I have installed slackware 8.1 on a 486 system successfylly.. but i am having problem with lilo, when i bootup i get 04 04 04....repeats and Ls on the screen..

i have configured the lilo many times still no luck..

here is what i have in my lilo file..

# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
delay = 1

#Linux bootable partition config begin
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda5
level = linux
read-only
#Linux bootable partition config ends

partitions on my system
------------------------------
hard drive size = 1.6GB
hda1 = 150MB linux swap - primary
hda5 = 1.1GB ex2 - logical

please help..

# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
delay = 1

Change line 2.
boot=.dev/hda5

Run /sbin/lilo after making the change.

i tried it ... no change

When you ran /sbin/lilo did you get an error message about hda5 not being on the first of your HD? You should have one.

i did'nt get any error..

it showed linux *

then back to command prompt

could the problem be because i have linux swap in primary partition .. and rest on logical partition..??

Did you use the partitioner that is on the Slack install CD? Can you boot Slack off your floppy? When you don't get an error message it means lilo is still trying to boot off the first 512 bytes of your HDD and not hda5.
I screwed up in my first post. It should have been.
boot=/dev/hda5

On a 486 computer you may be hitting a BIOS limitation of 1024 cylinders and lilo can't read the kernel because it is to far out on the disk. If the BIOS on the 486 supports lba32 translation then you might try another installation and place the swap file at the end, but just make it another primary partition, so that the swap would be /dev/hda2. Make your root directory /dev/hda1 as a primary partition as well. Reinstall lilo like the way you have it as boot=/dev/hda that writes the lilo into the master boot record. If you do change to boot=/dev/hda1 then you will need to also use a DOS boot disk and run "fdisk /mbr" to write a valid master boot record back to the hard disk. Else the problem will continue, because the old lilo boot record is still installed. This could also be part of the problem now, if you modified the lilo.conf to boot=/dev/hda5 and tried to reboot with the same results.

The only way to probably be sure the kernel is always in the first 1024 cyls is to make the primary root partition less than 528 MBytes. This could be done as well, 500 MByte /dev/hda1 mounted on /, 800 MByte /dev/hda2 mounted on /usr, 200 MByte /dev/hda3 mounted on /home, and the swap as the fourth primary partition using the rest as /dev/hda4. Note the size of /usr directory. It is the largest of all and it is where all the software programs, like X and everything is installed. The limit of primary partitions is 4, else three primary and the extended with logical drives then defined inside the extended.

I am by no means a wizard at slack..... as a matter of fact I would be hesitant to label myself even 'novice'. However I encountered the same errors as you are receiving and the only way that I solved it was to ensure that the hdd that I was installing slack on was the master drive on the primary ide. Hope this helps.

I first time get the same problem width booting(L04 04 04 04 ...)
- P100, hdd 4GB
/dev/hda1 Linux native
/dev/hda2 Swap
try lot:
format: defoult then 1 inode 1024 bytes etc...
try width 4 hda - where hda1 was / and 498 MB
Not help

Using other distrb or slack version I haven't problems on that router !

I will write if I will solve that problem ...

Sory about my poor language !