Hello,

I installed slackware in a ECS k7vta3 motherboard, AMD sempron 2800+ and seagate 160gb system. installation went thru fine(i hope). In BIOS i set cdrom as primary boot and hdd as secondary boot. If i dont insert any cd the system hangs displaying "Boot from cd", its not moving forward to use hdd.

If i put hdd first and cd rom second it hangs at "VMI verifying pool data".

Again if i use cdrom and in the boot prompt if i type "bare.i root=/dev/hda noinitird ro" its able to login( i can use my root password and login).

Booting from cd is not a good solution, also i dont know the real limitations of using the "bare.i root=/dev/hda noinitird ro" command.

Can anyone help me to find out the real problem.

A solution to fix is highly appreciated.

Thanks
George

Try using pkgtool and redo LILO so it is in the MBR. Make sure you have a floppy iboot or rescue disk in case things go badly.

i conclude ur bare.i works to install.
keep bios startup at:
1: cdrom
2: diskette (if u have one)
3: primary harddisk(to start the primary boot sector)

try a complete new installation and use the lilo to load the distro
make sure that /etc/lilo.conf points to the right hdx(/dev/hda for default) and directory (/boot by default) and maybe this works. let me know.

A standard slackware installation does nothing to the boot sector, so the HDD can't boot.

When you enter the sample line using bare.i with your HDD path as root, the "ro" line is important (read-only). This allows fsck to run during bootup.

What you have to do is either
a. Boot off another drive with GRUB pointing to your slackware drive (I did this)
Remember to add the "ro" line at the root config
initrd is "diag1.img"

b. Install GRUB / LILO onto your slackware drive's boot sector and enable the boot flag. (reinstall may be necessary though)

Regarding the "hangup" at hdc and hdd detection, have you tried installing onto only 1 drive at a time?

I'm in the same boat as George, in fact, my name is George as well

How can I install LILO so it's in the MBR?





cheers

You will have to pardon any screw ups-- I'm on a gentoo box right now.

A couple ways to get to lilo in mbr--

1 During install
a,-- choose "expert" install (of lilo that is)-- this will bring you to a menu
b.-- choose "begin lilo header" from that menu -- follow instructions - when done it will bring you back to the menu in step a
c.-- choose "install windows partition" - follow instructions - when done it will bring you back to the menu in step a
d.-- choose "install linux partition" - follow instructions - when done it will bring you back to the menu in step a
e.-- choose "install lilo" -- follow instructions but make sure when it asks you were you want to install lilo you choose MBR (it is NOT the default choice!)

2 Use your boot floppy -- log in as root
a.-- cfdisk /dev/hda
Check to see if the first partition has the bootable flag set (If not -- set it to do so, be careful with cfdisk)

b.-- /sbin/lilo -M

Should do it

3. If you have no boot disk-- boot with the install cd and it will give you instructions on how to boot your operating system with the kernels on the cd--
follow the instructions for #2


Have fun