Hey guys!

I'm new to slack, and trying to install / boot. I went through the built-in installer (using the ISOs) and everything seemed to go ok until after all the packages were installed and I was asked to set up LILO. Following the prompt's and the website's advice, I chose the 'Simple' option (default / topmost option on the list), and immediately received a message saying that there was an error and LILO could not be installed properly. The install completed, I booted from the harddrive, and got (after tons of other stuff, of course; most of it sped by too quickly for me to write down):

Kernel panic. No init found. Try passing init = option to the kernel.

As I mentioned, I'm unfortunately a bit more new to Linux than I'd like to be, so any help in correcting this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all your continued assistance!

Mike

EDIT: Clarity.

Boot up your slackware cd when you get to the command prompt type
chroot /dev/hda1 or whatever partition your slackware install is on
then type lilo

Hello, thanks!

I followed your instructions: booted from the CD, then I checked FDISK to make sure that my Slackware partition was on /dev/hda2 (I followed the instructions on the website - /dev/hda1 was a swap partition). BTW, when I quit FDISK using 'w', it said that the table had changed and it rewrote - I hope that didn't screw anything up.
Anyway, I typed: 'chroot/dev/hda2' and then 'lilo', and I got a huge list of what looks like monitors/video. I rebooted the system, and got the same error. Also, for what it's worth, the screen with the Kernel Panic error also contained the following errors:

Warning: unable to open an initial console.
[...]
Attempt to access beyond end of device.
[...]
Unable to read inode block. (twice)

Thanks again!
Mike

Ok what kernel did you choose when you installed?
Also do you have a scsi harddrive?
Make sure your lilo entry points to your harddrive, check /etc/lilo.conf to make sure its right

Hi again.

I'm not entirely sure what kernel option I chose (I took the default during the setup), but if there is some way to check, I shall. As far as checking the LILO configuration, I'll do that as soon as I get home, and post the result.

If it is easier to fix this program by reinstalling Slackware, I would be happy to, but I'm not sure what to do / choose differently to avoid having this problem come up again.

As to whether or not my drive is SCSI, the computer I'm installing Linux on is quite old and I didn't buy it, so I'm not sure. I'd assume it isn't, but if there is some way I can check with my computer in its current state, I will check that too.

Thanks for putting up with me!
Mike

If you chose the default kernel during the installation, you're using the bare.i kernel. It's configured to work on most systems.

The 'simple' mode of LILO configuration/installation can be a bit unsimple. I for one can't use it - I have to use the 'expert' mode to set my system up, possibly because Linux and Windows are not on the same disk in my dual boot setup. You don't have to be much of an expert in order to use 'expert' mode - all options are quite self-explanatory. The program used for LILO configuration is called liloconfig, and is available after installation as well. If your lilo.conf is not correctly set up, you definitely should do that before running lilo (which I believe can be done from liloconfig).

In Linux, IDE drives are called hdxy and SCSI drives are called sdxy, where x is a letter (a, b, c or d) indicating whether the drive is primary/secondary master/slave, and y is a number where 1-4 are the primary partitions and 5 and above are the extended (logical) partitions...uhh, I hope I got this right now . This means that if you have a partition called /dev/hda2, it's the second primary partition on the primary IDE master.

Thanks, nvn, I learned lots!

I investigated my lilo.conf file, and found out that for some reason it had ROOT = /dev/fda2 and BOOT = /dev/fda, so I changed these to: ROOT = /dev/hda and BOOT = /dev/hda, ran LILO, and all worked! Thanks very much for your help guys!

Mike

Glad it worked out. I forgot to mention the floppy drives...if you want to learn a bit more about partitions and such, you might want to check this and this out. I also recommend you to take a look at the Slackware guides at Simply Linux for a nice start when it comes to basic system configuration. Happy slacking, as they say.