Slackware - Installation This forum is for the discussion of installation issues with Slackware. |
Notices |
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
Are you new to LinuxQuestions.org? Visit the following links:
Site Howto |
Site FAQ |
Sitemap |
Register Now
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
|
 |
06-07-2021, 08:11 AM
|
#1
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Oct 2010
Distribution: slackware
Posts: 8
Rep:
|
reboot after LILO says 'Loading slackware..... bios check complete' - over and over
hello
I have a computer with a 250gb HDD (Win7) and a 1TB (slackware current). I had LILO installed on the slack drive itself and it all worked fine.
I would just press F8 to bring up the boot menu every time I turned the computer on, and pick the drive with slackware. LILO would pop up, I'd press enter, and it would boot up and everything worked totally fine.
Yesterday I added a 3rd drive, 64gb SSD, and installed Arch on it to mess around. I installed the refind bootloader, had some issues, then the grub bootloader, still didn't work, so I just deleted everything on that drive and decided to try again later.
But now, when I press F8 and select my slack drive, the computer just moves on to the next drive (or reboots if I disable all other drives) after selecting 'Slackware' in LILO.
Any tips on how to begin troubleshooting/figuring this out would be greatly appreciated. Just want my slack back
Oh I did reinstall slack using the same options I did the first time, same problem persists.
I'm wondering if my installing Arch on a 3rd drive messed something up with the bootloading situation?
Last edited by what; 06-07-2021 at 08:15 AM.
|
|
|
06-07-2021, 08:50 AM
|
#2
|
LQ Guru
Registered: Mar 2016
Location: Harrow, UK
Distribution: LFS, AntiX, Slackware
Posts: 8,424
|
I would say at a guess that LILO has lost contact with your Slackware kernel and/or initrd. Did you do anything at all to that drive while you were playing about with other bootloaders?
The first thing I would do with any kind of misbehaviour by LILO would be to run /sbin/lilo, first in test mode and then in earnest. It never does any harm. I assume you have some kind of rescue device that you can boot and run from.
Just for interest, what else do you have on that LILO menu? If there are any other options besides Slackware, do they work?
|
|
1 members found this post helpful.
|
06-07-2021, 09:18 AM
|
#3
|
LQ Veteran
Registered: Jan 2008
Location: florida panhandle
Distribution: Slackware Debian, Fedora, others
Posts: 7,876
|
I suspect the drive order changed when the third drive was installed. Are you able to boot the slackware partition from the slackware install medium? If so rerun lilo.
Last edited by colorpurple21859; 06-07-2021 at 09:21 AM.
|
|
1 members found this post helpful.
|
06-07-2021, 06:57 PM
|
#4
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Oct 2010
Distribution: slackware
Posts: 8
Original Poster
Rep:
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by hazel
I would say at a guess that LILO has lost contact with your Slackware kernel and/or initrd. Did you do anything at all to that drive while you were playing about with other bootloaders?
|
As far as I know I nothing should have cross-contaminated the drives. I put everything on separate drives specifically to keep things as separate as possible. I could be wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hazel
The first thing I would do with any kind of misbehaviour by LILO would be to run /sbin/lilo, first in test mode and then in earnest. It never does any harm. I assume you have some kind of rescue device that you can boot and run from.
|
I do not have a rescue USB. This was just a fresh install (initially working fine before adding 3rd drive) for me to play around with some stuff - nothing important, so I didn't make a USB.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hazel
Just for interest, what else do you have on that LILO menu? If there are any other options besides Slackware, do they work?
|
Nothing, I chose to install the bootloader on the slackware driver itself so that everything is completely separate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by colorpurple21859
I suspect the drive order changed when the third drive was installed. Are you able to boot the slackware partition from the slackware install medium? If so rerun lilo.
|
When I run the slackware install USB again, and select to reconfigure the system, nothing happens. The menu option just jumps back to the top.
Have to move away from the computer but will continue testing soon...
|
|
|
06-07-2021, 07:48 PM
|
#5
|
LQ Veteran
Registered: Jan 2008
Location: florida panhandle
Distribution: Slackware Debian, Fedora, others
Posts: 7,876
|
in setup select target, no format to remount the slackware partitions, skip/cancel source, configure your system.
|
|
2 members found this post helpful.
|
06-07-2021, 09:18 PM
|
#6
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Oct 2010
Distribution: slackware
Posts: 8
Original Poster
Rep:
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by colorpurple21859
in setup select target, no format to remount the slackware partitions, skip/cancel source, configure your system.
|
Oooh, good trick to know. That worked (to get into Configure).
So I configured LILO again using both auto and manual. Problem still persists.
One notable clue that I came across, though, was that I specifically chose the name "SlackwareX" for what appears on the LILO screen.
But when LILO boots up it just says "Slackware".
This is really weird.
|
|
|
06-07-2021, 10:04 PM
|
#7
|
LQ Veteran
Registered: Jan 2008
Location: florida panhandle
Distribution: Slackware Debian, Fedora, others
Posts: 7,876
|
What happens when you select one the other disk to boot from?
|
|
1 members found this post helpful.
|
06-07-2021, 11:13 PM
|
#8
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Oct 2010
Distribution: slackware
Posts: 8
Original Poster
Rep:
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by colorpurple21859
What happens when you select one the other disk to boot from?
|
When I select the disk my Win7 install is on, it loads up fine. This is via either just turning the computer on or F8 on boot and selecting it manually.
The windows machine isn't in the LILO config on the Slack HDD.
edit: windows HDD, not machine. brain fart.
Last edited by what; 06-08-2021 at 01:56 AM.
|
|
|
06-08-2021, 05:18 AM
|
#9
|
LQ Veteran
Registered: Jan 2008
Location: florida panhandle
Distribution: Slackware Debian, Fedora, others
Posts: 7,876
|
What happens when you select the new drive?
|
|
1 members found this post helpful.
|
06-08-2021, 05:18 AM
|
#10
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Oct 2010
Distribution: slackware
Posts: 8
Original Poster
Rep:
|
I disconnected all the drives except the Slackware drive.
Just reboots over and over again after the LILO screen.
What really seems to be the key is the fact that when I configure LILO during setup from the USB, it doesn't appear to be actually writing anything. Like if I change the LILO boot name to "blah" it will end up being "Slackware" no matter what I do.
Going to try one more fresh install from the beginning.
|
|
|
06-08-2021, 05:53 AM
|
#11
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Oct 2010
Distribution: slackware
Posts: 8
Original Poster
Rep:
|
Ok so I fixed it. I guess?
I unplugged all drives except the one intended for Slackware.
This time during installation I selected MBR instead of Root for the LILO install location.
Slackware now boots up fine, and I am pretty sure that when I plug my Windows drive back in and use F8, either will boot fine... just have to test that next.
|
|
|
06-08-2021, 08:00 AM
|
#12
|
LQ Veteran
Registered: Jan 2008
Location: florida panhandle
Distribution: Slackware Debian, Fedora, others
Posts: 7,876
|
Quote:
This time during installation I selected MBR instead of Root for the LILO install location
|
I suspect the selecting of root instead of mbr was the problem.
|
|
1 members found this post helpful.
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:11 AM.
|
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
|
Latest Threads
LQ News
|
|