lilo problem after installing new kernel

jimX86 · 06-25-2006, 06:45 PM

Double-check that your BIOS is set to boot /dev/hdc. If it is, boot back into linux. At the command line, type:
ls -l /boot/boot.*

Is it just boot.0300 or is there also a boot.0301 file? If both, can you post the results? (I'm trying to see if you have a copy of the MBR from hdd. Since everything worked before, it might be worth trying to restore it.)

b3rx · 06-25-2006, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by egag

do you still get the same error as in post#1 ?
if so, what's the output of "cat /proc/partitions " ?

egag

here is my cat /proc/partitions results

Code:

b3rx@zu:~$ cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

  22     0   39082680 hdc
  22     1   20482843 hdc1
  22     2     506047 hdc2
  22     3   18089190 hdc3
  22    64   78150744 hdd
  22    65   30724281 hdd1
  22    66          1 hdd2
  22    69   30724281 hdd5
  22    70   16699536 hdd6
b3rx@zu:~$

hdd2 has only one block and if i edit using pico it to match the number of blocks when i fdisk -l, it says it cant overwrite the changes.. even though im using root.

evilDagmar · 06-25-2006, 10:21 PM

Okay, that's because you're not supposed to edit /proc/partitions. It's strictly for reporting information about which partitions the kernel knows about--not changing them.

Something is screwed up somewhere or lilo shouldn't be caring about drives/partitions not mentioned in lilo.conf. Are you doing anything in your BIOS that might be remapping the drives? Up until now I think everyone's been assuming that you have no drives on the first IDE controller, although it is odd. Is this actually the case? Are these actually SATA drives that through some manner of trickery you've got your BIOS representing as IDE drives? For that matter why aren't these drives on the primary IDE bus in the first place?

b3rx · 06-26-2006, 03:37 AM

no those are not sata drives. i dont have any sata hard disk installed. all are IDE.. as far as i can remember, i didnt edit the BIOS. check up on the BIOS if i can spot something odd.. post the results later. thanks guys.. im learning alot here...

Andriy · 06-26-2006, 04:54 AM

Hey guys! I had a similar problem here, so I thought it would be best for me to save some precious bytes on this forum so I'll just attached mine into this thread.

I added a new entry into my lilo.conf so that I can boot my old windbloat drive. I was in such a hurry and all I thought that after issuing the /sbin/lilo command I will have a very smooth result, unfortunately I was wrong and I left it with the error. Out of desperation I used "liloconfig" to write a new lilo into the MBR. When I boot again, to my horror..there it was..KERNEL PANIC!!

Now, I thought about reconfiguring the /etc/lilo.conf, but, we all knew that it does not work that way since LILO does not read the /etc/lilo.conf during boot time but only the entries on the MBR.

I tried editing the /etc/lilo.conf through system rescue cd disk and attempted to write lilo which was in the MBR of the drive that hosts the winbloat drive (/dev/hda1). Unfortunately upon issuing the /sbin/lilo -b /dev/hda1 -C /mnt/temp1/etc/lilo.conf, lilo reports that it cannot write into that block since it will destroy the first 1023 block of that FAT partition and could render that partition useless.

Now, I was wondering if anyone has a bright idea for this... thank you very much

P.S.

Nevermind, problem solved. I created a bare.i bootdisk and found a way to edit the lilo. Thanks!

egag · 06-26-2006, 08:23 AM

do you have a "/sys " directory, when running the 2.6 kernel ?
if you don't have it, make one
eg. as root, run "mkdir /sys"

then reboot, and try again.

egag

b3rx · 06-26-2006, 04:04 PM

well.. i just found out that my hard disk are located in the secondary IDE. and if i change it back to the primary, it wont boot to linux. it will have a kernel panic.

egag · 06-26-2006, 05:54 PM

----------
hdd2 has only one block and if i edit using pico it to match the number of blocks when i fdisk -l, it says it cant overwrite the changes.. even though im using root.
----------

hdd2 is an extended partition, it has only one block.
the rest of the blocks are devided over the logical partitions that are in the extended.

----------
well.. i just found out that my hard disk are located in the secondary IDE. and if i change it back to the primary, it wont boot to linux. it will have a kernel panic.
----------

that doesn't suprise me, as lilo looks on hdc for a kernel.
plugging it to the primary ide makes it hda.

i suppose you also changed your bios settings to boot from hda ?
you can either change it back, or:
-boot the install-cd, ( don't use "mount root=etc...).
-after booting, mount your / partition and chroot to it
-edit lilo.conf to use hda &hdb,
-edit fstab for the same reason
-reinstall lilo in the mbr of hda
-reboot and hope we didn't forget anything

i would change it back, after all, it was working.

btw: any news on the /sys directory ?

egag

b3rx · 06-26-2006, 11:05 PM

ok ill try those steps that you have mentioned. regarding the /sys directory.. it is present in my system when running the new kernel. post to you guys the results later. thanks again.

evilDagmar · 06-29-2006, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andriy

I tried editing the /etc/lilo.conf through system rescue cd disk and attempted to write lilo which was in the MBR of the drive that hosts the winbloat drive (/dev/hda1). Unfortunately upon issuing the /sbin/lilo -b /dev/hda1 -C /mnt/temp1/etc/lilo.conf, lilo reports that it cannot write into that block since it will destroy the first 1023 block of that FAT partition and could render that partition useless.

Yes, well, in the future you might want to keep in mind that /dev/hda1 is not an MBR. It is merely a partition. -b /dev/hda (no number!) would specify a Master Boot Record.