slackware 12.0 install - error loading operating system
I'm a Linux/Slackware newbie. I have an older laptop that I'm trying to install Slackware on. From what I read Slackware is an OS that works well on older hardware.
I created the ISO CDs to install. I ran through the install process and then rebooted my machine. I get the error message "Error loading operating system" When it tried to install LILO it said it was unsuccessful and that I would need to boot from a disk. I'm not sure how to boot from disk. I have put the 1st ISO CD in and tried booting from there. I get to a prompt that says "root@slackware:/#" I'm not certain what to do from here. I'm guessing I need to fix the LILO boot to get rid of the Error loading operating system message, but I don't know how to do that. Ideally I'd like to get the PC to boot directly into the KDE manager, but for now I'd settle with getting rid of the error message and getting the PC to boot to a prompt. I appreciate any suggestions and insight you can provide. |
First, you should use Slackware-12.1 -- recently released.
Boot with CD1 and at the prompt enter: Code:
hugesmp.s root=/dev/hda5 rdinitr= ro Once at the prompt, issue "chroot /mnt" then "liloconfig" and install LILO to the MBR. Then you need to change from the huge kernel to a generic kernel. Issue "vim /etc/lilo.conf" or if you're not comfortable using vim use pico instead. This is my /etc/lilo.conf -- you can study it and adjust yours accordingly: Code:
mingdao@silas:~$ cat /etc/lilo.conf Code:
ANNOUNCE.12_1 you will see that you need to run a generic kernel, rather than a huge one. |
Thank you for your tips. I downloaded 12.1 and am trying to install it. I've also read through some of the documentation you pointed be to. Prior to that I had been relying on slackbook 2.0. I'm sure I'm going to be needing a lot of help from the forum to get Linux up and running. Thanks in advance for your help.
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If you're installing 12.1, and you have a previous version, backup
whatever files you need to save and install 12.1 fresh. I always create a separate home directory so that I can keep my files there and reinstall without formatting home. I also backup /home/mingdao, but this separate partition allows me to install the OS fresh, and not format the home directory. There is another good read, though it might be a little out of date. However, those links above and Slackware Linux Basics used together, will be really useful. |
When I tried installing slackware 12.1 I got essentially the same results I did with 12.0
I got this error message: Warning: Unable to determine video adapter in use in the present system. Warning: Video adapter does not support VESA BIOS extensions needed for display of 256 colors. Boot loader will fall back to TEXT only operation; Warning: Device 0X0800: Inconsistent partition table, 1st entry CHS address in PT: 0:1:1 --> LBA (50) LBA address in PT: 32 --> CHS (0:0:33) Fatal: Either FIX-TABLE or IGNORE-TABLE must be specified If not sure, first try IGNORE-TABLE (-P ignore) Sorry, but the attempt to instal LILO has returned an error, so LILO has not been correctly installed. You'll have to use a bootdisk to start your machine instead. It should still be possible to get LILO working by editing the /etc/lilo.conf and reinstalling LILO manually. See the LILO man page and documentation in /usr/doc/lilo for more help. The error message may be seen above. And when it boots it says: "Operating System not found" |
Your partition table appears to be messed up. If there is nothing important on your hard drive, I would delete the current partition table and start from scratch. If you DO have something important on it (and you don't want to risk losing it), you may want to use a LiveCD to boot your system and then manually mount your drives and back everything up (to a USB drive if you have one, or to a CD/DVD if you have two drives or you use a LiveUSB setup instead of a LiveCD). If you can't do that, you may wish to try running `lilo -P ignore` instead of simple `lilo` when trying to write to the MBR (the "-P ignore" flag ignores the inconsistencies in the partition table and writes to the MBR anyway). Using that, there is a *chance* that you will be able to boot your system (though if it does boot you would be smart to immediately back everything up and reinstall fresh, because living with a bad partition table is risky at best). If that STILL doesn't work, you can try installing LILO with `lilo -P fix` command -- but this is VERY dangerous. The "-P fix" flag tells LILO to try re-writing the partition table to fix it -- but this has the possibility of completely wiping everything (and therefore losing all of your data). See `man lilo` for more details (or search the web for "man lilo" if you don't have access to any Linux setup with man pages).
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I used Fdisk before I installed Slackware. I didn't explicitly do anything to format the hard drive, but I thought that was part of the Slackware install process. The format portion of the Slackware install ran very fast, much faster than when installing windows.
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When I boot from the Slackware disk1 and try to cd to hda1 or hda2 I get the following error message: -sh: cd: can't cd to hda1
Is that another sign of a corrupt partition table? |
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# mkdir /slacktemp1 Code:
# chroot /slacktemp1 Keeping in mind what I said earlier, if that fails, try passing the "-P ignore" option to lilo as well. I would be wary of passing the "-P fix" option. Quote:
At this point I can only wish you luck with this -- I don't really know enough to further help. The only thing that comes to mind is either hard drive failure (which I think is unlikely, but can never be ignored) or maybe an incorrect driver being used for the hard drive (if it's being detected as /dev/hda, it should be an IDE hard drive and NOT an SATA or SCSI hard drive -- if it IS an SATA or SCSI hard drive, that could be your problem). Of course there are other possibilities, but none that come to mind with the information known at present (and my lack of knowledge about failures, since my Linux experiences have been fairly pleasant, either fortunately or unfortunately). |
Use cfdisk rather than fdisk.
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I made some progress. I was able to get the operating system to install. I used the huge.s rather than the hugesmp.s and I used the Reiserfs filesystem rather than the ext3. When I typed startx after booting my screen went blank. That's my next issue to resolve.
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It would do no harm top post exactly WHAT laptop you have, what hardware, etc. At this stage instructions will differ wildly for some older ropier hardware. Acer and a few others had some strange gear onboard.
Also be aware of http://www.linuxlaptop.net where you can find your laptop and a page on it, or something like. Usually there's an owner who will answer email, and you may find an xorg.conf up there already for you. |
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When a program's man page tells you it's preferable to use another program, there's good reason. This person we're helping is obviously a new user, and therefore, should choose cfdisk. It will keep them from the bad things that can (and have for them) happen with fdisk. |
xorgsetup did the trick. I ran that and then startx and my xfrce started up. Is xorgsetup not part of the install or was it something with my machine that required me to have to run that separately? http://www.linux-laptop.net/ is a pretty neat website.
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Just a little tip. When I upgrade Slackware, I always do
a fresh install. My config files are saved here: Code:
mingdao@silas:~$ ls -l config-files/ This is a sloppy method, and some Slack geeks like Alien Bob, who have learned bash, have written scripts and made Slackpacks to do this work for them. Whatever you choose, it's good to backup things you might need and don't want to be without. |
Bruce, hehehehe, I see your backing up the theme I created.......I'm honored......LOL
Here is what the latest revision looks like: http://sqdnguns.com/images/snapshot2.png |
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