Well, I've got questions concerning the slackware 8.1 install. More specifically, about lilo.

I've got 3 hard drives on my computer, and I'm using the second one to install linux on (hdb) and, at the moment, have got 4 partitions on it. 1 NTFS partition, 2 ext3 partitions, and one linux swap partition. Now, I've installed Slackware to the two ext3 partitions. However, when I go to configure lilo, it does not work and, in fact, returns an error.

Now, I was running Mandrake 9.0 before slackware. Before installing slackware, I got rid of the partitions that contained Mandrake and remade them. I then installed slackware onto the new partitions. However, the automatic lilo configuration fails (I have tried installing lilo into the root directory and into the master boot record, both to no avail) and whenever I try to boot from the hard disk, it brings up Mandrake's lilo with the options for mandrake and XP. Now, I thought I had completely erased Mandrake, but some vestige of it still manages to live on somehow (albeit just barely). Not that thats really the issue, though.

In any case, I need to figure out a way to get lilo working and boot both Windows XP and Slackware. Any help in this area would be most appreciated.

TheMad

Are you sure that you installed lilo to the master boot record of the drive that is actually booting? You stated the Slack install was on hdb, but if hda is actually booting then it is the hda master boot record that still has the XP/Mandy options. Many BIOS allow booting only from the IDE primary master device. There a few though that are configurable to the other three drives.

Ah, that could be it. In that case, how would I go about installing lilo to the master boot record of hda? In the installation thing, it didn't give me a choice as to which one I wanted to install it to.

TheMad

Edit the /etc/lilo.conf file and change the line that starts with "boot =". It probably has /dev/hdb at present, change it to /dev/hda. Make sure there is an image section for your XP partition. After your changes are complete the run "lilo" to write the changes to disk.

Depending on how you boot/mount the partition, if other than the root partition. You will probably need to specify the root level directory using the "-r" option. If you boot the Slack CD and then mount your partition under the /mnt directory, then like this:

lilo -r /mnt

You should then able to unmount the drive and reboot.

Well, it says boot = /dev/hda, however, when I tried running lilo, it gave me this message:

"Duplicate entry 'lba32' at or above line 7 in file /etc/lilo.conf"

Upon looking, there are 2 lines one after the other that go like this:

lba32 # Allow booting past the 1024th cylinder with a recent BIOS
lba32 # Allow booting past the 1024th cylinder with a recent BIOS

Commenting one of them out would be a simple manner of putting a sharp sign in front of one, but would it make any difference?

TheMad

Don't know how two of them would have been there. But simply delete one of them. It doesn't matter which.

Well, unfortunately, that leads to more errors when I attempt to run lilo.

Warning: BIOS drive 0x83 may not be accessible
Warning: BIOS drive 0x83 may not be accessible
Fatal: Partition entry not found.

Here's a copy of my lilo.conf file (without the comments):

lba32
boot = /dev/hda
message /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 1200
change-rules
reset
vga = 733

other = /dev/hdd5
label = DOS
table = /dev/hdd

image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hdb5
label = Linux
read-only

other = /dev/hda1
label = OS2
table = /dev/hda

other = /dev/hda1
label = NT
table = /dev/hda

Those last 3 lines I copied from Mandrake's lilo.conf file (which I backed up before erasing the partitions) because there didn't seem to be anything in the config file for windows. The way my hard drives/OSes are set up is like this:

I've got 3 hard drives.

hda is divided into 2 partitions. Windows XP is installed on hda1

hdb is divided into 4 partitions. The primary partition is NTFS and I use it for windows. The next two partitions (hdb5 and hdb6) are where linux is installed. The root directory is on hdb5. hdb7 is just a swap partition.

Now, when I erased Mandrake, I did not uninstall Mandrake's lilo. Perhaps if I were able to get it off the master boot record of hda and then try installing lilo from slackware it would work?

TheMad

I do not think you need to erase the old mbr, lilo should overwrite it.

The two warning messages are not a problem either. But the last line about a partiton is not found would stop it.

The last three lines duplicate the preceeding three lines except for the label text for the boot menu.

I am not familiar with "change-rules" or "reset". However the man page states that the "reset" erases the normal rules so that new one can be defined. Try remarking these two lines out and see what happens.

And the "vga=733" is also OK I think. Provided that is a valid number in the listing.
My notebook uses vga=791 for 1024x768 and 64K colors. vga=773 is for 1024X768 at 256 colors. This is used to specify the framebuffer mode if desired. If not then "vga = normal" should be used.

Well, the comment above those two lines is:

# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:

I'm somewhat hesitant to remove those lines if it means that the partition table for hda would be rewritten.

TheMad

Ah, success! Before I deleted Mandrake, I copied its lilo.conf file to one of my other partitions. So, I simply ended up splicing some lines from that into the lilo.conf file that slack was using and then commenting/replacing any lines that gave errors. Well, thanks for the help!

TheMad

Hey The Madd
If possible could you post that lilo.conf with comments added to what you had to do or possible post both original lilo.confs's and the new one( would be able to see exactlly what you had done that way). The reason I ask is on freaky incedents like this I keep a logbook in case I ever come across the same problem and then I don't have to go hunting or asking later down the road. If your not that is kewl and understandable.

Thanks in advance
Krymsun

Sure thing. This is the lilo.conf I'm using now:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
# lba32 # Allow booting past 1024th cylinder with a recent BIOS
# boot = /dev/hda
# message = /boot/boot_message.txt
# prompt
# timeout = 1200
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
# change-rules
# reset
# 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
# End LILO global section
# DOS bootable partition config begins
# other = /dev/hdd5
# label = DOS
# table = /dev/hdd
# DOS bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
# image = /boot/vmlinuz
# root = /dev/hdb5
# label = Linux
# read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# OS/2 bootable partition config begins
# other = /dev/hda1
# label = OS2
# table = /dev/hda
# OS/2 bootable partition config ends
# Perhaps this will boot Windows, who knows?
# other=/dev/hda1
# label=NT
# table=/dev/hda
# End the stuff ripped out of the other lilo.conf
#
#
# end original lilo.conf
# after this is the stuff mostly copied from the mandrake lilo.conf
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
# default=linux-enterpris
prompt
nowarn
timeout=1200
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
ignore-table
disk=/dev/hdd bios=0x82
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hdb5
label = Slackware_Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# OS/2 bootable partition config begins
# other = /dev/hda1
# label = OS2
# table = /dev/hda
# OS/2 bootable partition config ends
# Perhaps this will boot Windows, who knows?
other=/dev/hda1
label=WindowsXP
table=/dev/hda
# End the stuff ripped out of the other lilo.




And here is the backup Mandrake lilo.conf:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
default=linux-enterpris
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
ignore-table
disk=/dev/hdd bios=0x82
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi quiet"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux-nonfb
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-enterprise
label=linux-enterpris
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd-enterprise.img
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label=NT
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/hdb1
label=NT2
table=/dev/hdb
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
other=/dev/fd0
label=floppy
unsafe
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.19-16mdk
label=old_linux
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.19-16mdk.img
append="quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
vga=788
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label=old_NT
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/hdb1
label=old_NT2
table=/dev/hdb
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=failsafe
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi failsafe"
read-only
other=/dev/hdb1
label=old2_NT2
table=/dev/hdb
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80




TheMad

If the old mandrake loader keeps booting, get a win98 disk, boot to that, and type fdisk /mbr that gets rid of your mbr, and you dont have a problem.

Or you could boot to slackware and type dd if=/dev/zero or=/dev/hda bs=1k count=1