can't install lilo

Wed · 07-04-2010, 11:38 AM

I have been given a new old computer, Asus K8N-E with a 2GHz AMD Athlon 64.

OpenBSD and Debian works like a charm. But with Slackware 13.1, LILO won't be installed properly. There are two disks: a 10GB ATA-drive with the system and a 250GB SATA-drive as a data repository.

Apparently the computer insists that the SATA is the first disk. Subsequently the bootable partition is not on the first disk and disables LILO to be installed. This is when I try to install LILO to a partition.

When it is installed to MBR, it says something about overlapping and can't boot.

Help is greatly appreciated!

zirias · 07-04-2010, 11:50 AM

Did you try GRUB? I didn't follow LILO development any more, as GRUB seams to be "mainstream" for at least 3 years now -- so maybe it will just work for you

Wed · 07-04-2010, 11:55 AM

I haven't seen an option for that. Else I would try.

Eternal_Newbie · 07-04-2010, 12:26 PM

What's the boot sequence in the BIOS? Also, have you tried marking the first partition on the ATA drive as bootable, and ensured that none on the SATA are marked as such?

Wed · 07-04-2010, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eternal_Newbie

What's the boot sequence in the BIOS? Also, have you tried marking the first partition on the ATA drive as bootable, and ensured that none on the SATA are marked as such?

The boot order has been tried backwards as well as forwards. The SATA-drive is /dev/sda regardless.

Only the 500MB /boot partition of the ATA-drive is bootable.

Wed · 07-04-2010, 02:35 PM

The SATA-drive was disconnected and the ATA-drive was installed in a normal fashion. So far, so good. Now comes the part where I want to add the SATA-drive. But what is it called? The ATA is now /dev/sda

justwantin · 07-04-2010, 03:15 PM

I had the exact same problem. I could setup 13.1 and lilo with the ide drive only connected but the moment I attached a sata drive used for multimedia storage I could not boot. Changing the boot order in the BIOS did not help but eventually I googled up a solution.

With slack 13.1 my sata drive is named sda and my ide drive is named sdb. With /boot on partition sdb1 and the following commands did the job:

Code:

lilo -b /dev/sdb1
lilo -M /dev/sdb
lilo -A /dev/sdb 1

Note that there has to be a space between "sdb" and "1" in the third command.

tallship · 07-04-2010, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justwantin

With slack 13.1 my sata drive is named sda and my ide drive is named sdb...

I haven't u/g'd to 13.1 but, we aren't using libata in this version are we? If not, I would think that the IDE (PATA) drive would still be referred to as /dev/hdX instead of /dev/sdX.

justwantin · 07-04-2010, 03:44 PM

I don't have libata onboard with a full install of 13.1

Code:

rick@rick:~$ ls /var/log/packages/ | grep liba  
libaio-0.3.109-i486-1
libao-0.8.8-i486-1
libarchive-2.8.0-i486-1
libart_lgpl-2.3.20-i486-1
libassuan-1.0.5-i486-1

As for naming, ATM I have two ide drives and one sata drive plugged in. The sata drive is named sda even though it was changed in BIOS to last in order. The two ide drives follow in order to deive connection on mobo.

Code:

rick@rick:~$ df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root              5855432    386880   5468552   7% /
/dev/sdb10            11718996     32972  11686024   1% /mnt/sdb10
/dev/sdb11            11718996  10139272   1579724  87% /mnt/sdb11
/dev/sdb3             96691440  79588096  17103344  83% /mnt/sda3
/dev/sdb6              5855432   4511872   1343560  78% /usr
/dev/sdb7              5855432   1252756   4602676  22% /usr/local
/dev/sdb8              4883556    749892   4133664  16% /opt
/dev/sdb9             11718996   8857296   2861700  76% /home
/dev/sdc1              5859272    280472   5578800   5% /mnt/sdc1
/dev/sdc3             46766512      5848  46760664   1% /mnt/sdc3
/dev/sda1            244057272  16136644 227920628   7% /multimedia

onebuck · 07-05-2010, 09:23 AM

Hi,

Quote:

So you want to be a Slacker! What do I do next?
I've noticed a problem for some new users that are attempting to use 'Slackware 13.1 BETA1'.

'libata_switchover' has been around since 13.0 but some new users are not aware.
A new user should look at rworkman's 'libata_switchover HOWTO';

Quote:

excerpt 'libata_switchover HOWTO';
This is written to provide one of several ways to retain a working
system after upgrading from Slackware 13.0's kernel to the newer
kernel in -current (which removes support for the "old" ide subsytem,
thereby causing all /dev/hd* devices to have /dev/sd* names.

I also suggest that everyone looks at CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT and the other text files. Hopefully this will keep the gotcha clown away.

'libata_switchover HOWTO' is the link to check out!

Z038 · 07-05-2010, 04:11 PM

Just FYI - If you have a LUKS-encrypted root on an LVM drive, the root you specify in step 4 at the prompt after hitting the tab key will be something like /dev/vg00/root, where the vg00 will be whatever you called your LVM volume group where /root resides. At least, I think so. Even that didn't work for me when I upgraded one of my systems, but it was my fault. I had built the initrd incorrectly (late night, too tired, fingercheck). Perhaps on my next upgrade I'll get to find out if that will work.