Boot problems after installing Slack12 on Lenovo T61 laptop

wcuff · 03-18-2008, 03:38 PM

A new Lenovo T61 with a 120gig SATA hard drive. I downloaded the Slackware CDs and installed ver.12. I tried to install the LILO boot loader in MBR and was told by the installation program that it did not load correctly. (The help file warned me there may be problems here.) Reinstalled Slack again, omitting LILO, and all looked good.

Okay, these days you seem to boot through a memory stick. Bought a SanDisk
cruzer 2gb and downloaded usbboot.img and ran
dd if=usbboot.img of=/dev/sdb bs=512

after confirming that the device corresponding to the memory stick was /dev/sdb. Looked at the memory stick and yes looked okay.

Ensured that the BIOS allowed booting the computer from
USB HDD SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro

and pressed the on button, to get the error messsage from trying to load the memory stick:

Boot error.

So where to go now?

This is my first time using this forum, so apologies if this problem has already been addressed. Thank you!

C-Sniper · 03-18-2008, 04:08 PM

you do not have to boot through a memory stick. normally you can just set up lilo to boot through the root partition not the mbr. here is an example of my lilo.conf

Code:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
compact
lba32
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
  reset
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
vga = 773
# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hda1
  label = Linux
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

wcuff · 03-18-2008, 11:53 PM

Thank you for the suggestion. I have tried all three alternatives now:
1. mbr
2. boot partition, as you suggest
3. floppy

The system does not seem to even try - judging from the floppy, no action.
I did a Reconfiguration at the end of the install, and nothing.

I did two usb memory sticks.

IBM Thinkpads have a special region of their hd's for backups. I wonder if this is stopping LILO from installing - but that would not explain the memory stick and floppy failures.

I also looked into the machine's BIOS and wondered if it was preventing LILO. Nothing. Suggestions very welcome, and thank you!

gbonvehi · 03-19-2008, 12:00 AM

You should try using expert mode in when running liloconfig. If you can boot from CD/DVD, then boot with it, and mount your harddisk and chroot to the mountpoint to work there, there's no need to reinstall.
I've seen liloconfig failing because it tries to write what (I guess) i finds first, in my situation, I had a sata disk and an ide cdrom, it automatically (using Simple mode) tried to write to /dev/hda's MBR (the CD) instead of the harddisk. When running expert mode, it let's you choose where to install lilo, in my case, it was /dev/sda, my harddisk.
Hope this helps.

cmk77 · 03-19-2008, 03:08 AM

Another alternative is to try grub.

wcuff · 03-19-2008, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gbonvehi

You should try using expert mode in when running liloconfig. If you can boot from CD/DVD, then boot with it, and mount your harddisk and chroot to the mountpoint to work there, there's no need to reinstall.
I've seen liloconfig failing because it tries to write what (I guess) i finds first, in my situation, I had a sata disk and an ide cdrom, it automatically (using Simple mode) tried to write to /dev/hda's MBR (the CD) instead of the harddisk. When running expert mode, it let's you choose where to install lilo, in my case, it was /dev/sda, my harddisk.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for these suggestions.
1. I tried the exert mode. No help. Another suggestion, to use GRUB, may be a solution.
2. I can boot from the first installation CD and log in as root.
"mount my harddisk"? - if convenient to you, can you give me details. That would be very useful.
Then, once I chroot, do I turn the computer off and on again with no CD and Slack should boot? This I do not understand.

Again, my appreciation!

gbonvehi · 03-19-2008, 06:00 PM

wcuff, I'll give you the steps to follow, if you've a doubt about some command, just search on the web the terms "man <command>" like "man mount" without the quotes, it'll surely take you to the man page which explains all about it. You usually can run man <command> from some linux terminal and you'll see that man page, but I think the installation cd/dvd doesn't include that to save space.
Anyway, by using mount, you can hook a filesystem to some directory you specify. The first directory (when there's no file structure) is called / or root. Chroot is a command that changes that / (root of your system) to another point you specify.

So, what can you do with this? When you boot with the dvd, a root filesystem is created in memory, it contains the installation files and some basic commands. That allows you to mount your real root partition (the one on your harddisk) on one of the directories on memory. As a example, you can mount your partition on /mnt directory, so when you browse there, you'll see your partition's filesystem, there's no C: D: drive on linux systems as you may see on dos/windows, you just can mount any known filesystem in any directory you want.
After mounting your partition, you can use the other command, chroot, to make the system think, the new / is what's on /mnt, that will allow you to make a "switch" to run everything after chrooting from the real system instead of memory.
I hope I was clear enough, I'm not too good explaining in english language.

Commands needed for this:

Code:

mount /dev/XXXX /mnt

Please, replace XXXX with the device that matches your root partition on the harddisk. IE: /dev/sda1

Code:

chroot /mnt

This will make the system switch to run everything from the harddisk, there's no need to reboot, in fact, if you reboot, you'll have to do this again.

Code:

/sbin/lilconfig

This is to try installing lilo again.

There's a easier way to do all of this (without the need to use mount and chroot), and it's even better because it'll actually boot from your system on the partition (everything except the kernel). When you reach to the lilo boot: prompt when booting with the DVD, type:

Code:

huge.s root=/dev/XXXX

Again, replace it with the matching root partition.

onebuck · 03-19-2008, 06:14 PM

Hi,

A good online 'man'; LINUX MAN PAGES ONLINE.

Linux Command Guide and Linux Command Guide are great online references.

These links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links' .

illiadum · 09-12-2008, 03:53 PM

Hi wcuff,
I realize that this is an old post, but I had a similar issue installing SLAMD64 on my T61 (which I just got on 9/8/8). I am currently booting off the MBR without problems.

How I fixed it...well, in fdisk, I had to make sure and wipe out completely the "Unknown" type partition and all other stuff before creating the Linux partitions. Then, after much anger and fighting, I booted off other media. I actually ended up putting the hard drive into my Desktop machine, booting with hard disk as /dev/sda, (normal desktop boot disk was on /dev/sdb) chrooting into the mounted /dev/sda...mounted my laptop boot partition, then ran

lilo -M /dev/sda

Which writes to MBR. Then, putting the hard disk back in my machine, it was OK. I think the problem lies in either the Unknown partition type, put their either by Lenovo or M$ for some recovery stuff or other. Also, it could be because of the 1GB flash memory they have on the drive. You have to make sure the kernel you use has the AHCI option enabled. I think that the first sector the installation disc sees is not really the first sector of the hard drive.

Hope this helps someone.