problem with lilo and mbr
 

I have my computer set to dual boot WinXp and Slack 10.1 Lilo is written to the master boot record, and everything has been working fine for a few weeks. However, today, when I try to boot, lilo never gets reached, and instead goes to a screen that appears to search for DHCP, and then says "no operating system found." I've tried re-installing lilo with liloconfig, and when I choose to install to the master boot record, liloconfig exits saying "Illegal Instruction"

I have 3 drives hooked up through a ATA PCI card.

Here is my lilo.conf:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hde
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
prompt
timeout = 300
# 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
# ramdisk = 0 # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hdg1
label = Linux
read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hde1
label = WindowsXP
# map-drive = 0x80
# to = 0x81
# map-drive = 0x81
# to = 0x80
table = /dev/hde
# Windows bootable partition config ends

Any help is much appreciated

You don't happen to have something booting off your CDrom do you? Or Floppy?

That's a weird error and although I've seen many errors, I've never heard of that one.

Can you take a picture of the screen showing the DHCP?

I don't think that particular screen is the cause of anything. I think it is just the next step my motherboard takes when no OS is found on the MBR. I think what I need to do is find a way to repair the MBR without reinstalling. I will reinstall if there's no other choice, but I'd like to avoid it.

You can fix the problem without reinstalling.

Boot up with the slackware install disk, at the boot prompt put:

bare.i root=/dev/hdg1 noinitrd,ro

This will boot you into your kernel. You can repair the problem through your liloconfig usually.

If all else fails, boot into your BIOS and set your first boot device to the disk that has Linux on it.

just boot your system and run " liloconfig " as Slum says.

choose " expert " mode, add win and Slack and install in the mbr.
the program will prompt you to choose which disk/mbr is to be used
( hde in your case )

egag

I've tried that, except when I choose MBR, it exits saying "Illegal Instruction"

do you have some kind of virus protection switched on in the bois ?

egag

Hardware
 

Could your master drive or controller be going bad?

No virus control switched on. Would fdisk show me any errors that may exist in the master boot record of a drive that is NTFS? If it matters, when I boot up through Knoppix, all the drives are able to be accessed, and the files all seem to be there. Should I just reinstall Slack and see what happens?

Boot from Network
 

I get a wierd DHCP thing when my machine tries to boot from the network. Make sure it is set to boot from the hard drive before the network in boot devices. My box boots from floppy, then cd, then hard drive, and then everything else.

The boot order is set correctly. I tried reinstalling, and liloconfig seemed to work when I did a complete install, however when I reboot, instead of the lilo menu, I get a bunch of 1's and 0's. Since this is probably a hard drive issue at this point, would I be better off getting a dos boot disk, and run fdsk /mbr, try reinstalling WindowsXp first, or is there some way to format the drive to NTFS from within LInux.

In case anyone is curious, I fixed the problem by running the recovery console from the WinXP disc, and running FIXMBR. That fixed the hard drive and let it boot straight into Windows. After that liloconfig get the dual boot running again.

Just out of curiosity, is there any way to have the dual boot configured by Windows boot manager instead of Linux?