do you have a lilo.conf file now ?
else make one yourself from the info posted here ( mostly by yourself )
and run " lilo " as root.
then check the output.

egag

I haven't got patience to read every bits of information here but a simple way out should be

Let Slackware complete the installation and choose "floppy" as the location for Lilo.

Don't play around with lilo.conf until you can boot Windows without the floppy and Slackwar (possibly with WIndows too) with the floppy.

Once you get to that position then you can tell us what is your final preferred arrangement.

For dual boot the boot loader in the MBR has to do the work and it can be NTLDR of XP (or WIn2k), Lilo or Grub (or any 3rd party boot loader).

Lilo is perfectly capable of booting 15 systems.

i just wanna know something
i'm trying to instal lilo at the root partition , is it wrong ?
if it was wrong , why is this choice here in the lilo installation ?
i think slackware is very complicated distro

you can just install lilo in the mbr.

egag

thanks for reply
could i ask you egag why ?
while root option is reside . moreover i've read essay that says 1024 restriction is removed from recent versions of lilo .
look man i just wanna get understand , not just operate my pc

OK This is the explanation.

If you put Lilo in the MBR then Lilo will control your PC. Editing Lilo's /etc/lilo.conf is all you have to do to multi-boot.

You will notice Lilo boot Windows by 2 lines

other = /dev/hda1
label = winxp

The label is the name of the system and other is a chainloading command for Lilo to boot another boot loader, which is this case a Windows.

You can use the same chainloading technique to boot any system in a PC. For it to work that system must have its boot loader inside its root partition.

So the answer to your question of why in root partition is = so that it can be chainloadered by another boot loader. Got it?

You can ask Lilo to chainloader a Linux with Grub, A windows with NTLDR and another Linux with Lilo.

That is how I boot 50+ systems in my box. It is all done by chainloading! I use Grub for the main task because Lilo boots a maximum of 15 entries.

DOS, Win9x, Win2k, XP, *BSD and Solaris by default in an installation always place the boot loader in root partition because they can only be installed in a primary partition earmarked for booting.

Linux gives you 3 choices of MBR, Root partition and floppy because Linux can be booted from a logical partition which none of the above does, except NetBSD.

You can place Lilo repeatedly in all the three choices!

The floppy as a back up, the MBR as immediate control and in root partition for future chainloading.

-------------------------------

To boot a system directly Lilo has to call the kernel using the image= statement.

alot of thanks saikee
i wanna say that egag forced me to install lilo in MBR while there is a root option , as i don't want to overwite the MBR , cause i'll reinstall microsoft os at future and don't want to install lilo everytime .
all i want to know: is it possible to install lilo in /dev/hda4 (away from first 1024 cylinders of HD)
and if it's impossible what could i do by this root option

Like I said before install Lilo in a floppy and you can have the use of the Linux without losing WIndows MBR.

The 1024 Cylinder limit has hit me only once or twice when installing old and small distros. It is never an issue for the current distros. If you ran into the 1024 cylinder limitation just add

lba

to your lilo.conf to overcome it.

The XP/Win2k uses the same MBR as Win9x and DOS. I always use a bootable floppy to restore my XP's MBR whenever I need. Just boot the DOS floopy up and type

fdisk /mbr

It produces the same result as booting up with XP installation CD and type fixmbr.

If you can get lilo or Windows' MBR any time you want and without any re-installation then there is no need to fear one boot loader overwriting another.

You can get inside an unbootable Linux using a Live CD and "change root" to it. Once inside the distressed Linux you can replicate Lilo by

lilo -b /dev/fd0
lilo -b /dev/hda
lilo -b /deb/hda4

for a floppy, MBR and root partition respectively.

You can do exactly the same with Grub with commands

grub-install /dev/fd0
grub-install /dev/hda
grub-install /devhda4

The tools are

A bootableDOS floppy can get you back any DOS/Windows MBR and

A Linux Live CD can get you back any Linux's boot loader

Putting Lilo in the root partition doesn't help your current booting. Putting it in MBR does.

The future use of putting Lilo in root partition of hda4 is as follow

In future if you installed another Linux in hda10 and put its boot loader say it is a Lilo in MBR then amending that Linux's /etc/lilo.conf with these two lines

other=/dev/hda4
label=Slackware_10

Will boot your Slackware 10.1

You only start to learn Linux's boot loader by putting it in the MBR. Booting off from a floppy is for the nervous newbie.

i agreed to use MBR to install Lilo at least to get my slack works but i'm not satisfied
i still wanna know about installing Lilo on root partition , maybe i'll try it myself
regardless of anything
thank you all to help me . special thanks to those who gave me valuable information

mandrakelinux,

You have problem of insisting to keep XP's MBR but want to dual boot Slackware. Yes this can be done but you need an operational Slackware first. Secondly you need to put its boot loader Lilo in the root partition so that you could use Linux to copy the first 512 bytes out and store it in XP's C drive. Thirdly you need to amend XP's hidden file boot.ini to create Slackare as the additional choice. That is a fair bit of work for a newbie

If you use Lilo it will dual boot XP automatically after an installation and you can still use the floppy without losing your XP MBR. This is zero work!.

There will be some time in future you will feel comfortable with Slackware and transfer the booting from floppy to MBR to get a better response. You can look back this thread and realise all tips have been given to you.
--------------

Lastly, during an installation a Linux checks every partition in your PC to see if there is a boot loader there. That is why without being told Slackware can pick out your XP and include it for booting. Having Lilo in hda4 will enable a new distro you install in future to pick up Slackware automatically for a triple boot.

wtf ?
i can't remember putting a gun on your head.
i suggested the most simple way to get things to work,and it seems
that you got it at last, so it wasn't such a bad idea.

but you have been, as allways on this forum, free to choose your own way.
you are responsible for your own doing, not me or anybody else.

...and when you put lilo on your root partition you'll find yourself dd-ing it to a file,
and moving that file to your wintendo partition everytime you change, add or delete a kernel.
just try it...

egag

thanks for advice my friend
i think i've told you that i wanna understand not just operate my pc . and we are here to help each other .
maybe you fed up helping people like me .
anyway thanks for help egag

if you want to learn then stop asking and start reading.
you'll learn nothing when you want other people to solve your prob.'s

in fact there's only one person like you and you're right,
i'm fed up with that one.

have a nice day.

egag

mandrakelinux,

I think we may have overestimated your ability to understand our suggestions. The flustration is more to do with your insistance of keeping Xp's MBR and have no idea of how involved it is to dual boot Slackware.

At the same time you can't get your Slackware working because you have no way of booting it upby denying its access to the MBR.

I suggested to get out of the situation by booting to a floppy but that seems to drop on dead ears.

So what can we do?

You must do your bit to try out the suggestions and report back if you want to make progress.

hey saikee
it hasn't droped on dead ears , i respect your suggestions