Unable to boot Suse Linux 10.1 from LILO
 

I've been working with Suse 10.1 (final ver.) for about 4 months now, so I'm still a newbie. Everything has been working pretty good on my Toshiba Satellite A-100 SP 621, including XGL, however just recently, out of curiosity I decided to switch from GRUB to LILO and now I can't boot to Linux, because LILO shows only the Windows and Failsafe options. Using failsafe then, I located the /etc/lilo.conf file and been trying to add the lines to load regular Linux but even though the changes are saved, it continues to show those 2 options only. I don't know if I should be looking for some other files instead. Can't someone tell me how to fix the Lilo.conf or how to get back to GRUB from Failsafe?? Please help!!!!

After modifying /etc/lilo.conf, and saving that file... do you run /sbin/lilo? You have to do that after changing anything in lilo. Then reboot, and see if it boots.

You may have to "whereis lilo" if the program isn't in /sbin.

HTH

One of the differences between Lili and Grub is you need to write the Lilo configuration changes to the MBR after editing the lilo.conf file. This is done as root with the command '/sbin/lilo' Once that is done your changes should show up.

I'll try that
 

Thank you for your quick reply. I'm not at home right now so I won't be able to try it for a couple of hours yet, but since I'm a newbie :confused: I gotta ask. What do I exactly need to do in /sbin/lilo ???? Sorry to bother you but I'm still learning and none of my friends use Linux.:)

The changes you make in lilo.conf are not written to the MBR until you run /sbin/lilo. When the system boots, teh MBR is where the menu of selections is, so if you don't write the changes out, you don't see them.

Ok, now I really messed up guys. I was able to fix the original issue. It turns out, I had already changed the lilo.conf file correctly but all I needed to do was apply the changes, so thanks for that advice.

So I got to regular Linux and the first thing on my mind was to get rid of LILO and get back to GRUB. So, I went and made the changes from Yast2, everything was supposed to be fine, but after I click OK to try to save the changes, the hourglass stopped at 50% and never went off. I waited for about 10min and then decided to hard reboot the system. I restarted the computer and was able to go back to Linux, and tried to make the changes again. I noticed that GRUB was already selected, so all I did was click on OK again and the same thing happened, it locked at 50%. So after a second hard reboot now the system won't go back and it says:

RAMDISK: couldn't find valid RAM disk image starting at 0
VFS: cannot open root device "806" or unknown-block (8,6)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (8,6)


I think I have an idea what it means, but now it just locks there and there's no way I can append it. Can it be fixed?? or am I screwed now??? isn't there a way to roll back or use the Suse DVD to fix it???

It can be fixed. What I'm not sure of, is Grub installed correctly or not. I'm sure the entries in /boot/grub/menu.lst are not correct.

If the system will not boot from the hard drive, you should still be able to boot from CD or DVD, what ever you installed from. I don't use Suse, so I'm not familiar with how to get a command prompt from the install media. If you know how to get a command prompt, boot the system, and mount your linux boot drive. Then you can edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst file. If you are not sure what to change, post what you have. We'll need to know what partition /boot is on. It can be fixed, don't panic...

Ok guys, I got it. I used the installation DVD and selected the update option, and since /home/ is on a different partition, I didn't lose any files, and my configuration and settings remained the same. It only took about 10min. I want to thank you all for all your help and guys, and if there's anything a can do for you (I'll try my best since I'm a newbie) I'll be there for you, that applies for windows issues too (which I'm pretty good at). Thank you again, and quoting my man camorri,

cheers.

You are welcome, glad to help.