I have a Sager Notebook NP2260 with windows xp on the 1st partition and Installed slack 8.1 in the second partition. I did not install lilo and boot my slack using a boot disk created upon installation. I then issued this command to get the first 512 bytes of the linux partition:

dd if=/dev/hda7 of=/98-c/bootsect.lnx bs=1 count=512

hda7 is my linux partition '

98-c is my old 98 Fat partition

I then edited my boot.ini file and added this line

c:\bootsect.lnx="Slackware 8.1"

but when I choose this option when booting , my screen just turn blank and freezes. For me to get to linux I need to boot from my slack boot disk.

Is there something that I missed

Thanks

Are you sure the machine is not booting into slack, I had it where I misconfigured the video drivers and I could see the lilo then everything went blank, but if you listened carefully you could hear the machine starting up.

Besides that I have always used LILO instead of M$ boot managers.

Before trying anything else, write the LILO stuff on the partition
where you have Linux installed (NOT on MBR)

There is also a program called 'bootpart' to make this work, in the worst case it is dependent on havivin a small c: with fat16

I tried to reconfigure my lilo using liloconfig and tried to write the LILO file on the partition where I installed my LINUX but I got an error saying that an error has occured and it cannot create my LILO file. It also said that I need to edit my LILO. I then tried to reinstall everything, I also reformatted my swap partition and linux partition, but when it comes to the LILO configuration, I got the same error. What could be the problem? Thanks to you all.

Can you post your /etc/lilo.conf to us please? Seams like you have a configuration error or something.

Here's a copy of my lilo.conf

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
lba32 # Allow booting past 1024th cylinder with a recent BIOS
boot = /dev/hda7
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 1200
# 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
# DOS bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
label = DOS
table = /dev/hda
# DOS bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda7
label = Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# OS/2 bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda5
label = OS2
table = /dev/hda
# OS/2 bootable partition config ends


Thanks

Get ride of the DOS and OS/2 stuff, installing LILO this way you won't want to boot into those with it anyway. And get ride of the vga=line for now so you can rule out the possibility of a frame buffer issue under linux. (try vga=normal maybe) Make sure to run lilo after making any changes. It should report no errors.

John

I did what you suggested jtshaw, when I ran lilo, I received the same error, "Cannot create lilo"

Thanks

Stupid question maybe:
Are you logged in as ROOT ?

Hmm, that is really strange. Might want to try running lilo -b /dev/hda7 (assuming /dev/hda7 is the linux partition).

If that still doesn't work I would probably suggest the option of booting Windows/Linux with grub. You can get grub info at www.gnu.org/software/grub . Grub has a lot of really nice features and makes it easy to setup a dual boot no matter what your partitions are setup as. Way less of a hassle then lilo in a lot of cases.

To bynaar, yes I'm logged in as ROOT. I'll try to use grub. Thanks

I'm 4 months late. I'm having exactly the same problem. After picking Slackware from the list of choices, I'd get nothing but a black screen.

Do check: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=54073

I'll be trying grub but I still do want to know what's wrong, thanks.