I have Slackware 10.2 and I have 2 160GB sata drives. I can install everything up to the bootloader..when I tell it to install in mbr or superblock it just hangs. When I install to a floppy it works. Any ideas?

have you used sata.i when choosing kernel modules?
what is your partition setup look like??

Great start.

You may also want to check the BIOS for any type of 'MBR Protect' or 'Anti-Virus' type settings (this will stop lilo/grub from installing to your MBR)

yes, I have the same problem.

I have the hp dl360 g3 machine, and the partition table is:
primary ntfs
primary linux ( I install slackware 10.2 here.)
primary swap

however, I can install lilo at mbr, then I pick up an old redhat disc and add an extend partition.

primary ntfs
primary linux ( I install redhat 7.2 here, I have that disc at hand.)
primary swap
extend
logic linux ( I install the slackware 10.2 here)
logic linux

redhat 7.2 is ok, and I can boot it through grub.

I want the setup to install lilo in the head of extend partition ( superblock?) or in the mbr to replace grub, but it sill fail (in setup).

I feel it's not problem for lilo but for the setup, since I believe lilo and grub is the same except their appearance.

I love slackware, but so frustrated I am, the boot time of the machine is so long and I have to try several time!

I do not know team of slackware or even Patrick Volkerding can hear voice here, I think the setup and boot part should be improved. Good begining is half of success.

Actually, if you stick to lilo, you'll do fine.

Your problem comes from swapping back and forth between bootloaders and multiple distros to do HDD partitioning/setups.

Not Pat. Not lilo. Not Slackware.

Messing with the MBR IS DANGEROUS. Pick a bootloader, and stick with it.Trying one, then the other, then back again, you are asking for trouble.

Could you add SW to grub menu and select it?
I had similar problem:HD1(40G) with XP with 3 primary partitions and HD2(80G) with extended partition including swap partition(hdb6) and these root partitions: SW at hdb5,LN3 at hdb7,and Kanotix at hdb8,fat32 hdb8 at end. SW Lilo at mbr boots all operating systems(only after puting SW at start of HD2), other root partitions have grub or lilo. When I tried grub at mbr only 2 of linuxes would boot and other needed boot disk, no matter where on HD2 I placed LN3(which uses grub). Tried several grub versions to no avail. When HD2 was 40G grub or lilo worked from mbr.
On my other pc HD1(40G) has XP and Xandros(X3),and swap; HD2(100G)(sata) with LN3/Sarge(used sata install boot cd), a 20G unused partition, and large fat32 partition for pix and itunes music files and backups. Here too Lilo(from Xandros) at mbr boots all operating systems(OS). A plus is that X3 auto detected OS and edited lilo.conf to include them. Grub at mbr could not do it here either.
There seems to be some limit to grub and lilo when at mbr beyond which other root partition wont boot. Maybe availabilty of so many huge HDs and mixing ide and sata disks now make these limitations visible. Just a guess

My setup is
/dev/sda1 swap
/dev/sda2 / bootable

/dev/sdb1 swap
/dev/sdb2 /home

The only way I can boot up the system if I make a bootdisk in the setup.