I am trying to install slackware. After finishing all of the config things, I would install the OS and that would complete successfully. At the end I would reboot the system and when I do, I get a boot error and the system halts. I have checked and I am booting off of the right drive (only one to boot off of) and I did select my main partition as bootable. Have I missed something? I have no idea what I have done wrong but obviously something is.

The system that I am installing to is a:
Pentium 2 266mhz
64mb ram
8.4 GB hd

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Could I ask what the error message was?

Boot error

It would say searching for boot record on Ide-0: OK

then

Boot error

If I use the boot disks again to get to the setup and everything, I notice that I can browse the directories. I recently had FreeBSD installed on that system and it would run fine.

If you selected to install lilo to the partition /dev/hda1, then most likely the master boot record is messed up. Try installing lilo to the mbr on /dev/hda instead.

You will need to boot the install cd. And mount your install partiton:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

edit /mnt/etc/lilo.conf and change boot=/dev/hda1 to boot=/dev/hda using the editor(s) available. I just use vi normally.

then run

lilo -r /mnt

to write the lilo boot record to the mbr of the hard disk. Unmount the drive.

umount /dev/hda1

reboot. See if that helps you out any.

Hmmm, /mnt/etc/lilo.conf doesnt exist... I followed the setup and the OS said it installed but lilo isnt there... Do you have to install it manually?

Was your installation drive for the root file system, hda1? or other?

Was the root install directory mounted under the /mnt point prior to looking in /mnt/etc?

Lilo does not have to be installed manually, but there it a menu for creating, configuring and installing lilo in the install. I usually choose to create from new and then expert mode. It will then ask you about adding partitions and I add a linux partion. Then it has to be saved and written. At least the best that I can remember. But there are several menus to process just on lilo.

If you want, you can run the setup script again. Select the destination partition and then use the menu option toward the bottom. I think it is either configure your system or they may even be one just for installing lilo. You might want to see what the command liloconfig will produce. I think it may present a menu for lilo.

I installed the files on to hda1 I believe.
I do not think that the root install directory was mounted. How would I do that?

Sorry for all the newbie questions

The command I provided above,

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

OK sorry. It was mounted prior to looking in the etc directory.

I dont remember seeing any menus on lilo. I basically booted off the floppies, created my partitions in cfdisk, wrote to those partitions, and then set the bootable flag on for the / partition. I went into the setup then, and formated the partitions, setting each one to its corresponding directory. I was then told to select a source media for installation and then after selecting CDROM and the packages that I wanted, it installed. After a while of installing, the program said it was finished and had me set up basic networking things and then it hat me change my root password. Upon selecting OK to change it, I get an error that it can not find a file, and then it asks me to change it again.



I noticed that the CDROM will not boot up and that I have to use boot disks. Should I be able to boot off the CDROM? I downloaded the 650 meg Slackware 8.1 ISO.

Again, thanks for your help.

Yes, the CD should be bootable. However, many have had problems with not booting. I recommend using Smart Boot Manager on a floppy disk. It ahs worked for many. It is available for DOS or Linux.

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net

If you didn't see any menus pertaining to lilo, then you could try running them again from the setup program. Did you try the liloconfig command? It doesn't do anything on my installed system but it is a large script file that I think is what the setup script runs.

Now the Slack 8.1 iso image is 673,248 KBytes. Many have had problems here as well. It will not fit on a 650 MByte CDR. It requires 700 MByte CDR unless you reauthor stripping out about 30 MBytes or more of something. If attempted and the burn even completes, the result will be a corrupted CDR with missing files, etc.

You can validate the slackware directory by using the md5sum command. Mount your install CD,

mount /dev/hdd /cdrom

Note: use the correct device for your CDROM drive. Then,

cd /cdrom/slackware
md5sum --check CHECKSUMS.md5

It will process the file and verify each of the packages. It will report any problems and display a summary when finished. If you switch to another console, you can check for errors, etc using the dmesg command.

Good luck, I need to retire for the day because I need to go to work early tomorrow. But I will check back here in the morning.

Hi! I have a pentium 166 with Adaptec Scsi card. My first hard disk drive is on the id 1 and my scsi cdrom is on id 3. I have make a boot disk with the kernel adaptec.s for install Slackware 11 because my computer wan't boot from the cdrom.

When I boot with the floppy disk, he load the kernel adaptec.s and after booting I have the prompt boot:

I'm a new user of Linux.

How can I tell to load the cdrom to start the install of Slackware ? I's a new installation

Should I mount my cdrom ?

Thank you !

SyIwam