lilo install issue

1998chevy1500 · 05-01-2011, 01:35 PM

Hello all,

I am running into an issue with installing lilo on a new 13.37 installation. This is a fresh install on a computer that was previously running 13.0

The computer has the following drives attached to it.

Code:

/dev/md0 made up of 
   /dev/sda  SATA drive
   /dev/sdb  SATA drive
   /dev/sdc  SATA drive
/dev/md1 made up of
   /dev/sdd  SATA drive
   /dev/sde  SATA drive
   /dev/sdf  SATA drive
   /dev/sdg  SATA drive
/dev/sdh  SATA drive
/dev/sdi  SATA drive
/dev/sdj this is an IDE drive where the OS is being installed

Previously when I was running 13.0 it was easy to get this all setup. Lilo was installed on /dev/hda and booted /dev/hda1. With the new kernel (that came with 13.1 and now 13.37) the /dev/hda is detected as a /dev/sdX drive.

When I ran through the install I got an error when it tried to install lilo. After the install finished I ran

Code:

chroot /mnt

and then

Code:

lilo

and received the following error

Code:

Fatal: raid_setup: stat("/dev/sdj")

I have been trying to do research on this error, but so far I have been unable to find a solution.

If there were a way to make the IDE drive detect as either /dev/hda or even /dev/sda (ahead of all of the SATA drives) I would think that I could fake my way through this by disconnecting all the RAID drives from the computer and getting lilo to install, however because disconnecting them shifts all the /dev/sdX names around I don't believe that is a valid option.

Is there any way to have lilo accept either "labels" or "uuid" values for the "boot = xxx" and "root = xxx" options??

Thank you for the help.

gegechris99 · 05-01-2011, 03:43 PM

Hello,

Did you follow the steps described in README_RAID.TXT, especially the parts after:

Quote:

=== Finishing touches ===

It explains that /etc/lilo.conf must be edited prior to running lilo.

1998chevy1500 · 05-01-2011, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gegechris99

Hello,

Did you follow the steps described in README_RAID.TXT, especially the parts after:

It explains that /etc/lilo.conf must be edited prior to running lilo.

I just now read through that section. However, I am unsure of how that pertains to my setup. I don't want lilo to be installed on a software raid device. My main OS just runs on a single IDE drive, the raid drives are separate from that and only contain data.

The problem I am having is that the IDE device detects as /dev/sdj. I have been continuing to play around with and thus far have gotten no where.

Is there a way to make sure that the libata allows for the IDE drives detect first? IE the old /dev/hda would detect as /dev/sda and all of my sdX drives would shift down one letter?

Currently I have disconnected all of my SATA drives and setup lilo for /dev/sda (the IDE shows up as /dev/sda when all the other SATA drives are disconnected). I have then booted Slackwaer13.37 and am attempting to build a kernel with the "ata/atapi/mfm/rll" functionality built in. I know that it has been depreciated in favor of libata, but I am hoping that it will build and I can run a kernel that detects the IDE device as /dev/hda. We will see what happens here.

A couple of other things I have tried thus far to no avail (not that I know for certain I have done them right).

Code:

boot = /dev/sda
.
.
.
root = /dev/sdj1

Code:

boot = /dev/sdj
.
.
.
root = /dev/sdj1

Code:

boot = /dev/sda
.
.
.
root = "UUID=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx" where the xxxx is my actual uuid found by blkid /dev/sdj1

Not sure what else to try, but I will report back with any of my findings.

1998chevy1500 · 05-01-2011, 09:20 PM

So... for all that are curious.

I had to perform the following steps to get everything to work out as I would like it to.

First, I disconnected all of the SATA devices from the computer. That way my IDE drive would detect as /dev/sda. I then installed Slackware64-13.37 onto /dev/sda1 and configured lilo to install to the mbr of /dev/sda. I also setup fstab to mount /dev/sda1 as /

I booted the new installation of Slackware64-13.37 with only the IDE drive connected.

Once booted I followed these instructions to setup lilo to select its root device based on LABEL. As well as modfied my /etc/fstab to use the root LABEL http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...n-lilo-813945/

I finally shut down the computer and re-connected all of the SATA drives. As of right now everything is working.

My next few tests will consist of changing "boot=/dev/sda" to "boot=/dev/sdj" and seeing if I can install lilo for any updated changes to my lilo.conf or if will have to go through the process of disconnecting all of the SATA devices every time that I need to update lilo (which hopefully won't be that often).

aocab · 05-02-2011, 11:43 PM

You should not have any problems with the drives being reordered
when you remove a drive if you use uuids (at least that is my understanding).

I just had a similar problem when I added a sata drive to my system
which was only using pata.

The windows system on the pata drive changed from sda to sdb.

When I installed 13.37 (on the sata drive (sda)) and tried to put
lilo on the mbr of sda...lilo complained that it was not the first
drive in the system.

Putting lilo on the mbr of sdb worked but windows would not boot.

I ended up changing lilo to use uuids.

Anyway, but for s**** and grins...
I wanted to see if I could get it working using sdX entries.

I ended up using the following entries:

Quote:

boot = /dev/sdb
.
.
root = /dev/sdb1
.
.
boot-as = 0x80

So maybe you could try something like:

Quote:

boot = /dev/sdj
.
.
root = /dev/sdj1
.
.
boot-as = 0x80

Or

Quote:

boot = /dev/sdj
.
.
root = /dev/sdj1
.
.
addappend = " boot-as = 0x80"

HTH
Cheers

1998chevy1500 · 05-03-2011, 05:42 PM

aocab,

I will have to try that when I get home. For my own curiosity, what is the "boot-as" option for lilo? This is the first time I that I believe I have seen this.

Thanks

aocab · 05-03-2011, 06:27 PM

you can find the information about the boot-as option using

Quote:

man lilo.conf

the way I understand it...in simple terms...
minus all the technical jargon from the man pages...
it instructs lilo to boot the operating system on that partition
as if it was on the first drive in the system.

For example, on my system I have (sda, sdb, and sdc).
sda is a sata drive and sdb and sdc are pata drives.
sdb used to be sda before I added the sata drive.

And now that the sata drive is sda, I tried putting
lilo on the mbr of sda but lilo complained that it
was not the first drive.

So I had to either use uuids or have lilo treat
sdb as if were the first drive so windows would boot.

I hope I'm explaining it correctly.

The problem for me has something to do with the
way the drives are detected.

I do not have an option in my bios to select
which drive (sata vs pata) to boot from and my
eide drives are detected first.

At least lilo sees it (sdb) as being first.

HTH