Another thing you can try is to unistall lilo in mcc>Software and then reinstall it. It might restore your /boot directory to the proper state. Another thing you can try is doing an"Upgrade" reinstall, i.e. boot off of CD-1, select the "Upgrade" option, don't select any packages and hope that it restroes your /boot directory.
 
Old 03-14-2004, 12:23 PM   #9
bigjohn
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[john@johnsPC john]$ ls /boot
config-2.4.21-0.13mdkBOOT kernel.h-2.4.21-0.13mdk
initrd-2.4.21-0.13mdkBOOT.img System.map-2.4.21-0.13mdkBOOT
initrd-BOOT.img@ vmlinuz-2.4.21-0.13mdkBOOT
kernel.h@ vmlinuz-BOOT@
[john@johnsPC john]$

That's what's in my /boot partition.

I'm just gonna have a go at doing the uninstall/re-install thing - but I won't be able to check it yet, I'm in the middle of downloading mandrake 10 community (disc 3).

What the hell. I'll leave it until the download has finished.

regards

John
 
  


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