Have been trying to add a new install of Slackware on a separate HD to my current system of W98 and Mandrake. Problem is I get a kernel panic when I load Slackware from LILO on hda, but get a normal boot of it when I use the floppy I made at install. Have tried all sorts of combinations, but either get the kernel panic, or it seems the kernel loading with Slack tries to load the modules from the Mandrake disc, which just freezes the system. Here is a copy of the LILO residing on hda, which contains W98. Old Mandrake installed on hde, new Slack on hdb1.

map=/boot/map
vga=normal
default="linux"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
compact
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
disk=/dev/hde bios=0x82
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="Mandrake"
root=/dev/hde5
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi resume=/dev/hde6 splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="windows"
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="Slackware"
root=/dev/hdb1
read-only

There's no initrd in the Slackware /boot/ directory, yet the floppy intall does fine, so I wouldn't think it is needed.

And I can't read lilo from the floppy that loads properly. I tried to read it for a clue of what I was doing wrong. On Xterm, I see only ./ and ../

Thanks for any suggestions.

What is the kernel panic message? If it is can't mount root file system, then see if adding
"root=/dev/hdb1" to the append line in lilo.conf do anything the next time you reboot.

BTW, lilo is old. Grub is a lot better.

I believe the answer is that you need vmlinuz and initrd.img in the boot folder on your slackware disk. I know you said that there were no such files there. Wonder how one would get them then? What I've done in the past is to copy those files to the Mandrake /boot folder. Unless I'm mistaken that worked for me when I was booting Redhat, Mandrake and Windows. Right now I'm only using Mandrake and Windows with grub. Hope this message at least points you in the right direction.

The kerne panic is for inability to load the file system. I tried appending it as suggested above, but no change.

The Slackware /boot/ on hdb1 does have a vmlinuz of the proper kernel, but no initrd. I reasoned (?) that initrd is not needed, since the OS will boot just fine without one when using the LILO floppy.

Maybe initrd is on the floppy but hidden...

I tend to mount a variety of distribution's root partitions to a set of mount points within the distribution that I run LILO from - you then add entries which are of this form:

image=/mnt/slackware/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.26

Did you rerun lilo after you updated lilo.conf? What is the file system of your second hard drive (i.e. ext2, ext3, reiser4)? Does the kernel support it?

BTW, your resume partition is on hde. Is that a third hard disk?

I appreciate the input of everyone who responded. Skyline hit the nail on the head though with his suggestion. I changed to

image=/mnt/hdb1/boot/vmlinuz

and Slackware then loaded perfectly, w/o needing initrd specified.

I'm still not sure why my original config doesn't work though.